Rape, abortion, God, Bible, Tea Party Republicans and psychology

October 25, 2012 / Posted in  abortion, Bible, Old Testament, Republican Party, Roman Catholicism, separation of church and state, Tea Party

Richard Mourdock (R-IN) claims God intends for there to be rape

On Tuesday, October 23, 2012, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock (running for the U.S. Senate seat in Indiana, against Democrat U.S. Congressman Joe Donnelly, the Tea Party Republican who defeated incumbent Republican Senator Richard Lugar in a surprise upset in Indiana’s primary election for U.S. Senate) declared that children born of rape are “God intended.”  Furthermore, draconically denouncing women who protest rape or abort the zygotes generated by rape as “baby [sic] killers”, Mourdock claimed that pregnancies because of rape were special gifts.  No such passage, term or phrase in relationship to rape is found in any Judeo-Christian literature, scripture, scroll or writing—nor does it appear in Mitt Romney’s Book of Mormon nor the Qur’an. 

Amarna Letters (tablets c. 1399-1313 BCE)

The passages that proclaim a god telling ancient Apiru/Habiru (proto-Hebrews, a word that does not appear until Genesis 14:13) come from ancient Akkadian sources that record their mercenaries (2350 – 2150 BCE) found in the Amarna Letters (1399 – 1310 BCE that discuss campaigns in Canaan) petitioning the gods of Assyria and Babylon for women to replenish their “supply” of male fighters (women were not considered worthy) and the gods of the ancient Middle East responded by telling the Apiru to “carry off” and rape women to gain additional males.  In the cuneiform scripts the function of rape was dual in purpose.  First,  there was the idea that rape will “silence dissent” and lead to pregnancy. Second, pregnancies and subsequent births were understood to be “chattel” (equivalent to property / cattle and thus the ownership of the births belonged to the rapists who could do as he wish with the offspring that included the slaughter of female infants.  Such infanticide was common throughout the Mediterranean world, especially in ancient Rome, Akkadia, and elsewhere). 

Child labor — 6.4 million under age 14 (lowest age is 4)

Killing female infants allowed males to “harness” young  males (children and teenagers) to do male labor much in the same way as the robber barons (also known as captains of industry) enslaved children during the industrial revolution and as late as the 1930s, especially in textile factories and slaughter houses.  Some male children served with female slaves as Qadesh in ancient temples as prostitutes to invoke divine blessings.

Psychologically, psychoanalytically rape has never been about sex or about procreation. Sexual rape is the link between pathological personality traits of narcissism and psychopathy and indicates sociosexual stereotypes of indoctrination by male authoritarian figures such as fathers, other family male members, priests, pastors, bishops and others who proclaim, wrongly, that the male is superior to the female (cf. Mouilso, Emily R.; Calhoun, Karen S. (2012). “A mediation model of the role of sociosexuality in the associations between narcissism, psychopathy, and sexual aggression”. doi: 10.1037/a0026217. Psychology of Violence, Vol 2(1), January 2012, 16-27).  Rape is also about domination especially when it results in the rape of males of any age, as seen commonly in war zones (Vikman, Elisabeth (2012). “Review of Sexual violence and armed conflict”. doi: 10.1037/a0028104  Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, Vol 18(2), May 2012, 199-

NATO soldiers rape prisoners and civilians

200), hostile camps and among gangs (Swartout, Kevin M. (2012). “The Company They Keep: How Peer Networks Influence Male Sexual Aggression”. doi: 10.1037/ a0029997. Psychology of Violence, September 24 , 2012; and, Seto, Michael C.; Lalumière, Martin L.; Harris, Grant T.; Chivers, Meredith L. (2012). “The sexual responses of sexual sadists”. doi: 10.1037/a0028714. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Vol 121(3), Aug 2012, 739-753) in street conflicts, especially with the rapes of males (Turchik, Jessica A.; Edwards, Katie M. (2012). “Myths about male rape: A literature review”. doi: 10.1037/ a0023207. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, Vol 13(2), Apr 2012, 211-226).  Rape has always been about violence—but not in religion where most religions, especially those that came with the ascent of the Emperor Constantine I who created his “catholic [universal] church” at his war council in Nicaea in 325 CE when he attempted to unify the nation with a single religion over which he stood as Pontifex Maximus (the high priest of the state religion) in addition to being the civil war leader, rape was initially ignored and then canonized as being the fault of the woman.

Mourdock, speaking as a pope or emperor within the Tea Party Republican extremist group told an audience at the Tuesday Indiana US Senate debates:  “I came to realize that life is that gift from God; even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”  He quickly was denounced by the Republican Party, officially, then saw numerous Republicans race to fill his war chest to defeat Donnelly in the

Tagg Romney said he wanted to punch him. Ann Coulter called him “the retard.” And now, Sarah Palin says Obama “shuck and jive”

November contest.  The duplicity of the corrupt Republican Party in the USA is now legendary with such effete afficionados as Sarah Palin exposing her extreme racism when Twittering about President Obama’s “Shuck and jive” on Libya that won her tremendous support among American’s racists and renewed support by organized hate groups.

