From today’s TFN News Clips:
“The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children. In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”
— Virginia state Delegate Bob Marshall, R-Manassas, suggesting that disabled children are punishment for women who have aborted their first pregnancy.
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I think these evangelical guys ought to be made to read the Bible. Especially the Gospels. They keep making stuff up.
They’re haters, hypocrites and liars. There’s a special punishment for them…
Over much of the south and especially in rural areas, birth defects, multiple sclerosis (MS), various polio manifestations, and the whole rest of this ball of wax are referred to as being “afflicted.” In a grocery store, it would not be uncommon for an old lady to stop a shopper with an MS child and ask, “Tell me dear, how long has this poor child been afflicted?”
Merriam-Webster defines afflicted to “…mean to inflict on a person something that is hard to bear. afflict is a general term and applies to the causing of pain or suffering or of acute annoyance, embarrassment, or any distress . try suggests imposing something that strains the powers of endurance or of self-control . torment suggests persecution or the repeated inflicting of suffering or annoyance . torture adds the implication of causing unbearable pain or suffering . rack stresses straining or wrenching .
Of course, you get the definitional drift here. An affliction is something that one being applies to another being. Therefore, within southern culture, there is already a deeply built-in cultural bias for the notion that any birth defect or contortion of the flesh is an affliction applied by God.
Does Jesus go around afflicting great masses of children and adults? I doubt it. In fact, in the New Testament, Jesus has this undeniable tendency to heal or restore everything in sight. Once again, far-right politicians and the high school dropout crowd are out there doing what they seem to do best—giving God and his son Jesus a bad name.
What about the mothers who aborted a child and then had a second child with some sort of birth defect or disease? Think how they must feel after the pronouncement from this politician and all of the pastors gathered around him. I hope they have enough sense to say four things:
1) How do you know that?
2) Prove it.
3) You just lost my vote.
4) Maybe I should switch denominations. I bet every one of those pastors were Southern Baptists and other Christian Neo-Fundamentalist fruitcakes.
This sounds like something right out of Salem in the late 1600’s, minus the witches. And don’t look to the Bible for an answer to a scientific query.
I agree about not looking to the Bible regarding a scientific inquiry. I just wish these people who keep using the Bible to beat people down would actually read it.
The problem is that these people do not check what their preachers or the Family Research Council tells them against the Bible and the writings of legitimate theologians. There is also a disconnect between what their culture tells them is right and the radical nature of Jesus’s teachings. The real Jesus of the New Testament and what he taught run counter to human nature and are fundamentally repugnant to where most normal people are seated within themselves.
For example, Jesus tells us to love our enemies and do good to them that hurt us. Clint Eastwood says to take out your gun and shoot them. The problem with the Religious Right is their inability to get past Clint Eastwood so they can stand next to Jesus. All too many of their preachers are standing with Clint Eastwood while pretending to stand with Jesus. Although the people of Texas would probably be repulsed by it, but early on in their lives, someone taught these ladies how to stand with Jesus and speak out when the going gets tough, and they did not shrink from it. Now, there’s your trouble:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w_mi-J1exw
Oy!
The US religious fanatic is no different from the Muslim, or or any other fanatic; their vision is so distorted by faith that reason and logic are essentially ignored. Faith, belief, clouds our vision with prejudice; recognizing that fact is the first step in forging a peaceful coexistence with others different from ourselves.
I am waiting on baited breath for either Sarah Palin or “moderate, mainstream” Republicans to denounce this loon. Somebody call 911 if I go blue in the face, though. Just sayin’.
First of all, I would question the assumption that the frequency of handicapped children born after a first pregnancy abortion has increased. Just because this guy says it’s so doesn’t necessarily make it so. These radical conservatives are well-known to lie or misrepresent the facts. So I need a fact-check.
After that, I’d also question his reference to the “Old Testament.” Christians love to reference the O.T. whenever doing so would support their supposition. Then they trash it, ignore it, discredit it whenever it does not support their supposition. I would also add that there was a system of “buying back” one’s eldest child. It’s a tradition still practiced today among many Jewish families. So, again, this is another case where a pastor uses the O.T. to his/her advantage but cherry-picks the facts to “accidentally omit” a critical factor.
JJR, the problem is that “moderate, mainstream” Republicans are extinct. It’s been well-documented that the fanatic fringe of the party has become mainstream. Doubt me? Check out the recent CPAC and any “news” and “news” commentary on Fox.
Considering the fact that I’ve been recently “edited” by the moderator, let me just say, in agreement with Cytocop, that this is what the word chicken-“poo” was invented for.
There are no living breathing persons who are Republicans anymore. They’ve been taken over by the “pod people”.
The elephant is irrelevant”
What?
“The elephant is irrelevant”.
Huh?
Say it again.
“The elephant is irrelevant.”
You’re welcome.