The Federalist: Baptists Aren't Christians

One last thing to say about Kim Davis...

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When people pointed out that Davis's own marital conduct seemed less than biblical—three divorces, four husbands, pregnant by husband #3 while still married to husband #1, convincing husband #2 to adopt the children of the man who would eventually become husband #3, divorcing husband #3 and then marrying husband #4 (who was also husband #2—Davis's defenders on the right insisted that her conduct prior to husband #4 was completely irrelevant:

The leader of the organization providing her legal representation, Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel, says he’s not sure precisely how many husbands Davis has had, but that it's not relevant. “I know she was married more than once—I’ve heard three [times],” he says. “It’s a matter of fact that she’s been married multiple times.” Staver says “it’s not really relevant, it’s something that happened in her past” and that her conversion to Christianity about four years ago wiped her slate clean. “It’s something that’s not relevant to the issue at hand.”

Or as this guy put it...

Area Christian didn't care about Christian scriptures before converting to Christianity http://t.co/9KjQYz4Mmk September 2, 2015

And here's Mollie Hemingway writing at The Federalist in a piece titled "Kentucky Clerk Didn’t Follow Christianity Before Converting To It":

Now, if you disagree with journalists on the marriage topic, you should be prepared for them to go after you. They are still taking their time investigating almost any angle associated with Planned Parenthood’s harvesting of organs from aborted children, mind you, but they wasted no time doing a deep dive into Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis’ past. Perhaps the most interesting thing about her past, given that she’s waging a (losing) religious liberty battle, is that she is apparently a recent convert to Christianity—her conversion took place “about four years ago,” according to her legal counsel. Keep that in mind. She converted to Christianity about four years ago.

Yes, Davis has been divorced three times and is on her fourth marriage, Hemingway concedes, but not one Davis divorces "[took] place within the time period she was Christian." It's a miracle: Davis hasn't divorced anyone since becoming a Christian. So it's not fair and totally uncool for people to bring up Davis's own not-the-least-bit-biblical marital history. Davis isn't one of those "screw as I say, not as I screw" conservatives—she's not this guy or this guy or this guy—because she wasn't a Christian back when she was marrying and cheating and divorcing and marrying and divorcing and cheating and marrying and divorcing.

So what was Kim Davis back then? Was she a Zoroastrian? Was she a Rastafarian? Was she a Rosicrucian?

Kim Davis was a fucking Baptist.

Maybe I'm confused, it's possible I missed a memo, and Mollie Hemingway may know something I don't. But I was under the impression that Baptists are Christians.

And what do Baptists believe? They believe that marriage is a sacred union between one man and one woman, that adultery is a sin, that gay people are gross, and that the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God and that it is without error and that we must take it literally. Baptists also believe this:

Baptists are individuals who comprise a group of denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers (believer's baptism, as opposed to infant baptism), and that it must be done by complete immersion (as opposed to affusion or sprinkling).

Kim Davis couldn't be a Baptist without being a professed believer.

Buzzfeed posted all four of Kim Davis's marriage licenses and here's a funny detail: her first three marriages—the ones that she entered into before she was a Christian (according to The Federalist)—all took place in Baptist churches and were all officiated by Baptist ministers. Let's quickly rattle off their names: Rev. Owen Cox, Rev. H.G. Pratt, Rev. Gary Clark. Only Davis's fourth marriage—the one Davis entered into after she become a Christian—was officiated by a judge (Jim Nickell), not a minister.

Kim Davis isn't a Baptist anymore—she converted to Apostolic Christianity four years ago—but all three of her divorces, all of her adulterous acts, and all four of her marriages took place after she was a Christian.

Unless Baptists aren't Christians. If that's what Hemmingway and the rest of the gang at The Federalist are arguing... I'm thinking the leaders of Baptist churches might have something to say about that.