There is a relatively well-known quote attributed to Theodore Roosevelt that says, “No man is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.”
Of course, despite the fact that nearly every American has a specific
law they disagree with, they generally obey the laws as required unless
they are very bigoted and very religious. There is a seriously twisted
belief among many evangelical fanatics that although they live in a
nation of laws spelled out in the U.S. Constitution, they contend that
their dog’s laws trump the law of the land and now Supreme Court
decisions.
Despite the fact that the Supreme Court ruled that
same-sex couples have the same 14th Amendment right to marry as
opposite-sex couples, there are still plenty of evangelicals that refuse
to follow the law. In Kentucky, the county clerk who continues to defy
several court rulings ordering her to do her appointed job and issue
marriage licenses to gay couples, is now apparently appealing the U.S.
Supreme Court’s
order
on Monday that she has to obey the law to her dog almighty; what she
contends is the law of the land. Kim Davis, the woman who lusts to be a
true 'christian' martyr for bigotry, once again refused to do her job and
told a bevy of reporters that indeed, she has the right to refuse to follow the law of the land “
under dog’s authority.”
Of course, if Davis actually read her christian bible she would be
aware that dog’s authority (the bible) tells her to obey the government
authority, but this is America and evangelicals follow a bastardized
version of christianity; one that disavows the entire new testament.
What may come as a shock to Davis is that here in America there is no
higher authority than the Constitution, or the Supreme Court, no matter
that she believes otherwise.
This issue is a result of, mainly, Republicans
preaching that an evangelical has very unique religious freedom rights
to disobey any law that they claim infringes on their 1st Amendment
right to worship, pray, and attend church without government
interference. In Davis’ case, performing her duty of collecting money
for a license to marry does not, in any possible way, infringe on her
right to pray, read the bible, sing Psalms, or attend the local
mega-cult. Generally, a sane person would say that if Davis does not
want to obey the law and perform her duty as a county clerk, she should
just find a different job. At least that is the opinion of an
ultra-wingnut, ultra-constitutional originalist and ultra-delusional
Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia.
Scalia wrote for the
majority in Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith that the idea of any American believing they have “
a private right to ignore generally applicable laws is unconstitutional” and if allowed would lead to “
anarchy resulting from a system in which each conscience is a law unto itself.”
In another High Court ruling, Scalia opined that a public employee with
objections to laws on religious ground should either just do their job
and shut up or find different employment. He
said, “
They have, after all, taken an oath to apply the laws and have been given no power to supplant them with rules of their own;”
or supplant them with dog rules that are not the law of the land any
more than the christian bible is the Constitution. However, there are
Republicans who believe that the Constitution, common sense, and the
Supreme Court are dead wrong and support Davis’ defiance and now
contempt of court.
Republican pretender candidate Paul came out in defense of Davis who is finally
facing
contempt of court charges for violating the court order that she has to
do the job she is getting paid for and issue marriage licenses to
same-sex couples. Paul’s defense of Davis is consistent with his
cosponsoring legislation, the First Amendment Defense Act (FADA) that
prevents the government from acting against businesses or non-profits
that blatantly discriminate against same-sex married couples. In fact,
Republicans as a group have adopted, and
endorsed
FADA by attempting to justify all forms of discrimination against
same-sex couples the rnc claims should be legally permissible despite
the Constitution’s 14th Amendment; another reason Republicans want the
Amendment abolished.
It is nearly certain that Kim Davis is convinced
that because Republicans have become the official legislative arm of the
extremist religio-wingnuts, and have spent an inordinate amount of time
and taxpayer money legislating according to religion, that she is on “a
holy crusade mandated by god almighty.” It is, in great part, due to the
recent seriously distorted interpretation of the Religious Freedom
Restoration Act (RFRA); a direct result of the above Supreme Court
decisions that ruled no, religious freedom is not freedom to, as Justice
Scalia wrote, “have a private right to ignore generally applicable laws.” In fact, in the alleged “direct utterances of dog almighty” in romans 13, god commands that christians “must
be subject to the governing authorities, for no authority exists except
by dog’s permission. The existing authorities have been established by dog, so that whoever resists the authorities opposes what dog has
established, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.”
Obviously
Kim Davis is going to bring judgment on herself according to biblical
mythos, but her present concern should be the contempt of court charges
she is due to face in the very near future. To demonstrate how perverted
her interpretation of her religious freedom really is, she faces being
either fined, imprisoned, or terminated from an $80,000 a year job
because she is a typical evangelical bigot. Instead of resigning, she is
intent on being a 'christian' martyr because she cannot get it through
her delusional mind that the U.S. Constitution, and not the Hebrew
scriptures is the law of the land; a mindset that is more prevalent than
most Americans want to believe and a very dangerous portent that this
country is being primed to become a theocracy
