You may have heard about Kim Davis. If you haven’t, I’ll try not to judge you. She is the county clerk in Rowan County, Kentucky who refuses to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples because she says, “To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience.”
As a rule I don’t normally post controversial things on my Facebook page. I’m all about peace, love, and laughter! But apparently there’s a full moon or an eclipse or I ate some weird mushrooms, but for whatever reason, I seem to have lost my mind! Earlier this week I posted a quote attributed to a man named Jon Davidson, Director of Lambda Legal Legal. Here is the quote: “I have to wonder just how many of those supporting Kentucky clerk, Kim Davis’s refusal to issue marriage licenses based on her religious objection to same-sex couples marrying would support a Quaker Government official who refused to issue them gun permits based on a religious commitment to pacifism?”
Mr. Davidson, if you did not say this, please forgive me. It’s so hard to verify these kinds of things since Abraham Lincoln invented the internet.
I don’t post things like this because I hate confrontation and controversy. I don’t like “antagonizing” my friends. I want EVERYBODY to like me! I’m a people pleaser, not a boat rocker! But I felt strongly enough about this particular incident that I had to somehow put my thoughts out there! Because that’s what we do these days. Nobody keeps their opinion to themselves anymore! When I posted the quote I did NOT add any of my thoughts to it. I just shared it the way it was. It sat, quietly, minding its own business, on my timeline, for well over an hour before anybody even “liked” it. Then a friend of mine commented on it and she actually agreed with it. She added a few thoughts and comments and a few minutes later my Mom jumped in and said she agreed with me, and she agreed with what my friend said. One minute later I agreed with everyone and was pleased as punch that “everyone” seemed to agree with me.
Things remained quiet for several hours. I even updated my status by adding some amazing pictures of a very cute kid. The photos immediately attracted several likes and comments about what a really cute kid she is and my early morning controversial post seemed a distant memory. The rest of the morning was quiet and then……High Noon. One of my friends threw in her 2 cents during her lunch break. She is a good friend and we don’t discuss politics and certain issues very often because we know that we don’t agree. To her credit she made a few comments, just to let anyone who was reading the post know, that she disagreed, but she also said she was going to remain mostly silent. I even had fun with her and egged her on with a meme of Kim Davis compared to Osama Bin Laden. She and I bantered back and forth for a few minutes and then I suspect lunch was over, as we haven’t talked since about 12:30 that day, but I think that’s just coincidence….I hope.
About 6 hours and a few more status updates later, my Mom started stirring the pot again, and I’m not talking about supper. Pretty soon 2 more friends were throwing their hats into the ring, one for, and one against, the original post. We were enjoying a very “spirited” conversation, to quote one of them. Even as I write this, more than 24 hours after the original post, I just received a notification that one of my friends liked the Davis/Bin Laden meme I posted.
So why did I even post the quote? I posted it because Kim Davis is breaking the law. A judge has backed this up and now Ms. Davis is sitting in jail, which really is a shame. I don’t know this woman and I don’t wish her any ill will. I just think she should have been doing the job she was elected to do and being paid to do. If she feels so strongly about homosexuals getting married then I think she should step down. This is The United States of America. As American citizens we have many rights. We can think and pretty much say anything we want and nobody can really do much about it. I have no problem with Ms. Davis thinking the way she does. I don’t necessarily agree with her, but it is her right. One of my friends commented that Ms. Davis was taking a stand and that it was man’s law VS God’s law. If that’s the case then we must look at all of God’s laws.
We cannot, as Christians, pick and choose which laws we will enforce and which we will break. The book of Leviticus, particularly Leviticus 18:22 “‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” seems to be the weapon of choice for righteous Christians. Seems pretty cut and dry, hey? But wait! There’s more. Leviticus 18 is filled with all sorts of ways one must NOT have sex. It then moves onto chapter 19.
Chapter 19 begins with God instructing Moses to tell the people that they should be holy because God is holy. How many of us would be willing to stand up, right now and declare our holiness?! Immediately after that, God says that we are to respect our Mother and Father and to observe the Sabbath. I know we all observe the Sabbath, always resting and never mowing the yard, not cleaning the house, not going to Walmart (where all the Walmart employees are not working because they are also observing the Sabbath-FINALLY a reason why most of those cash registers don’t have people working them!!), not cleaning the garage, not doing the laundry, and not doing the gazillion things we didn’t have time to do during the week!
How about Leviticus 19:11 “‘Do not steal. “‘Do not lie. “‘Do not deceive one another.” Can you say, Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny? We don’t just lie, we lie to our babies! Then there’s verses 27 “‘Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard,'” and 28 “‘Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the Lord.” I know a lot of Christians with tattoos! Things aren’t looking too good for them right now!
Would you like to talk about pigskin??? Leviticus 11:7-8 “And the pig, though it has a divided hoof, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. 8 You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.” This is really gonna screw up my breakfast plans as I really love bacon and guess I’ll just hang up my Packer jersey because this is really going to put a damper on football season! Man, if Kim Davis had power over the NFL Tom Brady wouldn’t have had to worry about Deflategate. Davis would’ve flattened everyone’s balls!
Red Lobster, Long John Silvers, and Captain D’s, you might as well hang up the “Closed for Business” signs right now as we continue to read from Leviticus 11:9-12 “‘Of all the creatures living in the water of the seas and the streams you may eat any that have fins and scales. 10 But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to regard as unclean. 11 And since you are to regard them as unclean, you must not eat their meat; you must regard their carcasses as unclean. 12 Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be regarded as unclean by you.” We might as well just shut down the entire state of Maine!
Now we have my personal favorite, Exodus 20:7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” May God forgive me for writing this, but OMG!!! I’m really trying to make a point and I don’t normally use that abbreviation or that phrase. I was raised not to take His name in vain and shortening it to that SMS doesn’t change its meaning and when I see other letters inserted in front of the ‘G’ I literally cringe!
I have seen friends comment on other FB posts saying that other Scripture is being misquoted or misused. Yet it only seems to be viewed in their eyes as a misquote if it’s something they disagree with. So here’s the deal. If you are going to pass judgement on how somebody else lives based on what the Bible says, you had better be prepared to practice what you preach! Maybe we should spend more time practicing 1 Corinthians 13.
Giggles and Grumbles 