MELVILLE, New York — Kim Davis is the Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses because of her religious objection to same-sex marriage. What Jewish reference did her attorney, Mathew Staver, make when speaking about this case?
A. “Would the Supreme Court tell a rabbi to marry a Christian and a Jew? Or a Muslim and a Jew? What kind of rabbi would agree to that? None. And that’s what we’re talking about here. You’re asking a Christian woman to enable the marriage of two men, or two women. So it’s not a matter of whether you think that’s okay, or that the Supreme Court thinks that’s okay. It’s simply a matter that Mrs. Davis, as a Christian woman, does not think it’s okay.”
B. “Does that mean that if you’re Christian, don’t apply here; if you’re a Jew, you gotta get — what happened in Nazi Germany, what happened there first, they removed the Jews from government public employment, then they stopped patronizing them in their private businesses, then they continued to stigmatize them, then they were the ‘problems,’ then they killed them.”
C. “Mrs. Davis is not the first person to suggest that certain couples just do not go together. Remember Tevye’s words in Fiddler on the Roof, when Chava tells him, ‘Fyedka is not a creature, Papa. Fyedka is a man!’? Tevye replies, ‘Who says he isn’t? It’s just that he’s a different kind of man. As the Good Book says: Each shall seek his own kind. In other words, a bird may love a fish, but where would they build a home together?’ In Rowan County we too are talking about men who are ‘a different kind of man.’ There is no place for them to build a home together in Anatevka, and there is no place for them to build a home together in Kentucky.”
D. “I don’t understand all the hatred that is being spewed toward my client. She did not make up the rules. Those are God’s rules. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In Leviticus in the Old Testament, it says, ‘Do not lie with a male as one lies with a woman; it is an abhorrence’ (Leviticus 18:22) and ‘If a man lies with a male as one lies with a woman, the two of them have done an abhorrent thing; they shall be put to death—their bloodguilt is upon them’ (Leviticus 20:13). All that Mrs. Davis is doing is refusing to issue marriage licenses. She’s certainly not suggesting anyone be put to death.”
E. “Tu on a khazer a shtrayml, vet er vern rov? If you put a shtreimel on a pig, would it make him a rabbi? I don’t think so. And if you put a bridal gown on a groom, does it make him a bride? That I don’t think so either.”
2 thoughts on “Jewish Trivia: County Clerk Kim Davis”
Jerome C Liner
I agree. All government workers should enforce all the laws on the books. If the law is bad, only the legislative branch can change them. This applies to everyone holding office, including the president of the US and the Attorney General. There should be no picking and choosing for anyone in office. If you can not or will not do this, resign!
Jerome C Liner, Cincinnati, OH
Phil
Religion belongs in the private sector. What a rabbi does or doesn’t do is his business, not the government’s. Kim Davis has a governmental position. She has to serve the county as a whole, not just those who agrees with her belief. She has to perform her duties as the law mandates even if she disagrees with it. Why is it her job to pass judgement anyway? Why can’t God do it? Better yet, why even let those kinds of people be born in the first place? Is he not all powerful to make perfect creatures? Sorry, I digressed. Anyway, if she cannot perform her duties per the law, she should not have that position. Granted the law was passed while she was in office. To me, that’s just a new rule in your place of employment. That law is pretty much a law of freedom. There’s more I could say, but I’ll leave it like this. — Philippe Augustin, Huntington Station, NY
I agree. All government workers should enforce all the laws on the books. If the law is bad, only the legislative branch can change them. This applies to everyone holding office, including the president of the US and the Attorney General. There should be no picking and choosing for anyone in office. If you can not or will not do this, resign!
Jerome C Liner, Cincinnati, OH
Religion belongs in the private sector. What a rabbi does or doesn’t do is his business, not the government’s. Kim Davis has a governmental position. She has to serve the county as a whole, not just those who agrees with her belief. She has to perform her duties as the law mandates even if she disagrees with it. Why is it her job to pass judgement anyway? Why can’t God do it? Better yet, why even let those kinds of people be born in the first place? Is he not all powerful to make perfect creatures? Sorry, I digressed. Anyway, if she cannot perform her duties per the law, she should not have that position. Granted the law was passed while she was in office. To me, that’s just a new rule in your place of employment. That law is pretty much a law of freedom. There’s more I could say, but I’ll leave it like this. — Philippe Augustin, Huntington Station, NY