KENTUCKY: Anti-Gay Clerk Files Religious Discrimination Suit Against Governor

The Liberty Counsel is suing Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear on behalf of renegade county clerk Kim Davis. Via the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Late Tuesday, Davis filed a lawsuit against Beshear in federal district court. She blamed the governor for instructing all 120 of the state's county clerks to comply with this summer's U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage. Beshear's stance left dissenting county clerks vulnerable to lawsuits, including two that she currently faces, filed by groups of her constituents, Davis said. U.S. District Judge David Bunning is expected to rule in these cases in coming days. "The Commonwealth of Kentucky, acting through Governor Beshear, has deprived Davis of her religious-conscience rights guaranteed by the United States and Kentucky constitutions and laws, by insisting that Davis issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples contrary to her conscience, based on her sincerely held religious beliefs," Davis' lawsuit says.

The suit also names the head of the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, which changed the marriage license forms to gender-neutral.

The Liberty Counsel has issued a press release:

“Governor Beshear is unlawfully picking and choosing the conscience-based exemptions to marriage that he deems acceptable,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. When Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway refused to defend Kentucky’s natural marriage laws after “pray[ing] over this decision,” Governor Beshear did not command that he perform his duties, but hired private attorneys to pursue the appeal. “In no uncertain terms, Governor Beshear’s policies and directives are intended to suppress religion—even worse, a particular religious belief,” Liberty Counsel’s complaint points out. “Thus, although Attorney General Conway was given a pass for his conscience about marriage without any threats of repercussion, clerks like Davis are being repeatedly told by their Governor to abandon their religiously informed beliefs or resign.” “Simply put, Governor Beshear is making secularism a litmus test for holding office in Kentucky,” said Mat Staver. “The governor is forcing clerks like Davis to choose between following the precepts of her religion and forfeiting her position, on the one hand, and abandoning one of the precepts of her religion in order to keep her position, on the other,” Staver concluded.

The ruling in the ACLU's suit against Davis is expected next week. (Tipped by JMG reader Allen)

KENTUCKY: Liberty Counsel Tells Court That Clerk Is A "Conscientious Objector"

The Liberty Counsel yesterday filed a motion in the ACLU's lawsuit against four-times-married Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis in which they characterize her as being similar to an anti-war conscientious objector.

“Like a noncombatant who cannot shoulder a rifle, a county clerk who cannot issue” same-sex licenses “can still faithfully and devotedly serve this country, and their county,” lawyers for Kim Davis argued in a pleading filed Thursday in U.S. District Court. Asking Judge David Bunning to deny an injunction forcing Davis to begin issuing licenses again, attorneys Roger Gannam and Jonathan Christman from the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel note that Kentucky law allows county clerks an exemption from issuing fishing and hunting licenses. “If Kentucky is able to accommodate personal beliefs and conscientious objection regarding something that is (to some) as trivial as fishing and hunting, surely Kentucky can and must provide similar accommodation for deeply held beliefs about the fundamental nature of marriage,” they said in their pleading.

The ACLU has seven days to respond to the latest motion. Earlier this month Davis testified that she had "prayed and fasted" about her decision to disobey the Supreme Court. The final ruling in the case is expected in mid-August. Kentucky's county clerks are elected and can only be removed by the state legislature, which is out of session until January. Davis and other renegade clerks face fines and jail for contempt of court should the ruling go against them.

Liberty Counsel Fights For Right To Tell LGBT Kids They Are Going To Hell

The Liberty Counsel has sent a "warning letter" to Kentucky's juvenile detention system because a local pastor was advised that he is not to tell youthful LGBT offenders that they are hell-bound perverts. The pastor refused and his visitation privileges have been revoked. Via press release:

Pastor David Wells has served as a volunteer for over ten years, faithfully visiting and mentoring juveniles at the Warren County Regional Juvenile Detention Center, under the prison ministry of Pleasant View Baptist Church in McQuady. “Many juveniles are in DJJ custody because of sexual crimes,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “Pastor Wells must be able to discuss what the Bible says about matters of sexuality with the juveniles he is trying to help. To remove the Bible from a pastor’s hands is like removing a scalpel from a surgeon’s hands,” Staver said. “Without it, they cannot provide healing.” Pastor Wells was barred from visiting, counseling, or leading worship services for juveniles based on DJJ Policy 912 IV(H) “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity,” which states that volunteers: "[S]hall not refer to juveniles by using derogatory language in a manner that conveys bias towards or hatred of the LGBTQI community. DJJ staff, volunteers, interns, and contractors shall not imply or tell LGBTQI juveniles that they are abnormal, deviant, sinful, or that they can or should change their sexual orientation or gender identity."

