Charita Goshay: Marriage clerk convenient martyr for candidates
Two ultraconservatives vying for the presidency are making pilgrimages to Kentucky in support and comfort of court clerk Kim Davis.
For two weeks, the Rowan County clerk of courts has defied all legal authority, including the U.S. Supreme Court, in refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, arguing that to do so would violate her religious beliefs.
Sen. Ted Cruz scheduled a visit this week with Davis, who, until Tuesday, sat in jail for her defiance. Not to be outdone, former Gov. Mike Huckabee is beating a path to Kentucky, too, to headline a "I Stand With Kim Liberty Rally."
Someone cue the Magi.
Now, we all know this is about dog-whistling to the choir.
Apparently, the admonition "don't break the law and you won't get hurt," doesn't apply in Davis' case.
No such effort by either man was made on behalf of Sandra Bland, a military veteran who died in her cell after being jailed on a minor traffic stop.
Neither Cruz nor Huckabee have set foot in Northeast Ohio to console Samaria Rice, whose 12-year-old child, Tamir, was shot and left to lie in the snow after he was given less than two seconds to surrender a toy gun that looked real.
SAME GOD
When her son was fatally shot in the back eight times while running from a police officer during a traffic stop, Walter Scott's mother told the entire world about her faith in the same God of Davis, Cruz and Huckabee; but here's betting she's never gotten so much as a sympathetic tweet from either camp.
Critics have accused Davis of hypocrisy for playing the religion card, all while on her fourth marriage. In fairness, the marriages occurred before Davis became a Christian, which speaks to the transformative power of grace. Before Saul of Tarsus became Paul the apostle, he was a hit man, killing Christians in a bid to strangle the Church in its manger. Before grace changed their lives, Jesus' 12 disciples were a collection of tax cheats, thieves, brawlers, narcissists and doubters.
"GIVE TO CAESAR"
But not even grace gives you the right to cherry-pick what you will and won't do on your job. A signature on a license doesn't equal approval of gay marriage, or change one whit what Davis believes and how she lives out those beliefs.
The same Bible that Davis cites in her dereliction of duty also contends that people who divorce and remarry are committing adultery, and that sex outside of marriage is wrong. Here's betting that not one such previous applicant was ever turned away from her office.
In Matthew 22, it's clear that Jesus understood believers still live in the real world, telling them to, "Give to Caesar that which belongs to Caesar. And give to God what belongs to God."
Don't cry for Kim Davis. She got a rock-star reception from like-minded supporters on Tuesday when she emerged from jail. She'll do interviews and a speaking tour, and write a book. But it doesn't take a prophet to know that when Davis' usefulness expires, she'll be relegated to the pop-culture-curiousity heap — right alongside Joe the Plumber.
Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com.
On Twitter: @cgoshayREP