Lord, you are Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end, of all life. Grant us your grace that we may never use your holy name for our selfish will nor violence against our neighbor.
OK, I am a bit ripped today. There is a rising attitude being expressed by some political candidates that is actively hostile to women and absolutely offensive and non-Biblical. A number of candidates are no longer simply advocating against abortion but doing so against all abortions, including those in the case of rape or incest. In addition, the definitions of life they propose and through which they propose to limit access to birth control find little support in Biblical material.
Todd Akin made headlines in his Senate race in Missouri when voicing this opinion and Paul Ryan has in the past expressed similar opinions although he is currently disavowing that position, I think, and now we can add Robert Mourdock Republican Senate candidate in Indiana. Mourdock’s comment is the most wildly offensive of all saying, “it is something God intended to happen.” That is right, far right, Richard Mourdock wants you and me to believe that rape and pregnancy by rape is an act preordained by God.
He is not saying that God can cause something good to come out of an hostile, sinful, and evil act; he is saying that God “intended” for a man to force himself onto and into a woman and to impregnate her against her will. I would suppose then following Mourdock’s logic that we must conclude then it is God's Spirit who led the man to commit an action of violence and assault because God intended it. Apparently, he does not agree with Todd Akin about the women's bodies natural defense against pregnancy by rape.
Let me say that whatever one thinks about the rightness or wrongness of abortion we must all completely reject any notion that God intends violence towards women and approves of rape as a means of procreation. Carried to its logical end what Richard Mourdock is advocating is a line of thought that excuses an individual's responsibility for good and moral action because if God didn't want me to do this he would stop me and NOT let me do it. If I can do it and get away with it then God must want me to do it. Folks, this is psychopathic thinking.
We need to get some things straight. God does not cause bad human behavior nor does God excuse bad human behavior. God provided the law of the Ten Commandments, the “whole word of God,” to teach us the intention for our lives within creation and the community of faith. If what Mourdock suggests is true then there is no need for God to give us the law because whatever we do will simply be what God intends for us to do. After all, if it is God's intention to use rape as a means of procreation how can “He”object to me beating my wife to keep her in line and maintain harmony in “my”home. Please note the sarcasm.
So what does the Bible have to say about abortion, rape, nascent life of the child, and procreation? Fact is that it says very little about abortion. The theology of abortion is a derivative doctrine based on God's valuing life, therefore we should do what we can to protect it, before and after birth. What most or many of you may not know is that God provides a ritual of jealousy in Numbers chapter 5 which results in the intentional miscarriage of the fetus if it is the result of adultery along with the permanent barrenness of the guilty woman.
Numbers 5:26 The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. 27 If she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then when she is made to drink the water that brings a curse, it will go into her and cause bitter suffering; her abdomen will swell and her thigh waste away, and she will become accursed among her people. 28 If, however, the woman has not defiled herself and is free from impurity, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.
The entire purpose of the ritual of jealousy is to bring judgment on wrong action if the wife has committed adultery OR to clear her before God, the community, and her husband and guarantee her protection and right position within the household and community if not guilty of adultery. But what should not be lost is that God provides to the community is a trial by ordeal which results in judgment and loss of the fetus.
The suspicion of rape itself is, also, discussed and how one protects a woman after rape and the rights of the husband or father if she was. Sorry ladies, all things in the law of Israel were passed through the patriarchal filter. In Deuteronomy chapter 22 immediately following a teaching regarding the proper means of resolving the situation of a bride and her virginity and her value to her husband the following is recorded:
Deuteronomy 22: 22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. 23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you. 25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
If a woman is raped in the countryside where there is no one to come to her aid if she were to call out so she is protected against accusation of adultery. However, if she is in the city, however, and she does not call out she is to be put to death presuming that without screams of protestation it is adultery. What Mourdock fails to mention is that in both cases the man is put to death. In the city when they are found out, man and woman, they are to be killed for their act of evil against the community and there is no provision made concerning whether the woman is pregnant and the life of any fertile consummation, thus man, woman, and possible child all die. No provision is made to wait and see if she is pregnant and to insure delivery of a child. In the country if the man is found out only the man is killed.
Conveniently, Mourdock neglects the law as it pertains to the man and the woman and only turns to the protection of the fetus declaring the act of rape to be just one more way God’s will is done. Hooey.
