Why Kim Davis Fight Is a Preview of Things to Come

WASHINGTON -- In the fight for religious liberty, two Christian women are being hailed as heroes: Rowan County, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis and Washington state florist Barronelle Stutzman.

Stutzman declined to sell flowers for a gay couples wedding, while Davis refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in her district.

Both have paid a price for their stance.

CBN News recently spoke with Stutzman, who rejected the hero label, instead calling herself "a sinner saved by grace."

"I'm not a hero and I'm not a martyr. I just try to be obedient," the florist said.

Meanwhile Davis, fortified by Christian support around the country and a meeting with Pope Francis, said she's prepared to go back to jail if necessary.

"Just people saying that they've been encouraged and that their walk has been revived and they have been awakened and revived and I think, 'Lord, if this is all that comes of this, it's worth it, to get your church stirred and get the body of Christ revived and standing up again," she said.

"And when I mean standing, I don't literally mean standing," she explained. "I'm talking about standing on our knees in prayer because that's where we do our fighting."

Critics, however, call Davis a less-than-perfect messenger to defend traditional marriage. She's been divorced three times and only recently gave her life to Jesus Christ.

Well aware of her short-comings, she marvels at how God has used her.

"I struggled with that myself," she told CBN News. "Why would God, out of all people, choose me with my past to stand up and defend something that I had failed so miserably at in the world?"

"And then I had to remember that I'm a new person when I gave my life to Christ," she continued. "His blood cleansed me, washed me clean and the old has passed away and the new stands in front of you."

"Yes, I'm a very unlikely person to stand and defend the word of God," she said.

Stutzman warned that Christians face a long fight because the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage is just the beginning of an assault on religious liberty.

"I think it's going to get a lot worse," she predicted. "It's going to be attorneys where they say you can practice law, but if you take a hate crime we're going to take your license."

"They can be television people like you who say you can interview or talk to anybody except for… and then you're off limits," she told Brody. "So it's not just the florists or the bakers. It's all the citizens. It's everybody's freedom. We are fighting for not just mine but yours."

That battle could be coming to a public square, business, and courtroom near you.