WASHINGTON – Move over Joan of Arc, here comes Kim Davis, the Maid of Morehead.
Since we last visited, our heroine, has continued to wage battle against same-sex marriage just as St. Joan labored to beat the dirt out of the English during the siege of Orleans. For her efforts, Kim of Morehead spent a couple days as a registered guest at the Carter County Detention Center on the government’s tab for refusing to obey a court order demanding that she do something that seems rather sensible — perform her duties as Rowan County Clerk and once again start issuing marriage licenses to eligible couples.
Now, you may think suggesting that an elected official perform his or her job is fairly reasonable request. But then you apparently don’t have God whispering in year ear, as Kim of Morehead does, telling you to refuse service to those nasty, old gay folks. By referencing the advice of the deity directly, in fact, Davis has one-upped Joan, who claimed she was only responding to the voices of the Archangel Michael, St. Margaret and St. Catherine, good individuals all but several ranks below the big guy.
Anyway, U.S. District Judge David Bunning, the one who had Kim of Morehead deposited in the hoosegow, saw to it that, in her unscheduled absence, the employees in the Rowan County Clerk’s office begin issuing marriage licenses to couples – both gay and straight – sans her signature and, it should be noted, without the world coming to a sudden and violent end.
Bunning set Kim of Morehead free – burning her at the stake was never considered an option – with the understanding that she would not get in the way of her staff carrying out their appointed duties. She’s not expected to show up at the job whose responsibilities she refused to conduct until Friday or Monday, so it remains to be seen whether she will take advantage of the judge’s benevolence.
Davis was greeted like, well, a saint by a thunderous crowd – including two Republican presidential candidates – when she emerged from the Carter County can.
“I just want to give God the glory,’’ she said. “His people have rallied and you are a strong people.’’
She left the stage amid the sort of cheers that greeted St. Joan after the French victory at the Battle of Patay along with her husband, Joe Davis, dressed for all the world as if he were trying out for a role in a revival of “Hee-Haw.’’
So now presents a good time to remember that this whole charade is the bunk. No one is ordering Kim Davis to forfeit her religious beliefs. She isn’t the modern manifestation of Shylock, forced to convert from Judaism to Christianity in the fifth act of Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice.’’ In fact, it’s Davis forcing others to adopt her beliefs by refusing to afford them the service they are entitled to who is, ironically, attacking religious freedom.
She doesn’t even have to attend a same-sex marriage if she doesn’t want to (although I can testify through personal experience that she could, as they used to say in “The Flintstone’s’’ theme, “have a gay old time’’).
If she believes gay folks are going to hell because God told her so, she can go right on believing it, even though there are plenty of folks who hear God saying something different. There’s no reason for her or anyone else to believe she’ll be joining them if she issues to them a sheet of paper that allows them to get hitched.
Regardless, if she really feels this way, the honorable thing for her to do would have been to resign. But honor apparently has little to do with it.
Silliness, not a religious debate
All of this silliness has been transformed into a great religious debate, with Kentucky, much to its detriment, standing center stage. The result, as witnessed in Grayson, is just another carnival sideshow.
With all due respect, Kim Davis is a tool, being used by certain elements to advance their own personal agenda. She’s no doubt doing their bidding willingly – she is, after all a grown woman with some experience in the world capable of rendering her own decisions. But those wanting to replace the Bill of Rights with the Old Testament and return to the days when the teacher led her classroom in the Lord’s Prayer every morning are taking full advantage of her acquiescence and they will drop her like a hot potato when she is no longer any use to them.
Atop the list of users are former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, two jamokes seeking the Republican presidential nomination who couldn’t find Carter County with a GPS but were there when Davis was released, proudly playing to the rubes and claiming a God-inspired victory in the non-existent war against religion, all in the name of politics.
Huckabee, a Baptist preacher, proved particularly obsequious, clinging to Davis like a barnacle on the bottom of a ship, playing up to religious conservatives as if he were the personification of Elmer Gantry, counting in his heads the number of votes he was collecting as he blustered.
“I am appalled at our government’s willingness to accommodate the religious beliefs of all religions, but Christianity,’’ he said, which might be the single most stupid comment in a presidential campaign that thus far has been filled with them. Does he honestly believe a clerk of the Muslim faith, acting in similar fashion, wouldn’t face the same fate as Davis?
Cruz wasn’t quite as objectionable, only because he was late to the party. In a hilarious moment, which clearly established just what a farce the entire affair has proved to be, the Texas lawmaker moved to stand next to Davis as she and Huckabee emerged from the Carter County jail and addressed the milling throng. But Cruz’s access was blocked by a Huckabee aide, thus keeping him from appearing in the photos and news reports that appeared across the nation.
It’s worth noting that one other GOP contender who could at least justify his appearance at this circus, Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, showed uncommon good sense in deciding to skip it. Paul is not exactly a bright light in this affair, telling CNN that “it’s absurd to put someone in jail for exercising their religious liberty’’ when she was actually tossed in the klink for failing to comply with a federal court order to do her job. He also has suggested that the government get out of the marriage business altogether by declining to issue licenses, which opens up an entirely new can of worms.
But at least he refused to participate in this travesty, unlike Huckabee and Cruz who, as an old friend used to say, “don’t even have the good sense to be embarrassed.’’
Love the reports! Keep ’em coming!