Mat Staver: "DJJ 912 equates the teaching of Biblical morality with derogatory, biased, and hateful speech. In so doing, the DJJ policy creates an unconstitutional, religious litmus test for DJJ access. The First Amendment prohibits the government from viewpoint discrimination. This detention center may not prohibit the expression of Biblical morality simply because a few DJJ policymakers object to the Bible and its teaching."

See their warning letter.

KENTUCKY: Liberty Counsel Lawyer Says Plaintiffs Don't Really Want To Get Married

"We were able to see through her testimony that this case, more and more, is really about the plaintiffs wanting to force Kim Davis to issue a marriage license despite her sincerely held religious beliefs. It's not about the plaintiffs' desire to get married. They drove two hours to a county where they could have gotten a license if they wanted one. They drove an hour last week to court to a county where they could've gotten a license if they wanted one. And they could've gotten a license in just about every county in between that they passed through if they had wanted one. Just as Justice Alito predicted in his dissent in Obergefell secularists are trying to 'stamp out every vestige of dissent' by targeting people of faith who do not agree with same-sex marriage." - Liberty Counsel senior attorney Roger Gannam, declaring that since the plaintiffs drove to a different county to attend the hearing of the ACLU's lawsuit, they don't really want to get married.

Where Liberty University Gets Its Money

Via the Washington Post:

Liberty University is not just your average school down the road. The once small Christian college founded in 1971 by the Rev. Jerry Falwell now has the largest student body of any private nonprofit university in the country. With over 70,000 students, the university has become a destination for political candidates seeking the GOP’s more conservative favor. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) kicked off his campaign during a convocation at Liberty. In May, former Florida governor Jeb Bush (R) followed in the footsteps of John McCain and Mitt Romney by giving Liberty’s commencement address. The irony: The exponential growth of Liberty University has been fueled by billions in federal student aid made possible by President Obama and congressional Democrats. In the late 1990s, Liberty students received less than $20 million in aid. Students now receive over $800 million dollars a year in federal aid. As with any federal financial aid, the grants and loans are awarded to students, not the university. Liberty does not receive any other federal funds, but its growth has come by attracting Christian students who qualify for aid.

About 75% of Liberty University's students are "distance learners" who take online courses. (Tipped by JMG reader BKMN)

KENTUCKY: Clerk Kim Davis Testifies That She "Prayed And Fasted" About Denying Same-Sex Marriage Licenses

Infamous Kentucky county clerk and alleged dog-napping conspirator Kim Davis took the stand today in the ACLU's lawsuit against her for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses. Via the local CBS affiliate:

Davis told the court she's an apostolic Christian and her religion says that marriage can only be between a man and a woman. She says her right to freedom of religion affords her the ability to deny same-sex licenses because she believes the wording on the certificate means she's authorizing the license. Davis said that is something she can't do. "If I authorize it, I'm saying I agree with it. I can't do that," she said. An attorney representing the couples who are suing Davis asked her how far a clerk could take their religious beliefs when it comes to denying licenses. He asked, for example, whether a clerk could refuse a license if they did not believe interracial marriage was biblical. He also asked whether a clerk could deny a license to someone who wanted to get remarried after a divorce. Davis said she couldn't speak for anyone else and didn't answer any hypothetical questions. The plaintiff's attorney asked Davis if she would change her position if the judge orders her to issue those licenses. She said she'd deal with that when the time comes.

More from Kentucky.com:

"It was something I had prayed and fasted over. ... It wasn't a spur of the moment decision," Davis told U.S. District Judge David Bunning, her voice breaking. To authorize licenses, she said, means "I'm saying I agree with it, and I can't." Her choice to also deny licenses to straight couples was because "I didn't want to discriminate against anyone." Two of those straight couples and two gay couples from Rowan County sued Davis shortly after her office stopped issuing marriage licenses to anyone in the wake of the June 26 decision by the Supreme Court, which overturned Kentucky's ban on same-sex marriage and declared the practice legal across the country.  After the hearing, Davis' lawyer, Roger Gannam of Liberty Counsel, a non-profit firm that specializes in religious-freedom cases, said the plaintiffs could have obtained licenses in Ashland, the site of the previous hearing, or in Covington. "This case is not about these plaintiffs' desire to get married," Gannam said. "This case is about the plaintiffs' desire to force Kim Davis to approve and authorize their marriages in violation of her Constitutionally protected religious beliefs."

