I Never Knew You

 
I haven't really talked about Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who has refused to issue marriage licenses, but the news media has latched on to this case and won't let go. I still believe that they should put Alabama Probate Judges who refuse to issue marriage licenses in the hot seat as well, and don't forget that there are two other Kentucky clerks doing the same thing. The focus/showdown has centered around Kim Davis, probably the worst choice gay marriage opponents could have chosen.

Kim Davis is a hypocrite and a bigot, plain and simple, which is something I find to be absolutely abhorrent. I don't think that is all she is. I agree with what Bruce Bartlett, former domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and Treasury official under George H. W. Bush, said in the Washington Post:

The Davis story looks to me less like genuine anxiety than the way powerful groups use people like her for their own agenda. I gather that her lawyers have a history of inventing ridiculous defenses for not following the law. I imagine there are people raising a lot of money off her. When she has served her purpose, she will be tossed aside like a used tissue and forgotten. 

At some point, I believe that it will come out that she is being paid by others to be this "martyr for religious freedom" that she seems to think she is becoming. I personally think that the judge made a mistake by putting her in jail. He should have levied large fines against her, Rowan County, and the State of Kentucky. If the fines had been large enough the governor would have been forced to call a special legislative session to impeach her.

When Roy Moore was Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court the first time, he installed the ugly as sin and highly unconstitutional "10 Commandments Monument” in the Alabama Judicial Building. In that case, when he refused to remove the monstrosity, a judge levied fines against him and the State of Alabama for contempt of court. The Alabama Court of Judiciary quickly convened and removed him from office. A new Chief Justice was appointed and the monument was removed.

I had hoped Moore would make a similar stand against gay marriage so we could be rid of him once and for all, but they, whoever “they” turn out to be, found and are using Kim Davis instead. However, they weren't as smart as the the Civil Rights Movement was with Rosa Parks. The Montgomery NAACP had several women who had refused to give up their seats, but Rosa Parks was the one chosen to take the stand that sparked the Civil Rights Movement because she had a spotless record. She was a hard worker, she was happily married, and she faithfully attended church. When whoever it was found Kim Davis, they forgot the full passage of what Jesus says about marriage in Matthew 19: 3-9:

Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?” He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.”

When asked about this, Davis' attorney said that Davis acknowledged she had made "major mistakes" in the past. "She's regretful and sorrowful," her attorney Mat Staver said, according to the AP. "That life she led before is not the life she lives now. She asked for and received forgiveness and grace. That's why she has such a strong conscience." However, a lifestyle of sin is what she is living, because she is still married to her 2nd/4th husband and continues to live in sin.

This situation reminds me of something my preacher said yesterday. He said that people make fun of Christians all the time. He said that every other group that could be ridiculed is not because it is not politically correct, yet it seems acceptable to ridicule Christians. You do not know how badly I wanted to stand up and say, “Christian hypocrites are ridiculed, not true Christians. It is the ones who belittle and judge others, while they commit even greater sins that are ridiculed.” Christians often forget the words of Christ, especially John 8:7 “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.”

So people like Kim Davis are no better than the Pharisees. They worship the law (really only parts of the law) and do not worship God and the spirit of His word. She is a reprehensible woman who when the Judgement Day comes, I think that Kim Davis and those like her may find that these words from Matthew 7:21-23 might apply to them:

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’

And since it is Labor Day, here's a little Labor Day picture for you.