Pope Francis’s Secret Meeting With The Nation’s Most Visible Bigot

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As revelations come forth about Pope Francis’s secret meeting with the Tennessee ‘bigot’, Kim Davis, even the non-affiliated religious (from a distance Pardu (me), wondered about why? The Papal leader and religious since becoming Pope has shown deep signs of progressive values. While he would rather not be called a progressive, his actions leave little doubt the first non-European Pope was cut from a different mold than his immediate predecessors.  

The secret meeting with a document bigot (regardless of religious beliefs) and a nascent flagship “gift” from US conservative evangelicals was so outside the Pope’s aura, the reports seemed unfathomable. Well, an explanation may exist; albeit not an explanation from the Vatican. The Vatican will only confirmed the one-on-one meeting with Davis and her husband; a spokesperson would nto comment further.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell broadcast segment with plausible, but unconfirmed reasons the Pope met with Davis.  We will report on the visit as information becomes available. For now, we will post the segment from MSNBC’s The Last Word.

One comment. If the report has a basis in fact, I will admit to no surprise an conservative ideologue was at the root of the meeting.

http://on.msnbc.com/1FJtR7T

http://player.theplatform.com/p/7wvmTC/MSNBCEmbeddedOffSite?guid=n_lw_fblock_pope_150930

Shepard Smith Simply Nails Kim Davis’s Bigotry

The current kerfuffle regarding conservative bigotry against LGBT marriage (as manifest with the Kim Davis circus show and support by political candidates desperate for campaign ratings), is nothing she of the oppressed life of people living under Jim Crow Laws. 

Before we visit a recent video segment of Fox News Shepard Smith’s point-on critique of the Davis/Huckabee/Cruz and followers bigotry, let’s remind ourselves of the national oppression associated with living under Jim Crow. The following is a long list, but we feel it is important to post the list as is, vs a simple like that most people do not follow.

The Jackson Sun (Jackson Tennessee)