The judge said today that he will issue his ruling during the week of August 11th. Kentucky's county clerks are elected and can only be removed by the state legislature, which does not reconvene until January. Renegade clerks face jail time for contempt of court should they refuse an order to issue licenses. 

Court To Liberty University: Your Liability Insurance Doesn't Cover Kidnapping Children From Their Gay Parents

On the same day in 2012 that a preacher was found guilty of abetting the kidnapping of her daughter to Nicaragua, lesbian mom Janet Jenkins filed a RICO lawsuit against many of the parties suspected of conspiring in the crime, including Liberty University, the parent of the vile anti-gay hate group Liberty Counsel, whose president Mat Staver is specifically named in the suit. Today the ACLU reports that the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court's ruling that Liberty University's liability insurance policy covers such lawsuits. Read the ruling. (Tipped by JMG reader BK)

Mat Staver: Obama Made Me Weep With His "Cloak Of Sin" Over The White House

"It's unprecedented in American history that the president of the United States would be so in-your-face immoral and impose that immorality and sin on the rest of the country. I wept when I saw that and thought about what a horrible example that is to the rest of the world. I just felt shameful to be an American at that point in time, that this is my country and look what my country has come to. The president of the United States has put the cloak of sin over the White House, the cloak of shame over the White House." - Hate group leader Mat Staver, speaking today on Christian radio.

Mat Staver: Obergefell Requires Christians To Rip Pages Out Of Their Bibles

"There is existing precedent for a state’s highest court to reject an unlawful mandate from the U.S. Supreme Court. The hope of our Constitutional Republic rests upon state officials and American citizens who will refuse to allow five, black-robed judges to rob us of our free, representative form of government. A judicial opinion without constitutional basis is not law and should not be followed by any state or citizen. Never before in America has a religious requirement been required to hold office or own a business, and it cannot begin now. To require Christians to pull out pages of their Bible in order to hold office or own a business is anti-American and it is unconstitutional, despite what any judge may say otherwise." - Hate group leader Mat Staver, whose Liberty Counsel has advised the Alabama Supreme Court to defy the Obergefell ruling.

ALABAMA: Liberty Counsel Advises State Supreme Court On Defying Obergefell

Via Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog:

Asked by the Alabama Supreme Court for advice on what to do next on same-sex marriage, two conservative advocacy groups in the state have urged both direct and indirect resistance to the Supreme Court’s ruling mandating a constitutional right for gays and lesbians to wed. The state court, the groups argued, has the constitutional power to refuse even to accept what the Justices have done, and has a constitutional duty to insulate state officials from legal risk if they do not obey the decision based on a religious objection.

The thirty-three-page brief was filed on Monday by the Alabama Policy Institution, a think tank, and by the Alabama Citizens Action Program, an inter-denominational church support group, which earlier had persuaded the state’s highest court to block all of the state’s sixty-eight probate judges from issuing any marriage licenses to same-sex couples, even though all of them were under an order to do so by a federal judge in Mobile.

Depending on what the state court now does, it could set up a new federal-state collision that potentially could go to the Supreme Court. Lower federal courts could take direct action against state trial court judges, but only the Supreme Court could review a decision by the Alabama Supreme Court on a federal constitutional issue.

Co-authoring the brief is Liberty Counsel head Mat Staver.

RELATED: Thirteen Alabama counties have stopped issuing all marriage licenses.

The 13 counties that have stopped issuing licenses are home to an estimated 464 same-sex couples, 20% of which are raising children. A total of 441,437 people live within the impacted counties and a majority of these counties have poverty rates exceeding the state average of 18.6%. “These closures are causing unnecessary complications and burdens for any couple – gay or straight – who seeks to marry in their home county. Why should a couple have to drive for over an hour to get a marriage license? What if a couple can’t marry because they have an unreliable car, or they can’t get the time off work? We urge all counties in Alabama to immediately begin issuing licenses to same-sex and opposite-sex couples,” says Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara of the Campaign for Southern Equality, which promotes LGBT equality across the South.

