As Rowan County, Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis continues her quest to become a false Christian martyr by defying federal court rulings, the four times married Davis' hypocrisy is on display - as it that of the Christofascists and professional Christian crowd rallying to her defense. But don't tell that to the Republican Party which is only too happy to prostitute itself to religious extremists and bigots of all walks (e.g., white supremacists, anti-Semites, anti-immigrant fanatics, etc.). With the Christofascists losing the so-called culture wars and younger generations walking away for religion, the long term victory for equality is in sight, but before they go down to total defeat (and hopefully social and political oblivion), we can expect to see more shameless hypocrites like Kim Davis. A column in Huffington Post looks at the spectacle. Here are excerpts:
Davis is going down as a martyr to the cause, having galvanized bigots and religious extremists across Kentucky and across the country, claiming that their religious freedom has been infringed upon by the Supreme Court's ruling. Thousands turned out for a rally in the Kentucky capital, Frankfort, last weekend, expressing their support for Davis and against homosexuality. They clutched bibles and waved hateful signs condemning homosexuality. "An illustrated poster with the words 'first the baker, then the clerk, next the pastors' was plastered to a Capitol wall," reported the Daily Independent.
Casey County Clerk Casey Davis (no relation to Kim Davis) has been on a bike ride across the state in support of the Rowan County clerk, doing interviews along the way and saying he is ready to "die" for the cause of discrimination.
"It's a war on Christianity," he said in one radio interview. "If it takes it, I will go to jail over -- if it takes my life, I will die for because I believe I owe that to the people that fought so I can have the freedom that I have, I owe that to them today, and you do, we all do."
If the Supreme Court denies Kim Davis's stay the ball is back in a federal judge's court. Because she is an elected official, only the legislature can remove her in an impeachment, which no one expects to happen. But Daniel J. Canon, one of the attorneys for the couples who filed suit to get their marriage licenses, told me that "she could be removed if she were criminally prosecuted for something," which would mean the judge finding her in contempt of his order and possibly even sending her to jail (as unlikely as that might be).
That is exactly what Davis -- and the Republican Party -- would relish. . . . And that is true of the GOP presidential candidates, desperate to find issues to galvanize religious conservatives. "Religious liberty" is a term Jeb Bush has invoked several times in the context of gay rights, and Ted Cruz has been stoking the issue for months, claiming Christians are under attack. As I've written in weeks past, it's clear that the issue is being carefully developed by GOP leaders in Congress as a campaign issue to energize evangelical voters.
Davis will lose her battle in coming days. But GOP leaders in Washington and across the country, heading into a political campaign, will take that as a win.
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