Here Are 12 Takeaways from KY County Clerk Kim Davis’ New Memoir
It finally arrived.
Liberty Counsel recently announced that Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, the Kentucky official who refused to sign marriage licenses for gay couples because it supposedly violated her Christian beliefs, had written a memoir (or had a book ghost-written for her, I should say).
It’s called Under God’s Authority and you’re damn right I ordered a copy. (The things I do for you people…)
Alright. Enough prelude. Here are the biggest takeaways from the book. Be sure to read through #8.
1) In the foreword, Mike Huckabee sets up her story as one of Christian persecution, as if she spent six days in jail because of her Christian beliefs and not because she, as a government agent, refused to follow the law.
We now face the criminalization of Christianity in this country. The moral and religious convictions by which we, as followers of Jesus, lead our lives are under attack as never before in the history of this great republic.
No Christian is in jail in the U.S. because of his or her beliefs. No church/state separation group has ever called for someone to go to jail over a particular religious belief. Kim Davis was put in jail because she wouldn’t do her job even after a court order, choosing instead to get in the way of people who had a legal right to a marriage license.
2) Both Davis and Huckabee go on and on about how Pope Francis met with her to express his support. Huckabee even said the Pope “endorsed her stand.” That’s literally not what the Vatican said. They claimed the Pope was duped into meeting her, and the man who set up that meeting was later fired.
Yet Davis has an entire chapter dedicated to that meeting and she dismisses any critics who say he wasn’t supporting her “right of conscientious objection.” She insists the Pope wouldn’t have met with her unless he knew who she was… which is not at all how the Pope’s schedule works. Much like a president, he’s at the mercy of his staff, who tell him where to go and what to do. In this case, the Pope put his trust in someone who wanted him to dive into the culture wars, something he tries to avoid.
3) It’s not a surprise that Davis paints herself as the victim in all of this. She acts like gay people are the villains for trying to get her to legitimize their marriages… even though they really didn’t give a damn about her and just needed the clerk to sign their paperwork, verifying that all the information on their license was accurate. Davis felt her signature constituted an endorsement of the marriage and promoted a “separate but equal” kind of policy.
To me, it was all a show. If all these two men wanted was a marriage license, they could have driven a half hour to a neighboring county and obtained one. But they had an agenda. I wasn’t just to get a marriage license. It was to make a Christian woman sign and issue it. They wanted to make me bow down — to accept and acknowledge them as a legitimate married couple. And that I wasn’t going to do.
They didn’t have a choice. If they wanted a marriage license, they could only get it through the county clerk, and there’s no reason to force them to drive to another location just because Davis was having a hissy fit about doing her job. (The same rule applies to pharmacists who don’t want to dispense birth control. Suck it up and do your job.)
Davis was welcome to maintain her bigotry as long as she signed the papers. She wouldn’t. And the reason the couples went to her instead of anyone else was because they “owned property and paid taxes in Rowan County.” It’s not like they were out to get her.
4) This was news to me: The Rowan County attorney told her very clearly that she was on her own. The county’s insurance provider wasn’t going to pay any part of a potential legal bill because she wasn’t listening to the attorney’s advice. From that point forward, this book became a long advertisement for Liberty Counsel, ghost-written by two people working for Liberty Counsel. They’re using her to fundraise for themselves and she has no idea she’s just a pawn.
5) Davis alleges that gay and lesbian couples sued her because they wanted “a lucrative payday.” That’s not true. Most lawsuits of this nature call on the losing side to pay for the winner’s legal bills as well as “compensatory and punitive damages.” Since the ACLU was representing those clients, it’s not like any money would’ve gone in their pockets. I’ve known a number of atheists who filed church/state separation lawsuits against their local governments. None of them did it for the cash. (In many cases, the judges awarded them a symbolic $1.00.)
6) Here’s something I didn’t know. Davis took over the county clerk position that her mother held for 37 years. She squeaked past the Democrats in the primary by “a mere 23 votes” (and yes, at the time, she was a Democrat). She later won the general election with only 53% of the vote.
Voting matters, people. If you don’t vote, the other side will.
7) Davis hears voices. At one point, she talks about how she stopped attending church, but God kept trying to get through to her.
… I had a friend with me and the radio was off when I heard someone speak my name, “Kimberly,” in a deep resonant voice.
Startled, I looked around and asked my friend, “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” she asked, with a skeptical laugh.
