{"id":22430,"date":"2015-10-21T05:50:19","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T09:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=22430"},"modified":"2015-10-20T16:47:13","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T20:47:13","slug":"westboro-baptist-pickets-kim-davis-for-opposing-gay-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2015\/10\/westboro-baptist-pickets-kim-davis-for-opposing-gay-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Westboro Baptist pickets Kim Davis for opposing gay marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Westboro Baptist Church, known for its \u201cGod hates gays\u201d demonstrations and military funeral disruptions, is now picketing Kim Davis, the county clerk who refuses to issue same-sex marriage licenses.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 According to the church, gay marriage is God\u2019s punishment.\u00a0 We must accept that punishment.\u00a0 Therefore, breaking the laws that require gay marriage is rebellion against God.<\/p>\n

From God Hates Nags: Why in God\u2019s Name is Westboro Protesting Kim Davis? | Religion Dispatches<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Like many of her critics, Westboro Baptists point to Davis\u2019 four marriages as evidence of hypocrisy that undermines her claim to both strongly held religious belief and the moral authority to deny others marriage licenses. They also frame their criticism in a larger story about America\u2019s declension into a full-blown Sodom and Gomorrah (a claim that many others in the Religious Right predicted with Obergefell v. Hodges but have not taken quite as far). The church, drawing from its hyper-Calvinist understanding of God\u2019s engagement with the world, explains:<\/p>\n

\n

[T]he Supreme Court of the United States, fulfilling their destiny, made same-sex marriage the law of the land. The duty of all mankind is to OBEY the laws of God and the laws of man. Enter, Kim Davis\u2026.The Supreme Court, in the providence of God, and for the punishment of this nation, has declared that same-sex marriage IS the law of Doomed USA. So DO IT!! \u2026 Just note Kim Davis \u2026 God will NEVER have Same-Sex Marriage, but he does not require YOU to disobey to deal with this nation. \u2026 God has HIS weapons in HIS armory, so Kim Davis needs to HUSH and OBEY the law that she helped bring about.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In WBC\u2019s view, same-sex marriage is a punishment that God is inflicting on America for our much larger failure to adhere to God\u2019s standards for sexuality, specifically in our embrace of legalized abortion, no-fault divorce, and high rates of remarriage after divorce and premarital sex. Westboro Baptists are speaking not only to Kim Davis but to all of America when they say of same-sex marriage, \u201cYou asked for it, you begged for it by your disobedience and refusal to receive correction or instruction, so take it and like it!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Westboro Baptist Church, known for its \u201cGod hates gays\u201d demonstrations and military funeral disruptions, is now picketing Kim Davis, the county clerk who refuses to issue same-sex marriage licenses.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 According to the church, gay marriage is God\u2019s punishment.\u00a0 We must accept that punishment.\u00a0 Therefore, breaking the laws that require gay marriage is rebellion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[891,4023,3059],"class_list":["post-22430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theology","tag-gay-marriage","tag-kim-davis","tag-westboro-baptist"],"yoast_head":"\nWestboro Baptist pickets Kim Davis for opposing gay marriage<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Westboro Baptist Church, known for its "God hates gays" demonstrations 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