Throughout the day, reporters have been trying to figure out which member of Congress invited Kentucky clerk Kim Davis and her lawyer, Mathew Staver of Liberty Counsel, to tonight’s State of the Union address. While the invitations were arranged by the far-right Family Research Council, which gave Davis its “Cost of Discipleship Award” last year, FRC has been mum on which congressman got them the tickets in the first place. (UPDATE: The tickets came from Rep. Jim Jordan’s office, but the congressman says he wasn’t aware that they went to Davis.)
Whichever member of Congress arranged for Staver to attend the State of the Union will have to answer for inviting one of the most extreme anti-gay voices in the country to the event.
Staver has accused President Obama of supporting “forced homosexuality,” specifically for children, compared gay rights advocates to terrorists and blamed bank failures during the 2008 financial crisis on “the homosexual agenda.”
According to Staver, the advance of gay rights will lead to disease, rape, child abuse, death, violent crime, revolution, the collapse of society and “the end of western civilization.”
It is no wonder that Staver believes homosexuality is “demonic” and praises countries that criminalize same-sex relationships, calling gay people’s relationships “destructive to individuals” and “destructive to our very social fabric.” His firm previously represented an ex-gay woman who, in the midst of a custody battle with her former partner, kidnapped the couple’s daughter and moved to an unknown location in Central America.
Staver has also alleged that President Obama is persecuting conservative activists like himself and is bent on becoming a global dictator, creating his own personal army and fomenting genocide.
Naturally, Liberty Counsel said in a statement that Staver plans to use his appearance alongside Davis at the State of the Union to remind the president of his supposed anti-Christian tyranny:
While the President will be extolling his “accomplishments” of the last seven years, Kim Davis and Mat Staver will be a visible reminder of the Administration’s attack on religious liberty and an encouragement for people of faith to stand.
For seven years, people of faith have been in the crosshairs of the Obama Administration. The state of religious liberty is dire, but we cannot give up.
“Kim and I are encouraging all people of faith to get involved in the political process, to vote for people who support your values, and to never give up,” said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. “Our ‘one nation under God,’ is worth our continued prayers and active support.”
