God vs. Government in Kentucky

There are actually some good things coming out of the controversy over Kentucky court clerk Kim Davis’s refusal to grant gay marriage licenses.  It is showing just how detrimental religion is to our social order.  It is making a mockery of Christianity.  And, it is showing just how ridiculous some Republican presidential candidates can be.  The secular backlash against this religious and political foolishness will hopefully lead to eventually getting god out of our government.

Our social order is based on civil laws.  Whether you like them or not does not make them optional.  Ms. Davis, who is a rather low-ranking elected public official, decided she can refuse to comply with a civil law because her god says so.  She does not seem to realize many people do not acknowledge the existence of her god and, even some who do, do not recognize his authority to override civil law. 

Regarding the mockery of Christianity, Ms. Davis’s defiance of the law in the name of god is yet another example that American Christians are pathetically hypocritical.  No matter how many times anyone points out to them that Jesus said, “feed the sick, clothe the naked, help the poor, feed the hungry,” and above all “love one another,” American Christians seem to think those were nice things for Jesus to say , but they do not apply to people currently residing in America.  Aside from Republican policies diametrically opposed to Jesus’s teaching, the American neo-Christian doctrine states that god does not approve of homosexuals so that permits a judgmental, self-righteous clerk of courts to refuse granting gay marriage licenses in defiance of civil law.  Most rational, thinking people see that for what it is—using god to justify bigotry and hatred.

Now what about those Republican presidential candidates? Here are a few of the really absurd things Republican candidates have said:

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: “Having Kim Davis in federal custody removes all doubt of the criminalization of Christianity in our country.  We must defend religious liberty and never surrender to judicial tyranny.”  Did you get that?  “Criminalization of Christianity”?  “Judicial tyranny”?

Ted Cruz:  “Those who are persecuting Kim Davis believe that Christians should not serve in public office. That is the consequence of their position. Or, if Christians do serve in public office, they must disregard their religious faith — or be sent to jail.”  What was that?  “Persecuting Kim Davis”?  People believe Christians should not hold public office?

Bobby Jindal:  “We are seeing government today discriminate against whether it’s clerks, florists, musicians or others. I think that’s wrong. I think you should be able to keep your job and follow your conscience.”  Government discrimination?  What about religious (hate gays) discrimination?  Actually, the government is saying you can’t discriminate because of religious beliefs.

Scott Walker:  “I read that the Constitution is very clear that people have freedom of religion — you have the freedom to practice religious beliefs out there, it’s a fundamental right.”  It’s too bad Walker doesn’t understand the Constitution he claims to have read.  You have the constitutional right to practice your religion of course, but you do not have the right to impose it on anyone else and if you do so as a public official required to follow the law you are even more in violation of the religious freedom principle because you are imposing yours on others.

These politicians, of course, are desperately pandering to the religious righteous to get their votes, but there is something radically wrong with our society when we have candidates for our highest office and arguably the most powerful person in the world who believe god overrides our civil laws, who believe the world is 6,000 years old, who believe in creationism and not evolution, who deny climate change despite overwhelming scientific evidence and who think days of prayer accomplish something.  These politicians are disingenuous at best and liars at worst.   Religion is the most destructive force human beings have ever invented, and, as this most recent gay-marriage-county-clerk incident shows, our country would be better off is we could get god out of our government entirely.  If this current Kentucky clerk incident motivates more Americans to insist on a secular, rule-of-law based government, it will have been worth enduring the media-hyped stupidity.

Oh, if any of this irritates some of you readers, god made me do it.