This month’s Teaching the Faith with Current Events eLesson uses the case of Kentucky clerk Kim Davis as a way to explore Church teaching on marriage, homosexuality, and the right to conscientious objection.
Should citizens who are public officials have the right to refuse to carry out duties that would cause them to violate their consciences? If so, what might some of the consequences of this refusal be for the common good? If not, should all laws be followed unquestioningly?
Included are primary source documents including the Catechism of the Catholic Church and, for high school students, Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. Discussion questions at the middle and high school levels are provided to better understand Church teaching regarding these issues, as well as to evaluate the Court’s opinion and Davis’s actions in light of Catholic teaching.