ARKANSAS: Another Renegade Clerk

After consulting with the Liberty Counsel, the county clerk of Van Buren County, Arkansas has distributed a memo which declares that her office will not be issuing same-sex marriage licenses.  Via the Arkansas Times:

Pam Bradford, the Van Buren County clerk, circulated this memo to all county clerks today announcing her intention to defy the U.S. Supreme Court and have her office refuse to issue marriage licenses. She was out of the office when I called, but an employee confirmed the memo and said, as yet, no same-sex couples had presented themselves in the county to obtain a marriage license. Bradford's resistance is contrary to the position taken by both Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge. Even the anti-gay Family Council, which is promoting ways in which people opposed to marriage can avoid participation in the process, distributed the advice from another religious legal organization that the best means to avoid compliance is to have someone else who is willing to do the work do it in place of someone with objections. Bradford has taken this a step farther. Bradford is a Republican and attends Shirley First Baptist Church according to her Facebook page. The clerk's office is in Clinton.

Van Buren County has a population of 17K and bans the sale of alcohol. (Tipped by JMG reader Jordan)

UPDATE: Has she caved already?

Channel 4's Greg Yarbrough tells me at 5 p.m. that reporter Marci Manley has talked with Van Buren Clerk Pam Bradford, who has not returned my calls. She tells Manley that she's spoken with an Arkansas attorney, Mike Rainwater, who provides legal advice to county governments through the Association of Arkansas Counties, and is now saying she will issue marriage licenses — and treat customers "with respect." This followed by about an hour a phone message to me from Mathew Staver, head of the Liberty Counsel in Texas, which said it had agreed to represent Bradford to defend her in resisting issuance of licenses. Moral: Local advice better than that of outside agitator.

VIRAL VIDEO: Kentucky County Clerk Denies Same-Sex Marriage License

On Friday the ACLU sued the clerk of Rowan County, Kentucky for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses. On Monday a couple filmed their refusal in clerk Kim Davis' office and the clip went wildly viral last night.

At 9:31 in the video a uniformed officer is shown entering the room and walking to the counter to converse with the employees. During this time, the video appears to show others waiting for services being helped in front of Mr. Moore and his fiance, even though they seemingly were there first. They ask to see Ms. Davis, only to be told by an employee that “She’s busy right now”. When the couple is finally allowed to approach the counter, they present copies of the recent Supreme Court decision as well as Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear’s executive order requiring all county clerks to issue marriage licenses. The employees are unmoved by this evidence and continue to deny the couple their marriage license. A woman presumed to be Clerk Davis finally appears at 11:12 in the video, and she begins her interaction with the couple by asking one of the female supporters recording the encounter to “put your phone away”. The supporter responds by saying “This is his right to have this filmed as well”. Ms. Davis continues to insist that the supporter stop filming, and she apparently complies since that is where the tape ends.

The clip has over 231K views at this writing. Davis is being represented by the Liberty Counsel.

TEXAS: Irion County Clerk Won't Issue Licenses, Liberty Counsel To Defend

Via press release from the Liberty Counsel:

Citing the Constitution and natural law, elected clerk for Irion County, Texas, Molly Crimer has vowed to stand for natural marriage. Referring to the opinion of five lawyers regarding marriage, Crimer said: “To keep my oath to uphold the Constitution, I must reject this ruling that I believe is lawless….I have to stand for the Constitution and the rule of law.” Liberty Counsel is offering Ms. Crimer pro bono counsel. “The Justices of the Supreme Court acted outside and against the authority granted to them by the very Constitution that we have sworn to uphold,” Molly Crimer continued. “[O]ur founding fathers were fearful of too much power in the hands of a few,” Crimer continued. “Consequently, they created a Constitutional Republic in which authority to rule belonged to the PEOPLE, to be exercised through their elected representatives. In that Constitution, the Supreme Court was given the authority to expound the law, not rewrite it or remake it,” Crimer said.

The clerk's lengthy declaration is here. Irion County has a population of 1600 and there have been no requests for same-sex marriage licenses.

Matt Barber Columnist: All Gay-Friendly Christians Must Also Be Executed

"Many claiming Christians will express their support for the sodomites, and they many times will bring up the 'love of Christ' to vindicate their support for them. Let us remind such people that no where in Scripture is evil tolerated simply because it does not physically or directly harm someone, or because it is private. In fact, Christianity is so much against allowing private deviancy, that it says that those who 'approve of those who practice them' are 'worthy of death' (Romans 1:32). This means that opinions expressed in favor for homosexuality and other deviancies (such as cannibalism), are worthy of capital punishment. This purely illustrates that Christianity is so much against the license to do evil — even if it is done in private — that it prohibits any approval of it." - Theodore Shoebat, who yesterday called for Christians to burn the "fag flag."

