Kim Davis’ Lawyer Evokes MLK, Makes Comparisons To Nazi Germany As Supporters Rally
Kim Davis, the Country Clerk for Rowan County, Kentucky, is on her third day in jail for refusing to issue marriage certificates to same-sex couples. Today, several hundred of her supporters showed up in front of the Carter County detention center where she is being held, calling for her release and celebrating her actions.
Many who protested were doing so on religious grounds, backing Kim Davis because they disagree with same-sex marriage, seeing her as someone who is standing up for what is they believe is morally right.
NPR reports that speakers at the rally, emceed by evangelist Cal Zastrow, included Randy Smith who spoke about how the Bible condemns homosexuality, which was met with an “Amen” by the audience. The Blaze quotes Wisconsin pastor Matthew Trewhella who also took the stage at the rally.
“More fear man, they don’t fear God. She said that she was doing this under God’s authority. She is 1,000 percent correct. She is echoing what Western man has said for over 1,500 years now. And that is that divine law trumps human laws.”
Kim Davis’ fourth husband, Joe Davis, spoke to the crowd as well, according to USA Today.
“She won’t bow, I promise you. I’m just an old, dumb, country hillbilly, but I know God.”
The Blaze further quotes Joe Davis as passing on a message from Kim Davis to those in the crowd.
“She sends her love to each and every one of you all. And this is what she said, ‘All is well. Tell them to hold their head high because I am.'”
One woman who spoke with NPR, Stephanie Hunley, drove for two-and-a-half hours to be part of the rally for Kim Davis.
“It’s very clear that what this did was open up a Pandora’s box for an attack against Christianity and tolerance is only going one way and that’s toward the other side. Bible-believing Christians, we don’t check our conscience at the door when we leave home. If you’re a true believer in Jesus Christ that belief system will carry through 24/7.”
Online, under the twitter hashtags #FreeKimDavis and #StandWithKim many more showed their support, but her detractors were quick to counter their message, even turning the #FreeKimDavis into a place for some to hone their comedy skills.
I #StandwithKim Davis. I hope you are happy that Christians are being jailed and livelyhoods destroyed because you ignored 9th & 10th Amend
— EscapeVelocity (@EscapeVelo) September 5, 2015
#KimDavis issued 0 marriage licenses No discrimination. Just gov bullying 4 strongly held religious conviction. A crime now. #StandwithKim
— BethGifford (@BGif) September 5, 2015
#FreeKimDavis Worst coupon ever, can I return her to God
— Tim Walker (@ledzepptim) September 5, 2015
#FreeKimDavis when you buy two Kim Davises of equal or lesser value.
— Yonside Dude (@WonkyNewsNerd) September 5, 2015
Don’t fall for the scam people! They say #FreeKimDavis, but if you read the fine print, its only if you buy one of equal or greater cost
— Kragar (@Kragar_LGF) September 3, 2015
The Huffington Post is reporting that Kim Davis’ head of legal counsel, Mathew Staver, has compared her plight to that of Jews in Nazi Germany on a radio program called Crosstalk.
“[Davis is] there to do a duty, a job and the job duty was changed. Does that mean that if you’re Christian, don’t apply here?… What happened in Nazi Germany, what happened there first, they removed the Jews from government public employment, then they stopped patronizing them in their private businesses, then they continued to stigmatize them, then they were the ‘problems,’ then they killed them.”
The comparisons with Nazi persecution continued when he spoke on another radio show called Washington Watch with the President of the Family Research Council, Tony Perkins.
“Back in the 1930s, it began with the Jews, where they were evicted from public employment, then boycotted in their private employment, then stigmatized and that led to the gas chambers. This is the new persecution of Christians here in this country.”
On Friday, after visiting his Kim Davis, CTV reports that Staver said she was a prisoner of her conscience, making comparisons between her and Martin Luther King standing up against unjust laws as he did when he was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.
Meanwhile, as Kim Davis sits in jail, becoming a martyr for conservative Christians, the county office where she work has begun to issue licenses to same-sex couples, although Kim Davis’ lawyer insists that they aren’t “worth the paper they’re written on.”
[Photo from Getty Images / Ty Wright]
