In an exclusive interview with The Brody File, GOP presidential candidate Marco Rubio says, “God’s rules always win” when it comes to laws Christians don’t agree with it. He’s specifically referring to same-sex marriage. “If you look at biblical lessons, the first thing is we are clearly called in the Bible to adhere to our civil authorities, but that conflicts with our requirement to adhere to God’s rules, and so when those two come in conflict, God’s rules always win. In essence, if we are ever ordered by a government authority to personally violate and sin, violate God’s law and sin, if we’re ordered to stop preaching the gospel, if we are ordered to perform a same-sex marriage as someone presiding over it, we are called to ignore that. We cannot abide by that cause government is compelling us to sin.”
Rubio spoke with us Tuesday before Thanksgiving in Cedar Rapids Iowa. This clip originally appeared on our Facebook Page but it is now here as well.
The full video clip is below along with a transcription.
Some media outlets have been writing how these comments are controversial or confusing. The Brody File doesn’t see it that way. Look, what Rubio is saying (and he can obviously explain it better himself) seems to be that if a person of faith believes their conscience is violated on the marriage issue, then they have a right to push back. In the meantime, he is saying that we need laws on the books that protect the religious liberty rights of all Americans in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage. He is signaling that people of faith should not just accept something that puts them in direct violation of their faith while at the same time try to work on a solution that would respect civil authorities. Look, it’s a messy situation and you can thank the Supreme Court for that.
More from the interview coming in the next couple days along with clips from his talk with Iowa pastors. The Brody File crew has exclusive footage of that as well.
Mandatory Courtesy: CBN News/The Brody File
David Brody: On same-sex marriage, after the supreme court ruled, obviously you were against the decision, but I believe, and I might be paraphrasing, but you pretty much considered it settled law, or I don’t know if those were exactly your words, but it was settled law in your mind. There are a lot of folks that believe they want to fight this. They don’t think that it’s settled law, and they believe that the Supreme Court has erred in this- just like Dred Scott and some other decisions before.
Marco Rubio: So it is the current law. It is not settled law. No law is settled. Roe v Wade is law but it doesn’t mean that we don’t continue to aspire to fix it because we think it’s wrong, and in the interim, until we can get a Supreme Court to overturn Roe versus Wade, we do everything possible within the constraints that’s placed upon us to confront it and certainly limit the number of abortions and save as many lives as possible.
I think the broader question is ‘What is our role in terms of confronting it?’ And again, if you look at biblical lessons, the first thing is we are clearly called in the Bible to adhere to our civil authorities, but that conflicts with our requirement to adhere to God’s rules, and so when those two come in conflict, God’s rules always win. In essence, if we are ever ordered by a government authority to personally violate and sin, violate God’s law and sin, if we’re ordered to stop preaching the gospel, if we are ordered to perform a same-sex marriage as someone presiding over it, we are called to ignore that. We cannot abide by that cause government is compelling us to sin.
David Brody: That’s what Kim Davis did.
Marco Rubio: Right. So in the absence of that however, then it depends on what kind of society you live in. If you live in a society where the government creates an avenue and a way for you to peacefully change the law, then you’re called to participate in that process to try to change it, not ignoring it, but trying to change the law. That’s what we’re endeavoring to do here, and I continue to believe that marriage law should be between one man, one woman and that proper place to define that is at the state level where marriage has always been regulated, not by the U.S. Supreme Court and not by the federal government.