Kim Davis Is Not a Christian Martyr: The Ky Court Clerk Deserves to Be in the Clink:By Ana Marie Cox

[DonViejo]

Kim Davis Is Not a Christian Martyr: The Kentucky Court Clerk Deserves to Be in the Clink

Ana Marie Cox

There are conservatives and presidential candidates who celebrate Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis as a martyr, but her beliefs are born of the same bigotry as segregation.

There are going to be some people who celebrate scofflaw county clerk Kim Davis sitting behind bars. Most of them are her allies. Not even the American Civil Liberties Union lawyers wanted to send poor Kim to the pokey—likely because they wanted to deny her (and her allies) the exact image they've now been granted: the long-faced Davis in handcuffs, dourly professing that she loves Jesus more than she does the law.

“Civil disobedience” is fine—but they don’t call it being a “civil servant” because the county courthouse is run by Christian Grey. She’s supposed to do her job, not decide what it is. But Davis, temperamentally, is obviously more of a top, anyway, and probably should have sought a job in line with her personality. Maybe at the DMV.

The only thing louder than Davis' protestations is the jingle of the coins being dropped in all the various collection boxes that lay claim to some similar cause. In our curious hate-donating economy, Davis will undoubtedly receive some monetary reward for showmanship—whether it comes via GoFundMe or a book contract—but it will be a fraction of what's raised by the political ambulance-chasers dutifully filing in behind her.

Already many of the GOP presidential candidates have weighed in, creating the curious spectacle of lawmakers pre-emptively breaking their oaths of office: How can you promise to "uphold the Constitution" if you have already admitted that it has a loophole big enough for Davis to fit through?

The judge who ordered Davis to be held in contempt, and the deputy clerks who started issuing marriage licenses, may be the only Republican left who realizes that Davis’ stunt is something besides a fundraising appeal. Or, rather, he seems to understand that Davis offers only the literal fundraising appeal to end all fundraising appeals. Follow her logic to its fiery end—the Bible as the ultimate legal authority—and there would be no political offices left to run for, just law enforcement positions.

There are regimes like that in the world; we’re fighting wars with a few of them.

Others have pointed out that Davis’ brand of Christianity is itself not too far removed from the sort of blinkered false-purity doctrine that rules radical Islam: the prohibition on make-up or clothes that come in anything besides a hazmat-suit cut. But if you want to understand just how antithetical to democracy Davis’ ideas are, don’t think about what her church doesn’t allow. Instead imagine what kind of world would make Kim Davis happy.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/04/kim-davis-is-not-a-christian-martyr-the-kentucky-court-clerk-deserves-to-be-in-the-clink.html

[Jamastiene]

1. K&R

Great read.

[RKP5637]

2. Exceptionally well said! Also, I thought this tweet really struck the chord quite well!

From kpete >>> http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027139307

[riderinthestorm]

3. K&R nt

[Tommy2Tone]

4. Has anyone thought to just fire her? n/t

[hamsterjill]

5. She's an elected official.

So she cannot be "just fired".

[Tommy2Tone]

7. Then there is this other problem.

The people who could have her removed from office support her.

[Marrah_G]

6. She can't be fired. She was elected.

[KG]

8. Aren't martyrs dead?