Yesterday, Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock made the mistake of discussing his religious views about rape and pregnancy. He said, “I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen”.
God intended for that particular pregnancy to occur …the pregnancy that resulted from a brutal and violent act. The joining of that particular monster and that particular victim was a necessary antecedent to the pregnancy. One cannot say that God intended that pregnancy to happen without implying that the necessary antecedent to the pregnancy was part of God’s plan as well.
When more logical people than Mourdock pointed this out, he said, ”Are you trying to suggest that somehow I think that God pre-ordained rape? No, I don’t think that. That’s sick. Twisted. That’s not even close to what I said.”
Yes Richard, it is sick and twisted. And it is also an unavoidable implication of your foolish statement.
When Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin expressed his opinion that a woman’s body has a protection that does not allow women to get pregnant after “legitimate rapes”, he didn’t bring the intentions of God into it. It was simple, abysmal ignorance.
These two foolish statements by Senate candidates made me think of the ancient concept of trial by ordeal. Trial by ordeal took many forms, but the general idea was that something horrible would be done to you, and if you survived, that was God’s indication that you were innocent. The “trial” could involve things like fire, water or poison.
For example, if you were thrown into deep water with a weight around your neck, God could save you or not. His choice. Whatever happened to you was taken as an indication of a supernatural judgement. That’s something like getting raped and being told it’s all part of God’s wonderful plan if you get pregnant.
This year, I would vote for either of these men. We must take the Senate to have any chance at all of avoiding disaster. But if Republicans have too many of these irrational men as a weight around their neck, they will sink as a political party.
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Another analogy to Medeival thinking is the following: Medical treatment was opposed on the theory that it was interference with God’s will. Getting sick and dying were part of God’s plan for you and you had no business trying to interfere with His plan. Acceptance and suffering was said to be the noble way to go.