Sunday School
NPR has a condensed version: Presidential Candidates Take Sides On Support For Kentucky Clerk.
Ellroon found a nice statement of the core issue:
No one’s being jailed for practicing her religion. Someone’s being jailed for using the government to force others to practice her religion. – Rachel Held Evans
My bumper sticker version is “County Clerk – NOT County Cleric!”
Ms Davis wasn’t just refusing to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples, she was refusing to issue licenses to anyone. She was attempting to avoid being sued for discrimination. Refusing to fulfill your duties as a public servant is generally considered a crime – malfeasance.
8 comments
I almost… not quite, but almost… feel like writing Ms. Davis a letter thanking her for providing a perfect example, through the courts and everything, of why she cannot legally refuse to issue marriage licenses to LGBTQ applicants without spending some time in the slammer. She has done nothing to be proud of, whether the RWNJs recognize the fact or not. “Freedom of religion” does not entail “freedom to impose one’s religion on another American,” and that’s precisely what she’s trying to do. Let her sit in the clink until she relents and issues licenses to all kinds of applicants.
Honorable people when faced with a duty that they believe is morally wrong, resign. She wants to maintain her family’s hold on a political office so her son will have a job and she will continue to drew her own paycheck.
People who have four marriages don’t have much respect for oaths.
But Bryan, between marriages 3 and 4 she bent her knee and Accepted Jesus Christ as Her Personal Lord And Savior And Washed Her Sins (and former marriages apparently) Away In The Blood Of The Lamb so it’s all forgiven, glory hallelujah AMEN! Gosh, you talking about things that happened before she was Born Again makes baby Jesus cry. Or somethin’. SIGH.
There are things that can’t be forgiven or forgotten, especially when someone starts to making ‘holier than thou’ noises.
She has an $80K/year salary in a county where the median family income is under $20K/year. And her son is also on the county clerk dole. I’m suspecting she cares about that hillbilly grift a lot more than she cares about any oaths she swore.
That is a huge salary for a Southern county and an obvious motive for her wingnuttery. She may have felt she was about to be faced with a fundie opponent in the next election.
In Florida any Notary Public can marry people and we have quickie no-fault divorces, but pols expect people to believe that is has something to do with religious beliefs. Yeah, right …
Or reproduction. Marriage is all about reproduction. Which is why 60 year old women and men who’ve had vasectomies can’t remarry.
Oh wait….
The hypocrisy knows no bounds.