Richard Mourdock apologized for his remarks in the last Indiana Gubernatorial race that by stating that he stands by his beliefs. What Richard Mourdock is actually sorry that, “So many people mistook twisted, came to misunderstand the points that I was trying to make,” he said. “Certainly I did not intend to suggest that God wants rape, that God pushes people to rape.”
This is the interpretive spin that some social conservatives, Like Rick Santorum who has been making the Mourdock apologist rounds on the cable news networks, have placed on Richard Mourdock’s words. He’s been misunderstood, like President Obama when he said “You didn’t build that.” Other conservative talking heads are attempting to label this an instance of “Gotcha journalism” and a distraction from “serious issues.”
However, among people not constantly engaged in constructing their own reality, it’s hard to escape the logic that in Richard Mourdock’s worldview one logically follows the other. If God allows one how can He be exempt from the other? Why would God inflict a pregnancy on a rape victim like some perverse consolation prize? How is this not saying to the rapist, implicitly, that he is doing God’s work by raping and impregnating as many women as he can? It’s not like this wouldn’t fit God’s modus operandi.
In the Book of Job, God and His Favorite Fallen Angel, Lucifer, were hanging out wagering bets and decide to turn some poor schmuck’s life into a living hell to see if this schmuck would continue to love God with all his heart and soul; not unlike the abusive and controlling men that sometime turn up on an episode of Maury or Dr. Phil.
Even in the conception of His only begotten Son, Jesus, God didn’t ask Mary’s consent. He just sat back and watched as the Holy Spirit had at it, not unlike facts the recent case of missing teen Brittney Wood.
The nineteen-year-old Ms. Wood of Tillmans Corner, Alabama, disappeared on May 1st, 2012 after visit to her uncle, Donald “Donnie” Holland near the, I kid you not, Styx River. On June 1st Donnie Holland shot himself dead. It was reported that Mr. Holland was under investigation on suspicions of sexual abuse at the time he killed himself.
Since then, Brittney Wood remains missing but five of her relatives have been arrested on charges of sexual abuse. The most recent arrest was of another of Brittney Wood’s uncles, Dustin Kent, who stands charged multiple counts of sexual abuse and sodomy including the alleged rape a 13-year-old female relative while that relative’s own father watched.
Although Dustin Kent and his relatives must be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a Court of Law, by the stated stance of many of the leading lights of the Teapublican Party formerly known as the GOP, any 13-year-old girl who falls pregnant as her uncle rapes her while her father watches, cheering him on, should be forced to give birth to her own first cousin no matter what sort of torture, physical and mentally, this inflicts upon the victim to be re-victimized all over again.
In truth, both of Richard Mourdock’s opponents for the Senatorial seat Richard Lugar occupied for 35 years before his defeat at the hands of Mr. Mourdock’s supporters are anti-choice.
Democratic candidate, Joe Donnally, a self-identified “Blue Dog Democrat,” opposes abortion in all cases except for rape, incest and to save the life of the mother, her health short of death be damned, landing him firmly in the moderate wing of social conservatives. Donnally, as a congressman, co-sponsored the failed “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act,” which, included exceptions for underage victims of incest and “forcible rape.” He earned the ire of Indiana Right to Life, catchphrase “Love Them Both,” by voting in favor of the Affordable Care Act.
Mr. Mourdock’s Libertarian opponent, Andrew Horning, declares his belief that regulating abortion is a “States Right” issue rather than a Woman’s Rights issue leaving women, at least fertile women, as a sort of Chattel of the State. Mr. Horning states his own, personal beliefs are pretty close to those of Mr. Mourdock and he believes that rape babies are proof of “God’s mercy,” but even this declaration failed to generate much press for Mr. Horning.
Indiana’s gubernatorial race features the virulently anti-choice Republican Mike Pence, congressional author of the failed Pence Amendment which would have defunded Planned Parenthood on the Federal level. Mr. Pence’s views on abortion do seem to have evolved. In 2010 he responded to an Indiana Right to Life survey by checking the box next to the statement that abortion should never be legal in any circumstance, period. In 2012 he expanded that view and checked the box next to the statement that abortion should be legal to save the life of the mother only. Most recently he’s been calling on Mr. Mourdock to apologize for his statement and insisting that he, Mike Pence, has always supported exemptions for rape and incest as well.
Mike Pence’s running mate is the equally zealous Sue Ellspermann, who as a freshman State Rep co-authored the bill that defunded Planned Parenthood in Indiana, a bill that has recently been put on hold by a Federal Court which ruled Indiana does not have the right to dictate to Medicaid patient’s choice of qualified medical providers.
Mr. Pence’s Democratic opponent, John Gregg, also styles himself a “pro-life” candidate but carves out exceptions for rape, incest and to preserve the health and life of the mother. He also fought against Indiana’s defunding of Planned Parenthood. His running mate, VI Simpson, has long been a stalwart supporter of preserving women’s inherent right to make their own reproductive choices.
Alone among Indiana’s gubernatorial candidates is Rupert Boneham of Survivor fame, who proves himself a better Libertarian than Mr. Horning as Mr. Boneham believes that abortion should be left to the individual’s conscience.
Richard Mourdock insists that, “The God I worship is a God of love, not violence. The God I worship is a God of peace,” when in fact the God of the Christian Bible is capable of inflicting acts of horrific violence and questionable morality. This baby loving God is the same God who ordered the massacre of Egyptian innocents and orders helpless infants to be dashed upon rocks like Caligula’s daughter in Ephraim and pregnant women “ripped open” in both Hosea and Tappuah.
In the Christian Bible, God commands that any woman who has been raped, who does not “cry out for help,” should be stoned to death at the city gates along with her rapist. God decrees that if a virgin is raped, one who apparently does cry out, her rapist must pay her father 50 pieces of silver and marry the spoilt virgin, never being allowed to divorce her and repeatedly God offers up virgins as spoils of war to the men who have just slain their mothers, brothers and fathers. I suppose we should be thankful then that the Teapublican Party have yet to take even more extreme views when it comes to the subject of women and rape giving a whole new twist to fellow traveler Rick Santorum’s advice that women who become pregnant through an act of rape should, “accept what God is giving you” - you know, just relax and enjoy it.
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Kerry Lauerman
Joan Walsh
Salon.com
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