Steve Russell: Religious fundamentalism courtesy of a county clerk

Law | Opinion

Steve Russell: Religious fundamentalism courtesy of a county clerk

Posted: Wednesday, September 30, 2015

A booking photo of Kim Davis. Photo from Carter County Detention Center

Steve Russell, a member of the Cherokee Nation, examines fundamentalism in the wake of Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples due to her religious beliefs. Davis has since confirmed a meeting with Pope Francis:

NBC News reported not long ago, with video, from Rowan County, Kentucky, where the county clerk would not work. On her release from jail for contempt of court, a billboard met the clerk who won’t work:
Dear Kim Davis, the fact that you can't sell your daughter for three goats and a cow means we've already redefined marriage.
The message was paid for by a nonprofit called Planting Peace, and for Christians who read their book; it carries a serious theological message. The only places in the Bible that contain full-throated denunciations of homosexual conduct are in the letters of St. Paul (Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 1 Timothy 1:9-10), who also did not like sex practiced by married heterosexuals (1 Corinthians 7: 1, 7:6-9) and the Old Testament, where homosexual conduct was an “abomination” just like eating oysters (Leviticus 11:9-12) or wearing fabrics containing more than one cloth (Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:11).
Exodus 21 contains the rules for selling your daughter into slavery and purports to regulate the beatings slaves receive.
Confronted by this silliness, the “scholars” among fundamentalists claim that some of these rules only apply to Jews and that they must be understood in historical context. That is, they indulge the exact sort of exegesis they scorn when mainstream Christian theologians do it.

Get the Story:
Steve Russell: Fundamentalism I: Law From the Clerk Who Won’t Work (Indian Country Today 9/30)

Also Today:
Here’s what we know about the meeting between Kim Davis and Pope Francis (The Washington Post 9/30)
Kim Davis Recounts Secret Meeting With Pope Francis (ABC News 9/30)
Kim Davis And Pope Francis Had A Private Meeting In D.C. (NPR 9/30)
Pope Francis Met With Kim Davis, Kentucky County Clerk, in Washington (The New York Times 9/30)