…
There are just two people who call me Kimberly, my dad, and one other person. Neither were anywhere near at that moment.
“Okay, Lord,” I said. As strange as it sounds, I knew He had just called my name.
Uh-huh. It was totally God. (Can someone get Joy Behar on the line?)
8) Davis finally describes her multiple marriages and you may need a flow chart to follow it.
I was all of 18 when I first walked down the aisle in 1984 to marry my high school sweetheart. We had two children… but separated in November 1993 and divorced shortly afterwards. In the wake of our split, I met another man and soon became pregnant, giving birth to our twins… Things did not work out with the twins’ father and I was a single mother of four in June 1996 when I met Joe Davis…
…
Joe and I divorced in 2006 after ten years of marriage. That divorce, my second, was a bitter split with a lot of hurtful things said and done on both sides. Just over a year later, I married the father of my twins… But I was back in divorce court less than a year later to end that marriage. Nine months after that, Joe and I reconciled and remarried…
To recap: She married Husband 1, had twins with Husband 3, divorced Husband 1, married Husband 2, divorced Husband 2, married Husband 3, divorced husband 3, and remarried Husband 2.
Just like Jesus wanted.
How does she justify her personal life with the whole “sanctity of marriage” thing? Simple. “God still wasn’t in the picture” until Husband 2’s mother died and they went back to church in 2011. So she wasn’t hypocritical, you guys; she just wasn’t really a Christian yet.
In fact, she chalks up that whole hypocrisy charge to “divine irony.” God took a woman married four times and used her to defend marriage against the gays. Isn’t that so mysterious of Him?!
9) Davis repeatedly invokes the hypocrisy of the Kentucky government. In 2014, before the Obergefell decision, a judge ruled that Kentucky’s ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. The state could appeal the decision, but Attorney General Jack Conway refused to do it, saying it violated his conscience and that discrimination was wrong. The Democratic governor didn’t challenge his reasoning and hired outside lawyers to appeal the ruling instead, ultimately costing the state about $260,000. (It was a dumb decision on the governor’s part.)
Davis wanted the same sort of accommodation. If the attorney general could refuse to do his job due to his conscience, so could she, right? But the comparison doesn’t actually hold up. For one, Kim Davis refusing to do her job meant people couldn’t get legally married. Jack Conway refusing to appeal the ruling meant… nothing, really. He felt an appeal would have been futile — something he has a professional responsibility to say — and he chose not to fight it. If the state’s attorney general felt discrimination wasn’t going to fly in court, it was his job to say so. Kim Davis wasn’t in the same situation.
Incidentally, Davis eventually cost the taxpayers $220,000 in legal fees. She paid absolutely nothing out of pocket despite saying in the book that The Gays wanted to “punish me financially.”
10) Kim Davis wants you to know she loves The Gays.
… I wrap my arms around my gay friends and hug them and love them as well as I do anybody else. They are precious people made in God’s image. And I love them.
Uh-huh. And I’m sure they all love you back.
11) Davis was in the audience for President Obama‘s final State of the Union address — who knew — and expressed doubts about Obama’s faith. In a section noting his infamous evolution on marriage equality, she says she can’t believe how someone “who claimed to be a Christian” could support same-sex marriage.
I guess that means the 35% of white evangelicals who currently support marriage equality aren’t True Christians™ either. Nope. You have to oppose marriage equality and count your marriages using tally marks to be on God’s good side.
12) Davis repeatedly mentions a man named David Ermold who, with his partner, kept asking for a marriage license knowing full well she wouldn’t give them one. They came back to her office multiple times, always with reporters to document the discrimination.
She doesn’t say this in the book, but Ermold is running to become the Rowan County clerk. He wants to unseat her. Now that would be divine irony.
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She married Husband 1, had twins with Husband 3, divorced Husband 1, married Husband 2, divorced Husband 2, married Husband 3, divorced husband 3, and remarried Husband 2.
Just like Jesus wanted.
Some of her supporters can't read, so much easier to use pictures.
Is she certain her "fans" can even read?
There might be a cartoon version available for her most ardent supporters.
"To me, it was all a show. If all these two men wanted was a bowl of soup at a lunch counter, they could have driven a half hour to a neighboring county where they serve n^%$$^'s and obtained one. But they had an agenda. It wasn’t just to get a bowl of soup. It was to make a Christian woman who believes these n&^%4%'s bear the curse of Cain to feed them. They wanted to make me bow down — to accept and acknowledge them as legitimate equal citizens. And that I wasn’t going to do."