(More tomorrow)
OK, I am a bit ripped today. There is a rising attitude being expressed by some political candidates that is actively hostile to women and absolutely offensive and non-Biblical. A number of candidates are no longer simply advocating against abortion but doing so against all abortions, including those in the case of rape or incest. In addition, the definitions of life they propose and through which they propose to limit access to birth control find little support in Biblical material.
Todd Akin made headlines in his Senate race in Missouri when voicing this opinion and Paul Ryan has in the past expressed similar opinions although he is currently disavowing that position, I think, and now we can add Robert Mourdock Republican Senate candidate in Indiana. Mourdock’s comment is the most wildly offensive of all saying, “it is something God intended to happen.” That is right, far right, Richard Mourdock wants you and me to believe that rape and pregnancy by rape is an act preordained by God.
He is not saying that God can cause something good to come out of an hostile, sinful, and evil act; he is saying that God “intended” for a man to force himself onto and into a woman and to impregnate her against her will. I would suppose then following Mourdock’s logic that we must conclude then it is God's Spirit who led the man to commit an action of violence and assault because God intended it. Apparently, he does not agree with Todd Akin about the women's bodies natural defense against pregnancy by rape.
Let me say that whatever one thinks about the rightness or wrongness of abortion we must all completely reject any notion that God intends violence towards women and approves of rape as a means of procreation. Carried to its logical end what Richard Mourdock is advocating is a line of thought that excuses an individual's responsibility for good and moral action because if God didn't want me to do this he would stop me and NOT let me do it. If I can do it and get away with it then God must want me to do it. Folks, this is psychopathic thinking.
We need to get some things straight. God does not cause bad human behavior nor does God excuse bad human behavior. God provided the law of the Ten Commandments, the “whole word of God,” to teach us the intention for our lives within creation and the community of faith. If what Mourdock suggests is true then there is no need for God to give us the law because whatever we do will simply be what God intends for us to do. After all, if it is God's intention to use rape as a means of procreation how can “He”object to me beating my wife to keep her in line and maintain harmony in “my”home. Please note the sarcasm.
So what does the Bible have to say about abortion, rape, nascent life of the child, and procreation? Fact is that it says very little about abortion. The theology of abortion is a derivative doctrine based on God's valuing life, therefore we should do what we can to protect it, before and after birth. What most or many of you may not know is that God provides a ritual of jealousy in Numbers chapter 5 which results in the intentional miscarriage of the fetus if it is the result of adultery along with the permanent barrenness of the guilty woman.
Numbers 5:26 The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. 27 If she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then when she is made to drink the water that brings a curse, it will go into her and cause bitter suffering; her abdomen will swell and her thigh waste away, and she will become accursed among her people. 28 If, however, the woman has not defiled herself and is free from impurity, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.
The entire purpose of the ritual of jealousy is to bring judgment on wrong action if the wife has committed adultery OR to clear her before God, the community, and her husband and guarantee her protection and right position within the household and community if not guilty of adultery. But what should not be lost is that God provides to the community is a trial by ordeal which results in judgment and loss of the fetus.
The suspicion of rape itself is, also, discussed and how one protects a woman after rape and the rights of the husband or father if she was. Sorry ladies, all things in the law of Israel were passed through the patriarchal filter. In Deuteronomy chapter 22 immediately following a teaching regarding the proper means of resolving the situation of a bride and her virginity and her value to her husband the following is recorded:
Deuteronomy 22: 22 If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel. 23 If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, 24 you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you. 25 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a young woman pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. 26 Do nothing to the woman; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders a neighbor, 27 for the man found the young woman out in the country, and though the betrothed woman screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
If a woman is raped in the countryside where there is no one to come to her aid if she were to call out so she is protected against accusation of adultery. However, if she is in the city, however, and she does not call out she is to be put to death presuming that without screams of protestation it is adultery. What Mourdock fails to mention is that in both cases the man is put to death. In the city when they are found out, man and woman, they are to be killed for their act of evil against the community and there is no provision made concerning whether the woman is pregnant and the life of any fertile consummation, thus man, woman, and possible child all die. No provision is made to wait and see if she is pregnant and to insure delivery of a child. In the country if the man is found out only the man is killed.
Conveniently, Mourdock neglects the law as it pertains to the man and the woman and only turns to the protection of the fetus declaring the act of rape to be just one more way God’s will is done. Hooey.
(More tomorrow)
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