A Wisconsin group that seeks to ensure the separation of church and state has filed a complaint against a murderer-embracing judge for transforming into Reverend Save-a-Heaux and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a former police officer who so loved herself that she crucified an unarmed man in his own apartment so that he could perish and she could have everlasting life.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has filed a formal complaint against Judge Tammy Kemp, the judge in the trial of Amber Guyger, who was sentenced to a paltry 10 years for shooting Botham Jean in his own apartment. NBCDFW reports that FFRF filed the complaint with the Texas State Commission on Judicial Conduct, the state agency who investigates judicial misconduct.
NBCDFW reports:
Judge Kemp consoled the Jean family after an emotional victim impact statement by Brandt Jean.
Then she spoke with Amber Guyger. Judge Kemp exited the courtroom and returned with a personal bible. She turned to John 3:16 and told Guyger, “This is where you start.” She continued, saying, “He has a purpose for you.”
In the complaint, the FFRF said Judge Kemp, “Handled a difficult trial with grace” but that she “signaled to everyone watching...that she is partial to christian reform and christian notions of forgiveness.”
“I did not see why the judge did what she did,” said C. Victor Lander, a former municipal judge who spent 27 years behind the bench.
Lander says what some see as an act of compassion also undermines her credibility as an impartial judge.
“Once there’s an appearance that the judges are not impartial, we lose our entire criminal justice system,” Lander said.
The judge’s embrace followed a surreal moment when the bailiff, also a black woman, was caught stroking the murderer’s hair as if she was choosing the pretty white doll over the dead black thing.
The First Liberty Institute, a religious liberty organization, praised the move, explaining that Kemp “brought more hope and healing to this community than a life sentence ever could have,” said Jeremy Dys, attorney for the Plano-based org.
The display of affection not only angered people who support the separation of church and state, but it also angered people who believe that Christianity is used to mollify black people and inspire the immediate absolution of the actions of white supremacy.
According to this parsing of white scripture, forgiveness means that black people should forget the atrocities of slavery, the brutality of Jim Crow and all the evil acts white people committed last week. White people, however, are free to hold on to the injustices of the past. They get to fly their hateful Confederate flag because it is a symbol of their “heritage” and refer to the dream of a white supremacist separatist state as the “Lost Cause.” They remind us to “never forget” the Holocaust. We are supposed to “Remember 9/11” when we take our shoes off in airports but not the racial terrorism that has been committed. Too much time has passed to receive reparations but we better not dare touch the statues they erected in remembrance of the reasons for those reparations.
Their Jesus excused their behavior for the violent “tea parties,” the lynching, the Native American genocide, the vote-stealing, the redlining, the church bombings, the police shootings and everything that happened up until yesterday…
And the things that will happen tomorrow.
Apparently, their Jesus wants black people to shut the hell up.
But fuck that.
Why would the meek want to inherit a planet devoid of justice when every single weapon formed against us seems to prosper? What good is a savior who doesn’t save? You can feel free to beat your sword into a plowshare or forgive your debtors. I’d rather have justice and a sharp knife because I know what happens when a lion lies next to a lamb.
And if you don’t, just take a look at the hair-stroking, killer-embracing employees of the Dallas criminal court system.
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. — Matthew 18:21-22
Police have killed 1,088 black people since 2015.
I’m sure we’ve filled our quota.
And, Amen.