Published: November 05, 2009 10:58 pm      

KENNETH HART: Bye-bye, Bardwell 110809

Well, it was about time, don’t you think?

Keith Bardwell, the Louisiana justice of the peace who made headlines last month when it came to light that he refused to marry interracial couples, resigned from his elected post this past week.

His resignation came in the form of a tersely worded one-sentence statement to Louisiana’s secretary of state. Bobby Jindal, the state’s Republican governor, called it “long overdue.”

Bardwell’s practices were exposed when a couple comprised of a black man and a white woman contacted his office to ask him to marry them and were told by his wife that he wouldn’t sign their marriage license because they were “a mixed couple.”

In a subsequent interview with The Associated Press, Bardwell said he routinely avoided marrying interracial couples because he thought there were problems with acceptance of children born of such unions.

“I think those children suffer, and I won’t help put them through it,” he said.

Children born of interracial unions aren’t accepted?

Interesting. I guess Halle Berry, Tiger Woods, President Obama and scores of other highly successful biracial individuals were busy and never got that particular memo.

In that same AP interview, Bardwell also denied being a racist and claimed to have lots of black friends, which, of course, is a tired old defense that bigots have been repeating for decades.

I even once had an individual cite the “fact” that he had “lots of friends who are colored” as proof of his lack of animosity toward African-Americans. I have a feeling the irony of that statement would have been completely lost on him had I called him on it.

What’s really amazing to me is that Bardwell had been in office since 1975. You’d think somone would have objected to his no-marrying-interracial couples policy years ago.

His term runs through 2014, and had said even before the flap that led to his resignation that he didn’t plan to run for re-election.

Here’s the thing, though: As wrong-headed as Bardwell’s views might be (and let me be clear about that, they certainly are), and as repugnant as you, I or anyone else might find them, he is entitled to them. This is America, after all.

The problem here was that the guy’s moral convictions prevented him from performing the job he was elected to do by the voters of his parish.

Miscegenation laws, which forbade interracial couples from marrying, were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967. For the past 43 years, mixed-race couples have been free to marry in every state of the union. (I’m one who hopes same-sex couples will one day enjoy that same freedom, but that’s another column for another Sunday.)

As an elected official, Bardwell was bound to follow the law. If his beliefs prevented him from doing so, it was time for him to quit being an elected official.

I put this guy in the same category as I do pharmacists who refuse to dispense birth control pills because of their religious beliefs. As far as I’m concerned they should have two options — find a new religion or find a new job.

In that same vein, if you have issues with alcohol and believe that drinking is immoral, you probably shouldn’t work as a bartender.

Don’t misunderstand what I am saying; I think having moral and/or religious convictions is certainly a wonderful thing and I’m all for it.

But if gets to the point where you can’t do your job because of them, it’s time to update your resume.