It's really sad how these bigots can't see how shameful their behavior is.
There's a simple explanation for everything: she's an idiot.
An idiot, a bigot and a theocrat. She's far better suited to life in Saudi Arabia than in the US.
If ever there was a legitimate reason for a "gofundme" campaign - This is it. A one way ticket to Saudi Arabia.
And a hypocrite.
The author got that part a bit wrong. Conway refused to appeal the court ruling because in his professional view the state's anti-gay law was indefensible. He was exactly right, and his personal views weren't the issue at all. A number of other state AGs made the same determination.
The best part of the whole affair was the argument put forth by the bible-babbling and incompetent attorney the governor hired instead......her argument in support of Kentucky's ban was that marriage equality would devastate the state economy because....????....something about fewer people being born.....????? LOL. Apparently bible-babblers think that denying civil rights to gay folks will force them to have unprotected sex with straight folks of the opposite sex.
.
Yep. It's a real shame that she wasn't held personally liable for all the harm she caused, particularly since the court had originally ruled that she would be liable under 42.USC.1983 because she intentionally violated a person's civil rights.
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Two side notes......under Davis and her mother before her the clerk's office had a history of nepotism and corruption, and it's budget was ultimately reduced because Davis was grossly overpaid compared to the other staff.
Second, given that her mother became county clerk just a few years after the state's ban on mixed-race marriage had been struck down by SCOTUS but was still on the books, did her mother deny marriages to mixed-race couples and then variously claim she was doing so under "god's authority" or because state law trumps the US constitution, as Davis did in this case?
Remember this cringe-worthy shit? They had Eye of the Tiger blaring so loud that I thought I was somehow transported back in time to a Survivor concert ... in another dimension, since I would never go to a Survivor concert. And now we are forced to watch Huckabee's demon spawn every day on tv.
If she was a miserable flop....why didn't she stop?!?!?
I still do not understand how she kept her job during/after this fiasco
That's the problem with elected officials in a constitutionally-defined position......it's very difficult to remove them and many states don't even have a recall process. They can't be fired per se, not even by the governor. And there's no way a GOP-controlled legislature would impeach a bible-babbling theocrat.
That's a monkey wrench in the democratic process. If citizens can elect somebody to a position, it might make sense they can be "unelected" or voted out by the citizens as well, especially if said official dishonors their position through actions such as violating the law. After all, elected officials are essentially public servants "hired" by the public. It would make sense the public can also "fire" them if the need arises.
If she had just been an employee she would have just been fired. She wouldn't have gone to jail and nobody would have ever heard of her.
Makes sense, but there is no avenue of impeachment for a County Court Clerk. NOR a governor...
We need to do something about that here in KY. However, I feel sure our state house denizens are busy trying to name the state doodle bug. They're having a lot of trouble outlawing child marriages, right now. Don't even get me started about that one...
Looks like quite the oversight.
I can only agree!
It was Kentucky..... They have the worst pay rate for their teachers so I'm pretty sure that may impact the "talent" they attract to educate their pupils. I'm convinced the lack of education is a strategic component to the State's political leaders.
i remember many discussions about this with many conservative minded posters who supported and applauded Kim Davis - first their argument was for "state's rights" (which obviously doesn't apply to everything... apparently only a select few topics) and then they decided they could just place an undue burden on same sex couples because Kim Davis (as a representative for the Government) had every "right" to express her religious beliefs at her government job (in their opinion). After that they fully supported her just not doing her job and living off her government paycheck anyway (which seems a bit odd to me... they usually whine about people doing that sort of thing...)
now she has a book out and is playing the "persecuted Christian" victim card... so i wonder who still supports her ?
The usual suspects
there seem to be quite a few posters who are "absent" from this article and some of them i know previously supported Kim Davis 100%... interesting...
She is a psycho bitch from hell.
Good grief ... a book? We have lost our collective minds.
It's just a fundraising scam by the Liberty Counsel hate group. They have to pay the mortgage for Mat Staver's mansion somehow.
Personally, I feel that she was elected to do a job-- issue wedding licenses-- and her failure to do so should have landed her in jail. Rowan Co. is in Eastern KY, and is the seat of a university, Morehead State University. She serves as a shining example of what NOT to admire about KY. I find her to be an embarrassment.
I thought she DID go to jail for a few days?
