As many of us here in the Bluegrass state are waiting on the ruling from District Court Judge Browning, more personal details are surfacing about the clerks in question- particularly about Casey Davis. Turns out, back in 2006, he led a protest against a gay playwright by the name of Jeff Key, who is also a former marine. Key was offering a performance of a new piece of work he’d written, and it was to be performed at a public park. The play was entitled The Eyes Of Babylon, and it entails his tour of duty in Iraq.
Davis was quoted in a news article as saying:
“He needs to understand that he is not welcome here… This is not a hate thing, only a warning for people to know what they are getting themselves into.”
Of course, claiming certain people aren’t welcome in his town but it’s “not a hate thing”, and then to further the message as a warning for people to understand “what they are getting themselves into”, is very disturbing. I’d say borderline threatening. We need to get this guy out of the clerk’s office once and for all. It should be noted that this quote isn’t just coming from the lips of a county court clerk, but that of a Separate Baptist minister. That’s right, Casey Davis is a clergyman. He is the pastor of Edinburgh Separate Baptist Church. He is also in charge of issuing marriage licensing to the general public in Casey County, and I am trying to figure out how the job description, coupled with his ministry, didn’t send off warning flags regarding conflict of interest.
This is a problem I had spoken about in a podcast this week: religious clergy in our statehouses, or in local government. How there are pastors getting into government offices to legislate their views, or you can take the highway to their legislated Hell. The walls between church and state are being intentionally blurred, and tax payers are then footing the bill when the issues are taken to court because of the blurring.Media is speculating that there will not be a decision until later next week as to whether Davis has the right, along with Kentucky’s other clerks, to deny issuing licenses for marriage due to religious belief- despite their job description of serving the public and upholding the law.
Read more here.