Read more below the break

Examples of Jim Crow laws From the 1880s into the 1960s, a majority of American states enforced segregation through “Jim Crow” laws (so called after a black character in minstrel shows). From Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too) could impose legal punishments on people for consorting with members of another race. The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep their black and white clientele separated. Here is a sampling of laws from various states. Alabama | Arizona | Florida | Georgia |Kentucky Louisiana | Maryland | Mississippi |Missouri New Mexico | North Carolina | Oklahoma South Carolina | Texas | Virginia |Wyoming Alabama Nurses: No person or corporation shall require any white female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed. Alabama Buses: All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races. Alabama Railroads: The conductor of each passenger train is authorized and required to assign each passenger to the car or the division of the car, when it is divided by a partition, designated for the race to which such passenger belongs. Alabama Restaurants: It shall be unlawful to conduct a restaurant or other place for the serving of food in the city, at which white and colored people are served in the same room, unless such white and colored persons are effectually separated by a solid partition extending from the floor upward to a distance of seven feet or higher, and unless a separate entrance from the street is provided for each compartment. Alabama Pool and Billiard Rooms: It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other at any game of pool or billiards. Alabama Toilet Facilities, Male: Every employer of white or negro males shall provide for such white or negro males reasonably accessible and separate toilet facilities. Alabama Arizona Intermarriage: The marriage of a person of Caucasian blood with a Negro, Mongolian, Malay, or Hindu shall be null and void. Arizona Florida Intermarriage: All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent to the fourth generation inclusive, are hereby forever prohibited. Florida Cohabitation: Any negro man and white woman, or any white man and negro woman, who are not married to each other, who shall habitually live in and occupy in the nighttime the same room shall each be punished by imprisonment not exceeding twelve (12) months, or by fine not exceeding five hundred ($500.00) dollars. Florida Education: The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately. Florida Juvenile Delinquents: There shall be separate buildings, not nearer than one fourth mile to each other, one for white boys and one for negro boys. White boys and negro boys shall not, in any manner, be associated together or worked together. Florida Georgia Mental Hospitals: The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients, so that in no case shall Negroes and white persons be together. Georgia Intermarriage: It shall be unlawful for a white person to marry anyone except a white person. Any marriage in violation of this section shall be void. Georgia Barbers: No colored barber shall serve as a barber [to] white women or girls. Georgia Burial: The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for he burial of white persons. Georgia Restaurants: All persons licensed to conduct a restaurant, shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room or serve the two races anywhere under the same license. Georgia Amateur Baseball: It shall be unlawful for any amateur white baseball team to play baseball on any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of a playground devoted to the Negro race, and it shall be unlawful for any amateur colored baseball team to play baseball in any vacant lot or baseball diamond within two blocks of any playground devoted to the white race. Georgia Parks: It shall be unlawful for colored people to frequent any park owned or maintained by the city for the benefit, use and enjoyment of white persons…and unlawful for any white person to frequent any park owned or maintained by the city for the use and benefit of colored persons. Georgia Wine and Beer: All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine…shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room at any time. Georgia Kentucky Reform Schools: The children of white and colored races committed to the houses of reform shall be kept entirely separate from each other. Kentucky Louisiana Circus Tickets: All circuses, shows, and tent exhibitions, to which the attendance of…more than one race is invited or expected to attend shall provide for the convenience of its patrons not less than two ticket offices with individual ticket sellers, and not less than two entrances to the said performance, with individual ticket takers and receivers, and in the case of outside or tent performances, the said ticket offices shall not be less than twenty-five (25) feet apart. Louisiana Housing: Any person…who shall rent any part of any such building to a negro person or a negro family when such building is already in whole or in part in occupancy by a white person or white family, or vice versa when the building is in occupancy by a negro person or negro family, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five ($25.00) nor more than one hundred ($100.00) dollars or be imprisoned not less than 10, or more than 60 days, or both such fine and imprisonment in the discretion of the court. Louisiana The Blind: The board of trustees shall…maintain a separate building…on separate ground for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colored or black race. Louisiana Maryland Intermarriage: All marriages between a white person and a negro, or between a white person and a person of negro descent, to the third generation, inclusive, or between a white person and a member of the Malay race; or between the negro a nd a member of the Malay race; or between a person of Negro descent, to the third generation, inclusive, and a member of the Malay race, are forever prohibited, and shall be void. Maryland Railroads: All railroad companies and corporations, and all persons running or operating cars or coaches by steam on any railroad line or track in the State of Maryland, for the transportation of passengers, are hereby required to provide separate cars or coaches for the travel and transportation of the white and colored passengers. Maryland Mississippi Education: Separate schools shall be maintained for the children of the white and colored races. Mississippi Promotion of Equality: Any person…who shall be guilty of printing, publishing or circulating printed, typewritten or written matter urging or presenting for public acceptance or general information, arguments or suggestions in favor of social equality or of intermarriage between whites and negroes, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to fine or not exceeding five hundred (500.00) dollars or imprisonment not exceeding six (6) months or both. Mississippi Intermarriage: The marriage of a white person with a negro or mulatto or person who shall have one-eighth or more of negro blood, shall be unlawful and void. Mississippi Hospital Entrances: There shall be maintained by the governing authorities of every hospital maintained by the state for treatment of white and colored patients separate entrances for white and colored patients and visitors, and such entrances shall be used by the race only for which they are prepared. Mississippi Prisons: The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate apartments for both eating and sleeping from the negro convicts. Mississippi Missouri Education: Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school. Missouri Intermarriage: All marriages between…white persons and negroes or white persons and Mongolians…are prohibited and declared absolutely void…No person having one-eighth part or more of negro blood shall be permitted to marry any white person, nor shall any white person be permitted to marry any negro or person having one-eighth part or more of negro blood. Missouri New Mexico Education: Separate rooms [shall] be provided for the teaching of pupils of African descent, and [when] said rooms are so provided, such pupils may not be admitted to the school rooms occupied and used by pupils of Caucasian or other descent. New Mexico North Carolina Textbooks: Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first using them. North Carolina Libraries: The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals. North Carolina Militia: The white and colored militia shall be separately enrolled, and shall never be compelled to serve in the same organization.No organization of colored troops shall be permitted where white troops are available, and while white permitted to be organized, colored troops shall be under the command of white officers. North Carolina Transportation: The…Utilities Commission…is empowered and directed to require the establishment of separate waiting rooms at all stations for the white and colored races. North Carolina Oklahoma Teaching: Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution where members of the white and colored race are received and enrolled as pupils for instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined in any sum not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than fifty dollars ($50.00) for each offense. Oklahoma Fishing, Boating, and Bathing: The [Conservation] Commission shall have the right to make segregation of the white and colored races as to the exercise of rights of fishing, boating and bathing. Oklahoma Mining: The baths and lockers for the negroes shall be separate from the white race, but may be in the same building. Oklahoma Telephone Booths: The Corporation Commission is hereby vested with power and authority to require telephone companies…to maintain separate booths for white and colored patrons when there is a demand for such separate booths. That the Corporation Commission shall determine the necessity for said separate booths only upon complaint of the people in the town and vicinity to be served after due hearing as now provided by law in other complaints filed with the Corporation Commission. Oklahoma South Carolina Lunch Counters: No persons, firms, or corporations, who or which furnish meals to passengers at station restaurants or station eating houses, in times limited by common carriers of said passengers, shall furnish said meals to white and colored passengers in the same room, or at the same table, or at the same counter. South Carolina Child Custody: It shall be unlawful for any parent, relative, or other white person in this State, having the control or custody of any white child, by right of guardianship, natural or acquired, or otherwise, to dispose of, give or surrender such white child permanently into the custody, control, maintenance, or support, of a negro. South Carolina Texas Libraries: Any white person of such county may use the county free library under the rules and regulations prescribed by the commissioners court and may be entitled to all the privileges thereof. Said court shall make proper provision for the negroes of said county to be served through a separate branch or branches of the county free library, which shall be administered by [a] custodian of the negro race under the supervision of the county librarian. Texas Education [The County Board of Education]: shall provide schools of two kinds; those for white children and those for colored children. Texas Virginia Theaters: Every person…operating…any public hall, theatre, opera house, motion picture show or any place of public entertainment or public assemblage which is attended by both white and colored persons, shall separate the white race and the colored race and shall set apart and designate…certain seats therein to be occupied by white persons and a portion thereof , or certain seats therein, to be occupied by colored persons. Virginia Railroads: The conductors or managers on all such railroads shall have power, and are hereby required, to assign to each white or colored passenger his or her respective car, coach or compartment. If the passenger fails to disclose his race, the conductor and managers, acting in good faith, shall be the sole judges of his race. Virginia Wyoming Intermarriage: All marriages of white persons with Negroes, Mulattos, Mongolians, or Malaya hereafter contracted in the State of Wyoming are and shall be illegal and void. Wyoming