Yes, and it should have. I agreed with that ruling...
I loved how her Muslim neighbor said "She needs to learn how to do her job."
This was ........by far........THE BEST book review I've ever read. Thank you Hal. I think you've found your retirement job.
My favorite part:
I wish I could take the credit, but it was Hemant Mehta who wrote it.
Well, it sounded so much like ...............you. hahahahaha I still think you could've done this in your sleep.
When I see her picture....I am sad to say, that my first thought is, "who was desperate enough to mate with her"? Yikes. If this is what Rowan Co. is serving up as a "hot dish", a fairly low mileage $5.00 meth ho with all her teeth should be able to make a killing.
Shaming a woman for her appearance. How progressive...
Doesn't Kim's sky wizard say that both gluttony and pride are deadly sins? Sounds like she's totally screwed.
Apparently, her knowledge of Leviticus is quite limited because the same book of the Bible that bible babblers love to cite about homosexuality also forbids adultery.
Lol given her multiple marriages and affairs it sounds like she's already been totally screwed
So you have never looked at a man/woman, (I don't know if you are male or female), and said to yourself, "They are attractive/not attractive"? Not once? Nothing wrong with being honest. Kim Davis, to me, is not attractive. Sorry if I insulted your tender sensibilities. Maybe you need a comfort puppy.
It's a good thing the old testament is irrelevant then.
Have you apologized for your misogyny yet.
She like other Christian conservatives cited Leviticus to oppose LGBT marriage.
How is my pointing out her hypocrisy in any way misogynistic?
If she would learn to keep her religious views separate from her secular job as a civil service court clerk she should not have spent a few nights in the lockup or have been forced to pay a fine. If she cannot keep her religious views separate then maybe she should get a job more befitting her beliefs as the church secretary.
Why should he, you never do.
Yeah....I remember all the Republicans talking smack about Hillary's appearance a lot here too......why did you not say the same to them?
Prejudice much eh?
So why do theocrats like Mrs. Davis continuously cite the OT, especially Leviticus, when denouncing gays or gay marriage? I guess the 10 Commandments is also irrelevant, as that is OT too.
Cafeteria Christians. They only pick the parts of the Bible they like.
Indeed. And conveniently, their god hates the same people they do.
I prefer SHE, if you were referring to me.
Sorry epistte, my bad. No excuse for the mistake, I just wasn't paying as close enough attention as I should be. I truly did not mean any offense, and I apologize if I did offend you.
um... i'd recheck your statement against the arguments to oppose same sex marriage - it seems that the old testament was completely relevant then in the eyes of religious conservative minded people who opposed same sex marriage, it was one of the main things they cited when discussing it. Seems that the religious can't just make up their minds on what is or isn't relevant and everything is just left up to convenient "interpretation" for whatever fits their mood at the time, huh ?
I understand because my moniker isnt outwardly gender specific.
She's a fat ugly cow who spreads her legs for every Tom, Dick and Harry and has been married at least 4 times but then denies marriage licenses to devoted same sex couples
Would Kim Davis accept that their gay marriage is traditional after they are married and divorced 3 times like she was?
Someone needs to explain to this backwoods bigot that any religious law is irrelevant to US law or how she does her job as a civil servant. This is why we have a separation of church and state. Religions can decide who they will and won't permit the sacrament of holy matrimony but marriage is a secular civil law that is completely separate from religious belief.
The courts did try to explain that to her which is why she lost every single ruling. She was just too dumb, too bigoted and too much of a self-righteous bible-babbler to understand.
But at least she was finally smart enough to realize that the true home today for hate-filled Dixiecrats is the GOP, so she's not a complete moron. She knows which party will vote for a dumb bigot.
She was risin' up, back on the street
She did her time, took her chances
She went the distance, now she’s back on her feet
Just a bigot and her will to survive
She has weaponized stupid. No wonder she switched to the republican party, so she could be with her own kind.
[in my best Beavis & Butthead voices]: Huh huh, that was cool. Heh heh, yeah, cool. You're cool, huh huh huh.
The GOP platform since 1980 has weaponized stupid.
Just say no
Get tough on crime
War on drugs
trickle down economics
TEAparty
deregulation
War on terror
It shows no signs of slowing down either. Not to mention stupid seems to be drawn to it, like moths to a flame.
MEMO TO KD - If you expect to sell your book, you should not have put your picture on the cover. It is a puke fest contender and frightens small children.