Kentucky’s Mini-Gods

Rowan County, Kentucky

County Clerk Kim Davis was a “born again sinner” and claims that, since that day, she has “pledged the rest of her life to the service of the Lord.” To Kim Davis that pledge apparently means that she has become the sole arbiter, interpreter and executor of God’s word.

Kim Davis has apparently forgotten another vow that she made when assuming the position of Rowan County Clerk:

County Clerk Oath:

Did you catch that last sentence? “. . . ” will faithfully execute the duties of my office without favor, affection or partiality, so help me God!”

Kim Davis is not only a Christian Bigot, she is a person who is willing to break an oath to God based on her own, amateurish interpretation of His word.

Does she hold a divinity degree? Does she have years of experience studying the works of biblical scholars? No, she’s just a reformed sinner who, like so many of her ilk, desperately wants to be a mini-God because she has no faith in her Creator’s ability to run His own show.

Hopefully God will reward her with just enough jail time to remind her of her place in the universe, enough of a fine to make her realize that “so help me God” means something and a period of unemployability that will remind her that she is the humble servant not anyone’s master.

The County Clerk’s oath (above) was borrowed from an article in the Daily Kos about another Kentucky County Clerk, Casey Davis (possibly a relative), who had the same hate-filled Mini-God complex that Ms. Davis has. Mr Davis, however, additionally, felt the need, as part of his position, to “remind” gay people that they would forever ‘burn in Hell.” His story and the above oath of office can be found HERE!

Speaking of Hell, where the Hell does Kentucky find these losers?

Kentucky’s Security Is Now Out Of God’s Hands

In 2006, as a belated response to September 11, 2001, the State of Kentucky passed a statute that created a State Office of Homeland Security. Two ammendments to that statute were then added and worded by state Rep. Tom Riner, a Democrat who represents Louisville, KY; Rep. Riner is also a pastor of Christ is King Baptist Church in Louisville; KY.

From the Miami Herald (emphasis mine):

“One (ammendment) required that training materials include information that the General Assembly stressed a ‘dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth.'”

“The other (ammendment) required a plaque to be placed at the entrance to the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort that said, in part, “the safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.”

For the past three years the State Office of Homeland Security met these requirements but now, the order that created the State Homeland Security office has been struck down after ten Kentucky Residents, joined by the American Atheists Inc. sued the state and won.

In the American Atheists blog they argue as they did in the lawsuit that:

“It is clear that the purpose underlying the display of the plaque and the contents of Office of Homeland Security training materials is not to celebrate the historical reasons for our great nation’s survival in the face of terror and war. Its purpose is to declare publicly that the official position of the Commonwealth of Kentucky is that an Almighty God exists and that the function of that God is to protect us from our enemies. Consequently, a reading of the statute’s plain language makes that clear. Effectively, the General Assembly has created an official government position on God.”

Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate agreed with the Atheist group and said in an August 26th decision that: “references to a dependence on ‘Almighty God’ in the law that created the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security are akin to establishing a religion, which the government is prohibited from doing in the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions.”

Judge Wingate’s 18-page ruling said in part:

“The statute pronounces very plainly that current citizens of the Commonwealth cannot be safe, neither now, nor in the future, without the aid of Almighty God. Even assuming that most of this nation’s citizens have historically depended upon God, by choice, for their protection, this does not give the General Assembly the right to force citizens to do so now.”

“This is the very reason the Establishment Clause was created: to protect the minority from the oppression of the majority,” he wrote. “The commonwealth’s history does not exclude God from the statutes, but it had never permitted the General Assembly to demand that its citizens depend on Almighty God.”

Personally I believe that in most cases, atheists misuse the key phrase in the First Ammendment to the Constitution that calls for what most people refer to as the separation of church and state, (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”) — but in this case, it appears to me that they were exactly right.

It’s obvious that Rep. Tom Riner is one of those obnoxious Christians who refuse to respect a persons right to NOT believe in a Supreme Being, instead he insists that his belief must not only be respected but codified.

What is NOT obvious is why the Kentucky General Assembly went along with such a blatant attempt to force Riner’s concept of the power of belief in God on the entire state. Are that many dunces in the Kentucky State Assembly?

Applause to Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate for a well thought out, appropriate decision!