Ted Cruz Forgets His Religious Right Pals Are Calling Kim Davis ‘Rosa Parks’

As usual the religious right is trying to have it both ways. This would be funny if it weren’t so offensive.

This week the religious right has been comparing Kim Davis to Rosa Parks, the woman who refused to sit at the back of a  Montgomery, Alabama bus and landed in jail as a result.

It’s almost comical that rich white Christian men like Bryan Fischer and Matt Barber — who make their living bullying LGBT people — feel they’re being persecuted, but that’s another story. 

Meanwhile, Ted Cruz announced Thursday that never before in history has a Christian woman been jailed for her beliefs, a ludicrous statement on its face, not only because it’s wrong — Rosa Parks is but one of many examples — but because Kim Davis wasn’t jailed for her beliefs, she was jailed for contempt of court and not obeying the law of the land after a federal judge, three appeals court judges, and the Supreme Court all indicated she hasn’t a leg to stand on.

“Today, judicial lawlessness crossed into judicial tyranny,” Cruz said. “Today, for the first time ever, the government arrested a Christian woman for living according to her faith. This is wrong. This is not America.”

In “Insane Things Republicans Say: Ted Cruz Edition,” New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal agreed, in a way.

“He’s right,” Rosenthal says. “That’s not America – in the real country, as opposed to his fictional version, Ms. Davis was not arrested for living according to her faith. She was arrested for using her government power to impose her religious beliefs on others. A conservative should be furious at her for violating the First Amendment.”

NCRM’s contributing editor Jean Ann Esselink also weighed in, noting Cruz “also missed the fact that Kim Davis, who up til now has claimed she just doesn’t want her name on the marriage licenses of same-sex couples, was offered an ‘accommodation’ by the judge. She was given a chance to keep her job, and get out of jail, and not be required to sign any licenses for same-sex couples. All she had to do was promise not to fire her deputy clerks who would step in and do her job for her. She had everything she wanted, but she still said no.”

Meanwhile, Twitter was only too happy to help Sen. Cruz:

On Fox News last night, Cruz doubled down, with no one actually challenging him at any level:

 

Image: Screenshot via Ted Cruz/YouTube