On one hand, Kim Davis (who’s a Democratic Party voter, to be clear) should be lauded for standing by the force of her convictions in refusing to provide marriage licenses for gays. On the other hand, sometimes the duties and requirements of jobs change. We have a choice in complying with them, or leaving for a different job. It appears as if she could have simply allowed the other clerks to perform the marriages and do the paperwork. That said, jail is foolish. They could have simply let her go. But, where, exactly, does the 1st Amendment start and end in this situation? That’s a much bigger discussion which is causing conniptions with even heavy duty legal scholars.
But, hey, remember, the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage is Settled Law! So say all sorts of Leftist activists. But, what of the Hobby Lobby decision?
Now that Kim Davis is in Jail, Let’s Re-Think Hobby Lobby
In a homophobic political stunt poorly veiled in “religious beliefs,” Rowan County, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis denied marriage licenses to LGBT couples despite a federal court order instructing her that the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, and she must comply. She claimed that issuing the licenses would be a violation of her “religious beliefs,” continued to defy the law, and is now in jail for contempt of court. However, when Hobby Lobby had contempt for the reproductive health rights of its female employees, the US Supreme Court ruled Hobby Lobby did not have to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate because doing so would violate the “religious beliefs” of Hobby Lobby, a “person.”
Interesting, in that the author, Sanjeev K. Sriram, refuses to acknowledge the true beliefs, and instead creates his own for these folks. It sure seems that Kim Davis has true religious beliefs: she went to jail over them. This is one of the things Progressives (nice fascists) like to do: impart different (and non-stated) viewpoints for situations that change the dialogue in their favor, viewpoints that don’t match what the original people say, allowing the Progressives to attack in a manner to force political change, especially when people like Kim Davis attempt to stand on their Constitutional Rights. Can’t have that, you know, not when Social Justice is at stake!
One person can dress up their homophobia in “religious belief” and be sent to jail, while another “person” can dress up misogyny in “religious belief” and receive the support of the highest court in the country. I know this is an oversimplification.
A vast oversimplification, and, again, telling us what these folks in question believe, in contradiction.
The reason I am making this argument on an editorial page and not in front of a judge is because I am appealing to my fellow Americans for whatever decency may exist in our court of public opinion.
Wait, I thought shaming and cyberbullying, along with real world bullying, was a bad thing? Oh, right, not when Social Justice is at stake. Then people can be abused to no end.
For these behaviors to be upheld in the case of Hobby Lobby and punished in the case of Kim Davis worsens discrimination by making it feel arbitrary: getting bullied by someone’s Bible is okay, but only sometimes?
Apparently, though, it’s OK to bully Kim Davis. Funny how that works. It’s not OK to bully gays for their beliefs, but, going after Kim Davis? A-OK. (It’s not OK to bully either, let’s be clear)
Women have a right to contraception under their basic human right to health care, and LGBT couples have a right to marriage under basic civil rights. None of these rights should be denied due to the whims of public or private authority’s “religious freedoms.” As Kim Davis sits in jail and Hobby Lobby enjoys “personhood,” both need to learn that disagreeing with someone’s rights does not entitle you to oppressing them.
A couple points. First, we can see the Progressive talking point about the “right to contraception” idiocy. No woman is actually being denied. Hobby Lobby never said once that the women who work for them cannot use it. They are just not going to pay for certain forms, nor for abortifacients and abortions. Progressive Social Justice Warriors will never admit that part. They must create a version where the big evil religiosity company is completely denying their female employees any and all contraception.
Why, exactly, must the company pay for a woman’s contraception? There’s no right to that anywhere within the Constitution. Nor was this “right” actually included in the Affordable Care Act. Contraception is not mentioned at all in Obamacare. The Contraception Mandate was wholly created by Health And Human Services out of thin air. Is food a human right? How about housing? We’ve been told they are. Perhaps companies should be forced to pay for those. Maybe they should be forced to pay for other things, too. Right?
They may have a “basic right”, but that doesn’t mean Someone Else should be forced to pay for it, especially when it interferes with the Rights of other people.
Second, oppression? Seriously? It’s oppression to be forced to pay $9 a month to buy your own birth control pills, and pay for your own abortions? It should be noted that Dr. Sriram is a pediatrician. He is the “Host of “Dr. America” on We Act Radio, pediatrician in Washington DC, member of the National Physicians Alliance.” A baby doctor. Yet, strangely, he is advocating for the killing of the unborn.
You might be saying “hey, he’s just one guy, one I’ve never even heard of.” Yet, you can bet the ranch that Progressives were totally agreeing with Dr. Sriram’s screed. They have no problem with forcing compliance, by law, with their beliefs, even if they violate the Constitution.
Crossed at Right Wing News.
Read: Liberal World: Now That Kim Davis Is In Jail For Her Beliefs, What Say We Rethink Hobby Lobby? »
