SALEM, OREGON, October 15, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) — An Oregon judge who stopped overseeing marriages to avoid performing same-sex “weddings” is retiring at the end of the year, Governor Kate Brown's office has announced.
Judge Thomas Kohl has been on the state's courts since 1997. Earlier this year, he said that “for personal faith-based reasons, I decided to not perform weddings as a judge.”
Gov. Brown's brief announcement thanks Kohl for his service to the state, and announced she would nominate his replacement. Kohl will officially leave office on December 31.
Oregon judges are requested, but not required, to officiate weddings — something it appears Kohl declined to do because of the proliferation of same-sex couples wishing to be legally “married.”
Unlike many judges, Kohl put his Christian beliefs out for the public to see. He has written a book about how his faith helped him forgive his daughter's killer, and has mentioned Christ's name in court on a regular basis. He also founded Drug Court, which he presides over. It is an intensive second-chance treatment program he founded in 2005 to change the lives of addicts.