As promised above, Shepard Smith’s comments re far more than apropos; his comments are “dead-on. No matter the shade of rationale, Davis represents clear bigotry perpetrated against people who feel they love each other to the level of seeking a legal bond.

In June of this year the US SCOTUS did the right thing in ruling against challenges (Or a challenge) to issuing marriage license to same sex couples.  The American conservative is again cherry-picking laws and rulings they support while acting utterly un-American regarding laws and rulings they do not support.

What paces the American conservative above the law. As with Smith’s comments, how is the Davis issue (unadulterated bigotry) any different than overt and oppressive racism against black people for decades. 

Foxs Shepard Smith on Kim Davis Haters 

https://mediamatters.org/embed/205423

It really is a national embarrassment and validation of conservative America’s ease in embracing regressive social policy. 

MISERY: Kim Davis, Kentucky Clerk, Ordered to Jail!

From here

To here

Just after we posted this Religion, Bigotry, Fairness and Conservatism within the hour the following transpired. 

Hmmmmmm.
Posted by name deleted on Thursday, September 3, 2015

It will take conservative American an hour to secure bail and release of the Kentucky bigot.

TO MISERY

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Religion, Bigotry, Fairness and Conservatism

In June of this year, the Robert’s Court ruled against a previous legal judgment that denied the LGBT community marital rights.

American bigots have found cause celeb-re in an individual’s defying the Robert’s Court ruling with religion as their war moniker and bigotry as their closeted paradigm. Some on the Right are even talking about re-writing the US Constitution to fit their social paradigm. A paradigm which is overwhelmingly white male, Jurassic Era in ideology, defies science, and relegates women to household objects.

We apologize in advance for the lined video as it embodies the essence of one GOP 2016 potential candidate who is oblivious outside the realm of sanity. However, the video truly embodies y statement on women as “household objects.”

I posit the same mindset is inherent across the full scope of American conservatism……and it is a dangerous mindset.

Let’s move to the latest and most glaring example of conservative hypocrisy with religion as a war flag. First a quick visit with the king of hypocrisy and Chameleon-ism, Rand Paul, and yet another pre-SCOTUS ruling inchoate rambling regarding his “libertarian” paradigm. Now, let’s review a brief on the Robert’s June 2015 Court ruling. 

SCOTUS Blog

Obergefell v. Hodges

Linked with:

• Tanco v. Haslam
• DeBoer v. Snyder
• Bourke v. Beshear

Docket No.	Op. Below	Argument	Opinion	Vote	Author	Term
14-556	6th Cir.	Apr 28, 2015 Tr.Aud.	Jun 26, 2015	5-4	Kennedy	OT 2014

Holding: The Fourteenth Amendment requires a State to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-State.

Judgment: Reversed, 5-4, in an opinion by Justice Kennedy on June 26, 2015. Chief Justice Roberts filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Scalia and Thomas joined. Justice Scalia filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Thomas joined. Justice Thomas filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Scalia joined. Justice Alito filed a dissenting opinion, in which Justices Scalia and Thomas joined.

