“Trapped Pacifist GI Sticks To His Guns.” Of all the headlines on all the stories our editor has written over the years, that one — by the editors of the GI daily Pacific Stars and Stripes — is his favorite. The story was about a Christian medic who refused to take a weapon into combat in Vietnam. We’ve been thinking of him this week as another religious Christian, Kim Davis, the clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky, sits in jail for contempt of the United States Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

Ms. Davis is refusing to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples, pending a full, due process review of her claim for the accommodation of her religious objections. The Associated Press calls her an “unlikely candidate to wage a moral war over the institution of marriage.” Ms. Davis has been thrice divorced and had two children out of wedlock. But she’d repented in church. As recently as this week she invoked “God’s authority” in refusing to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. She’s called it a “Heaven or Hell Decision.”

She tried to get the United States Supreme Court to step in, but her petition was denied without an opinion. In her plea to the Nine, Ms. Davis cited a case called Girouard v. United States. That was brought after World War II by a Canadian, James Girouard. He had been turned down for American citizenship because when asked whether he’d fight for the United States, he replied, “No, I am a Seventh-Day Adventist.” He eventually convinced the Nine to rule in his favor.

Which brings us to the trapped Pacifist GI who stuck to his guns in Vietnam. His name was Glenn Shumway. We’d met him when we were out with the First Air Cavalry Division in Tay Ninh Province. A religious Christian, Private Shumway was unwilling to kill. He was no coward, though, and the Army made him a medic. One day Private Shumway was dropped into combat near Fire Support Base Buttons to rescue survivors from a downed chopper. Just before he was lowered to the jungle floor, he was offered an M-16. He refused to take it.

No sooner had Private Shumway’s helicopter lowered him to the ground, though, than it started taking enemy fire. He waved the aircraft away, and was left, surrounded by the enemy, alone. “Not for a second” did Shumway wish he had a weapon, the private later told the future editor of the Sun. “Ants were crawling over his hands, sweat was pouring off his brow and fogging his glasses, a helicopter was burning less than 10 yards away,” Stripes recounted. “Bamboo on fire was ‘going pop, pop, pop,’ and the Baptist medic was ‘praying that Jesus Christ’s will be done.’”

What has stuck with us about Glenn Shumway all these years is not only his own astounding courage and religious commitment. It is also the wisdom of the Army. If ever there were a moment when the niceties could be cast aside, it would be the thick of combat. Yet the Army made a point of accommodating Private Shumway’s faith. It let him go into combat with other GIs though he was unarmed. It sent Cobra gunships to ride shotgun for his own chopper when it went back to rescue the rescuer. Private Shumway’s fellow GIs were proud to be associated with him.

Why can’t this capacious, American spirit extend to Rowan County, Kentucky? If it is large enough to welcome same sex marriage, why can’t it also be large enough to accommodate the Apostolic Christian clerk? The Supreme Court ruled unambiguously that marriage must be opened to same-sex couples in America. All Americans must support the court’s authority. Yet the right to the marriage contract is not the only right vouchsafed in the Constitution. There is also the right — just to pick one that is being pressed in this case — to be free of religious tests for public office.

That is the most emphatic statement in the entire American parchment. “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States,” the Constitution says in Article IV. “No . . . ever . . . any.” It’s hard to imagine it being put any clearer. Yet Ms. Davis has been clapped into prison when her claim to protection under the religious tests clause has been heard on but a preliminary basis. Why can’t Rowan County manage to get marriage licenses to all who seek them without forcing the religious county clerk, Kim Davis, to attach her name to them?

We do not suggest this case is easy. But Ms. Davis has been cast into prison despite a law that requires that the government use the least restrictive means whenever it burdens the free exercise of religion. More broadly, wouldn’t all sides feel better were an accommodation to be found? Isn’t it possible for the state of Kentucky to be allowed to find a way to get same sex couples in Rowan and other counties marriage licenses in a speedy and dignified fashion while accommodating a religious clerk? Just like the Army did for Private Shumway. “All it takes is faith,” Private Shumway told the Stars and Stripes. “All it takes — wow.”