RELATED: The above-linked post is from Shoebat's site. He and his father Walid Shoebat are regular contributors to Matt Barber's BarbWire. In April 2015 Theodore Shoebat called for executing all gay people.

Matt Barber: Satan Is Celebrating

"Satan is laughing himself silly right now. His demonic minions, both above and below, are popping the bubbly and clinking the champagne flutes. Evil has triumphed. For now at least. But not in the end. Because God will not be mocked. And victory is His. As many of us have long warned, all this 'gay marriage' nonsense was never about 'marriage equality.' It was, and remains, a spiritual battle camouflaged in the formal attire of judicial and public policy wrangling. It was always about forcing Christ’s faithful followers, under penalty of law, to abandon biblical truth and embrace sexual sin. The goal of 'LGBT' activists and secular progressives has long been to pit the government directly against the free exercise of religion – Christianity in particular – and to silence all dissent." - Matt Barber, writing yesterday for Townhall.

Hate Groups Publish Full-Page Message To SCOTUS In The Washington Post: We Won't Honor Your Ruling On Marriage

A coalition of hate groups and Christian pastors calling themselves Defend Marriage has published a full-page message to SCOTUS in the Washington Post. Among the signers at the bottom of the ad are Mat Staver, Elaine Donnelly, the Benham brothers, Alveda King, Jim Garlow, John Hagee, E.W. Jackson, Don Wildmon, Dave Welch, Robert Jeffress, and Penny Nance. From the text:

We affirm that any judicial opinion which purports to redefine marriage will constitute an unjust law, as Martin Luther King Jr. described such laws in his letter from the Birmingham Jail. We are Christians who love America and who respect the legitimate rule of law. However, we will not honor any decision by the Supreme Court which will force us to violate a clear biblical understanding of marriage as solely the union of one man and one woman. We affirm that Marriage, as existing solely between one man and one woman, precedes civil government. Though affirmed, fulfilled, and elevated by faith, the truth that marriage can exist only between one man and one woman is not based solely on religion but on the Natural Law, written on the human heart.

Bolding is theirs. (Tipped by JMG reader Jim)

Matt Barber Has The Ireland Super Sadz: Cancerous Redefinition Brings Shame

Via Right Wing Watch:

"What we saw happen in Ireland was clearly a mass rebellion against God's design, clear design, millennia-old design for the institution of marriage. As history has shown over and over again, any society that abandons monogamous man-woman marriage as a central aspect of that culture and embraces sexual relativism as they have now done in Ireland, that culture and that society is not long for the world. I don't know how much longer we can expect [to survive]. Certainly, this novelty of so-called gay marriage is going to be one of the primary, I believe, drawbacks that end up potentially leading to the end of western civilization as we certainly know it now, at least."

Mat Staver: Same-Sex Marriage Will Lead To A Holocaust For America's Christians

"We're talking about the ghettoization of Christianity and this is what happened to the Jews in Nazi Germany, they put the Jews in ghettos, they put other people in ghettos. They took away their ability to earn a living, then they isolated them to ghettos, they stigmatized them, they ultimately destroyed their humanity in the minds of others and then the next step was easy, in the sense that they had gone to the point where they had lost respect for humanity. This is a serious manner because this ghettoizes Christianity. This stigmatizes those who have Christian beliefs. This ultimately punishes those and prohibits those individuals from earning a living or working in the marketplace. And this is the beginning of ultimately dehumanizing the person and when you dehumanize the person, terrible things can happen." - Mat Staver, speaking today on the Liberty Counsel's radio show.

Quote Of The Day - Matt Barber

"It happens every year. School officials hostile to religion, most especially the Christian religion, begin spouting the mythological 'separation of church and state' talking points spoon-fed them by the aforementioned secularist organizations. This disinformation campaign has had tremendous success over the years and so we must set the record straight. That’s what Liberty Counsel is doing. If you know of any graduate being told not to pray, not to lead his or her fellow public school graduates in prayer, or otherwise being told not to share his or her faith from the podium (assuming that graduate has earned a role as a student speaker), then please call Liberty Counsel at 1-800-671-1776 or email them at Liberty@LC.org to file a report. Let’s give these anti-Christian stink bugs a mouthful of constitutional bug spray. And, graduates, congratulations. We’re proud of you. And so is your Lord." - Matt Barber, writing for World Net Daily.

Mat Staver: Same-Sex Marriage Will Result In Church Leaders Being Sent To Jail

Isn't this exactly what he's promised to do?