And, in the Great State of Kentucky we have outright defiance of the law of the land.  Can you recall a time when conservatives were so anti-Robert’s Court rulings?  They (to the person) relished gutting Civil Rights legislation regarding voting rights and the state of Alabama. They embraced the Court as it ruled in favor of Citizen’s United and secret funding and sponsorship of elections.  And, they remain quiet as the Courts handed cops stop and search rights which will undoubtedly weigh in favor of disparate stops of blacks and Latinos. Then comes gay marriage rights and you have social hypocrites defying the Courts ruling in the name of religion.

https://youtu.be/1dblxDEXoys

When we speak of hypocrisy we seriously mean “hypocrisy.” 

Dan Savage on Kim Davis: “This is about someone hypocritically cashing in, and she is a hypocrite.”
Posted by Mediaite on Wednesday, September 2, 2015

The Kentucky clerk has released a statement regarding her position on refusing to issue marriage license to LGBT couples. The statement is completely ridiculous and indicative of exactly the mindset the United States should be placing in coffins for deep burial.

Lex18 Dot Com

Her lawyer speaks.

“She’s acknowledged that she’s made mistakes, “ Staver said. He explained that the turning point in her life came four-and-a-half years ago when her mother-in-law died. To fulfill her dying wish, Davis went to church and found her Christian faith.

The opening of the statement seems to have been written by a professional, but regardless of author the statement is irrelevant  to put it mildly.

“I have worked in the Rowan County Clerk’s office for 27 years as a Deputy Clerk and was honored to be elected as the Clerk in November 2014, and took office in January 2015. I love my job and the people of Rowan County. I have never lived any place other than Rowan County. Some people have said I should resign, but I have done my job well. This year we are on track to generate a surplus for the county of $1.5 million.

Relevance please?  Leave it to a conservative bigot and her lawyers to place a history of remember before the rights of a segment of the population. 

In addition to my desire to serve the people of Rowan County, I owe my life to Jesus Christ who loves me and gave His life for me. Following the death of my godly mother-in-law over four years ago, I went to church to fulfill her dying wish. There I heard a message of grace and forgiveness and surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. I am not perfect. No one is. But I am forgiven and I love my Lord and must be obedient to Him and to the Word of God.

What we have here is probably heartfelt words from the county clerk, but I doubt there is one word in her job description which provides sanctuary in a state of bigotry not backed-up by directly related Scripture. The job description should by federal law include essential and nonessential (job) duties with separate lists of physical and skills requirements. The description, without doubt, does not include accommodation for religious beliefs. Also, note the common church vernacular of pray for forgiveness and you will receive it, Really?

I never imagined a day like this would come, where I would be asked to violate a central teaching of Scripture and of Jesus Himself regarding marriage. To issue a marriage license which conflicts with God’s definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience. It is not a light issue for me. It is a Heaven or Hell decision. For me it is a decision of obedience. I have no animosity toward anyone and harbor no ill will. To me this has never been a gay or lesbian issue. It is about marriage and God’s Word. It is a matter of religious liberty, which is protected under the First Amendment, the Kentucky Constitution, and in the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Our history is filled with accommodations for people’s religious freedom and conscience. I want to continue to perform my duties, but I also am requesting what our Founders envisioned – that conscience and religious freedom would be protected. That is all I am asking. I never sought to be in this position, and I would much rather not have been placed in this position. I have received death threats from people who do not know me. I harbor nothing against them. I was elected by the people to serve as the County Clerk. I intend to continue to serve the people of Rowan County, but I cannot violate my conscience.”

Did you notice the essence of the statement: “I” and “me?” If the “I” and “Me’ are the essence of the issue, the clerk could simply walk-off the job, thus enacting a resignation. Of course, 27 years is an extensive background and employment career that wold be hard from which to walk away, but it seems 23 of those years were devoted what seems an all inclusive life of “I” and “Me” regarding social/sexual interaction. How does the last four years of her life qualify as final authority, outside of the law, in denying civil rights to people regardless of demographics. It is a dangerous position that can and will be applied to others areas of US bigotry and racism.

If you think for one second ultra-conservative bigots will not reach to apply the same denials to interracial couples, you are either a conservative to the core or you till feel this nation is an exceptional nation. In either case, you are misguided and factually an enabler of the Kim Davis’s personal war of bigotry and deprivation.

We will close this piece with a link to a a very well developed piece in Liberal America from Tiffany Willis, founder and editor-in-chief of Liberal America and an “unapologetic” member of the Christian Left.

Update: The Daily Kos also published a piece that adds to a the Kim Davis story.

This is good to hear.By Daily Kos user Village VetPosted by Daily Kos on Thursday, September 3, 2015

Hmmmmmm.
Posted by name deleted on Thursday, September 3, 2015