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| Kim Davis - Face of Hypocrisy |
It seems that finally some in the media are belatedly catching on to the hypocrisy of the "godly folk" who wear religion on their sleeve as justification for bigotry against others, particularly LGBT individuals. Likewise, some are now seeing through the agenda of "Christian" organizations whose real agenda is to make money by marketing homophobia and fanning the myth of Christian persecution. That's the take away for a main editorial in the Lexington Herald-Leader that slams both the four times married Rowan County Clerk, Kim Davis, and the parasites at Liberty Counsel. Davis is on her fourth marriage and seemingly has not read the Bible passage that condemns divorce, yet she can cling to a passage in Leviticus. Davis symbolizes the rank hypocrisy of conservative Christians (something the Millennials are recognizing more and more). Here are editorial highlights:
Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis has chosen to prolong her moment in the limelight by defying a federal judge's order to issue marriage licenses to legally qualifed people who apply for them.U.S. District Judge David Bunning kindly but firmly told Davis Wednesday that in our system her religious beliefs don't trump the rights of the taxpayers who pay her almost $80,000 annual salary.Sharing Davis' glow is Liberty Counsel, which describes itself as a nonprofit that provides pro bono legal representation related to "religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family," funded by tax-deductible donations and grants. In 2012 those gifts reached just over $3.5 million and in 2013 topped $4.1 million, according to IRS filings.The husband and wife team who founded and run Liberty Counsel, Anita and Matthew Staver, were paid $137,758 and $153,591, respectively, in 2013. The staff of five ran up $184,479 in travel expenses that year and spent $429,584 on conferences, conventions and meetings. Liberty Counsel paid one independent contractor over $600,000 for "email alert services," and another almost $500,000 for printing and mail services. "Case costs," were reported at $105,487.Liberty's attorneys know they can't win the case in Rowan County. . . . . So, why is Liberty Counsel marching alongside Davis in this losing cause? It takes a lot to keep that marketing machine humming and those executives paid, and the only way to keep those donations coming is to stay in the news. For that purpose a losing cause is just as good as, perhaps better than, a winning one.[W]e've never heard of a clerk denying a license to a divorced person, a philanderer, someone who's abused a partner or neglected children. It's easy to imagine the outrage and chaos that would ensue if clerks began morality-testing prospective opposite-gender spouses. But that's exactly the right that Davis is demanding. She wants to pick and choose, based on her beliefs, which legally qualified couples will get marriage licenses.Davis can resign if she's morally unable to issue the marriage licenses while the appeal is pending. Law-abiding, taxpaying Rowan County citizens have been denied their constitutional rights for almost two months while Davis has kept her job and Liberty has ginned up its marketing machine.
1 comment:
Many people have picked up on the fact that Kim Davis is multiply married, although they fail to point out that in that respect she is eminently like the arch-proponents of DOMA Newt Gingrich and Robert Barr.
Very oddly, NO ONE that I know of has pointed out that per dogma, observant Catholics reject the idea of remarriage after divorce while the other spouse is still living. Yet I have never heard of any Catholic clerk refusing to issue a marriage license to a divorce(e), let alone claiming a "religious freedom" rationale for doing so. Not even the Thomas More group have presumed to claim one. Although, of course and notoriously, Catholic hospitals and health care organizations HAVE claimed "religious freedom" to deprive women of full access to appropriate care.
Long past time for some contempt citations to issue.
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