Kim Davis and her brother “in Christ” Casey Davis, the two Kentucky clerks refusing to issue marriage licenses as the law demands, are just the latest in the Age of the Wanna-be Martyr. Robert Watson, a gay man and a dad, sounds off.
Kim Davis is on her way to martyrdom. Today she defied every legal entity extending up through the Supreme Court and again denied marriage licenses to same sex couples wanting one. She did so “under God’s authority.”
She is essentially campaigning to be charged with the misdemeanor of official misconduct that can have, as its penalty, up to a year in jail. The couple whom she has violated have asked that she only be penalized by fees. That won’t really work as well for the agenda to which Davis appears to be marching.
Kim is one of two clerks in Kentucky, both named Davis, who are the latest in a string of botched martyrs, although how exactly their misguided self destruction will play out still remains to be seen. When it does play out, we will all be very aware of it. The big Hate PR Media Machine will make sure of that.
Casey Davis, the other Kentucky clerk, has literally vowed to fight to the death, even though there is not a single person trying to kill him, hinted about killing him, or to whom killing has even entered their mind. He is on a bike ride across the state in support of Kim Davis. “I cannot let my sister go to jail without my doing something to let others know about her plight,†he states, underscoring the intention of the two for a penalty of incarceration. (They are not blood related, but, they say, brother and sister “in Christ.”)
Kim Davis’s quest to suffer slings and arrows on the behalf of her “faith†is at least a little more subtle. She has carried her cross up the stations of the U.S. legal system to reach her final destination, and now seems eager to dive into her own crucifixion. I sent her a letter trying to persuade her that she needed to be wary of her traveling companions, the Liberty Counsel. They are not only the ones with the nails and hammer, they also are the ones collecting the ticket proceeds from this gruesome event.
Mr. and Ms. Davis will do what they will. We have seen that none who are eager to drink their own proverbial — and not so proverbial — Kool-Aid are easily persuaded from what they see as their calling.
So, they, like a few others before them, will fall mightily on their sword, even though it is only made of paper.
I have decided it is time to address not them — been there, done that — but their followers:
Dear American Christian Nation,
Before I start, let me clarify. I am not addressing all Americans. Many are either Christian, or your kind of Christian. I am not addressing the vast majority of Christians who happen to be American. I am addressing those of you for whom there is no separation of Church and State in your mind. I am addressing those of you who cannot see us as a nation, only a Christian one, and one that ostracizes all who do not fit into that structured well cast core.
You. “The chosen.â€
We have an election going on, and it is time to severely scrutinize the candidates. They are all failing and principle-less and their missions are eroding any semblance to a noble legacy that you once possessed.
I am not talking about the candidates for President and politics (though, if you want to go there…), I am talking about the invisible yet contentious race to be seen as the biggest “Christian†martyr ready to ruin one’s life for God.
The only common requirement: Be extremely homophobic and seek the expulsion of LGBT people from anything that resembles a decent, responsible life.
First we had the baker, the florist and the pizza maker. The pizza maker’s martyrdom did not last long. The primary challenge for them was there was no real situation. They had insulted invisible people for a non-existent event. Then they became almost instant millionaires.
Becoming an almost instant millionaire is pretty much a disqualification for being a martyr.
The baker fell into a similar conundrum. They thought they had martyr’s pain over a $135,000 judgment against them, but then they got four times that amount in fund raising. As riches filled their homophobic coffers, they raised up their hands, and in their best Marie Antoinette cried, “let them eat cake,†and sent out confections to all the people whose weddings for whom they would have refused to bake. But then they sent them cake… for free.
If you can’t figure out when to bake or when not to bake, and you earned a big payoff — you’re not a martyr.
The florist’s quest for martyrdom just wilted for lack of damage. She claimed loss of avocation, home and all that she held dear. The truth was a $2000 fine and a finger wagging.
Those who don’t get punished really at all aren’t martyrs. They are drama queens.
There was also the Idaho wedding chapel guy who was went around telling everyone how he was going to prison. He barely makes it on this list since he had nobody who wanted to patronize him, no authorities questioning his action, no ordinances violated, and no issues raised on how he was doing business.
Those who have to beg to be harassed, and then still aren’t, are not martyrs.
So now we come to the non-related clerking Davis “Bobsey Twins†of Kentucky. Casey Davis has taken to his bike to fight the evil LGBT windmills like a crazed Christian Don Quixote. Kim Davis has taken the role of a modern day George Wallace blocking the door to keep a young African American woman from attempting to be the first to register at the University of Alabama. He stood defiant, blocking the door on June 11, 1963 as Vivian Malone sought to enter.
American Christian Nation, it is time to take a hard look at your players. They are not serving you well. No one is being inspired to Christ due to their actions. No one is relating to some grand principle when all they see are gestures of cruelty being offered to innocent people who want nothing more to love whom they love, and to be able to start their families with dignity.
Your martyrs are becoming more and more objects of financial opportunism of a giant Hate Industry more than they are the faithful willing to die for honor, glory and a righteous way of life. This is not about following God, it is about following the money. Right now that money is being spent yearly in the billions to attack other families so that you can feel self-righteous — or so you are being told.
Has your righteous feeling enveloped your life yet? How’s that working out for you?
Here is the really sad part. The millions being squandered on this vitriol? That is not the money of America’s progressive people. It is your money. It is coming from your need to “get at†people you don’t know and don’t understand. You are bankrolling this campaign of oppression that your grandchildren will come to mock and deride and wonder how anyone could be so ignorant as to buy into.
The waste is yours. It is mind boggling to think what could be done if your collective mindset were re-directed to things that Christ actually did and does care about. Things like helping the sick, the unfortunate, the homeless and hurt. What healing could your outpouring to these self afflicting “martyrs†do if sent in another, positive and affirming direction?
It would change this from the age of the Wanna-be Martyr, to the age of Christian Miracles. While the results could be Heavenly, the choice in making it all happen is quite Earthly. It would not be up to God to alter the current trajectory, for Him, it is a spectator sport.
It is, instead, all up to you.