Yahweh’s wife Asherah was edited out of the Bible

When the Apiru ultimately invaded the far more advanced culture of Canaan and conquered its people, they brought with them their legends and lore and used it to craft the ultimate Torah and Prophets, incorporating their lust for rape to obtain new foot soldiers.  It is for that reason we read of the vile, vicious, vitriolic gods (one of whom, the agricultural god Yahweh would “marry” (by rape) the fertility goddess of the legitimate owners of Canaan, Asherah, before her people (Palestinians) were murdered and raped with but a few (the virgins who were young) being allowed to survive to serve as breeders for the Apiru mercenaries. 

1699 Qur’an showing Abram sacrificing Ishmael his first born son

The priests of the Apiru, whose specialty was taking young boys into the desert or up into the mountains and sacrificing them on altars stoked with fire (fancifully retold in the myth of Abram taking “his first born” to be sacrificed to the gods of his tribe), called on the gods from the Apiru hell and thundered rape to be justified. We find these accounts in most of the Torah, including in the last book written: Genesis—which became the backbone for the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible. 

 In the Old Testament, rape was a means of subduing people, repopulating the Hebrew community that had been decimated in war, and a way to extract vengeance.  These accounts are nothing less than records of past Apiru violence, rape, and murder, as is found throughout the Old Testament, as in Numbers 31:7-18 (NLT):

    They attacked Midian just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed all the men.  All five of the Midianite kings – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – died in the battle.  They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.  Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth as plunder.  They burned all the towns and villages where the Midianites had lived.  After they had gathered the plunder and captives, both people and animals, they brought them all to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the whole community of Israel, which was camped on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho.

    Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people went to meet them outside the camp.  But Moses was furious with all the military commanders who had returned from the battle.  “Why have you let all the women live?” he demanded.  [Moses was among the most bloodthirsty butchers of the ancient Apiru who originally worshiped the gods of ancient Egypt and then fashioned from fantasy the gods of what would become Israel [Is-Ra-El from the secondary Trinity: Isis-Ra-El, Isis (the goddess of creation), Ra (the god of the Sun), and El (the god/father/husband who became in Babylon and Canaan Baal: who was a father who consumed his children as a cannibal)] “These are the very ones who followed Balaam’s advice and caused the people of Israel to rebel against the LORD at Mount Peor.  They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the LORD’s people.  Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man.  Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.

Clearly Moses and God approves of rape of virgins.  The same scenario exists in Deuteronomy 20:10-14):

     As you approach a town to attack it, first offer its people terms for peace.  If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor.  But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town.  When the LORD your God hands it over to you, kill every man in the town.  But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder.  You may enjoy the spoils of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.

And in Deuteronomy 22:28-29 (NLT) there is the sole proviso on rape:

    If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father.  Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.

If she was married and did not protest fearing the rapist would kill her, the rape victim was to be killed (Deuteronomy 22:23-24 NAB; plagiarized from the records of Marid (Arabic: مارد‎) who were djinn or pre-Muslim deities):

    If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife.

The woman was nothing more than property as later glossed in Judges 5:30 (NAB):  They must be dividing the spoils they took: there must be a damsel or two for each man, Spoils of dyed cloth as Sisera’s spoil, an ornate shawl or two for me in the spoil.   (Judges 5:30 NAB).

The gods of the Old Testament in cruelty (deisidaimonia), and spite declared that Polygamy, Rape, and the ending of a fetus’ life was pleasant and merited the gods “Forgiveness” (2 Samuel 12:11-14 NAB; cf. Avalos, Hector (2005). Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, and Regina M. Schwartz (1998). The Curse of Cain: The Violent Legacy of Monotheism. University of Chicago Press):

    Thus says the Lord: ‘I will bring evil upon you out of your own house.  I will take your wives [plural] while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor.  He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight.  You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.’

    Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”  Nathan answered David: “The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die.  But since you have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed, the child born to you must surely die.”  [The child dies seven days later.]

Women were marketable commodities: slaves and sex slaves or whores (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT; cf. Ide, Arthur Frederick (1992). Moses: The Making of Myth and Law: the influence of Egyptian sex, religion, and law on the writing of the Torah. Las Colinas, TX: Monument Press):

    When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are.  If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again.  But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her.  And if the slave girl’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter.  If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife.  If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment.   

Judges 21:10-24 (NLT) which is plagiarized from the far more ancient story of the Rape of the Sabine women (c. 750 – 752 BCE; Livy, Ab urbe condita, 1:10, Latin; Benjamin Vincent (1874).  Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates (New York, BY: GP Putnam & Sons, p. 572):

    So they sent twelve thousand warriors to Jabesh-gilead with orders to kill everyone there, including women and children.  “This is what you are to do,” they said. “Completely destroy all the males and every woman who is not a virgin.”  Among the residents of Jabesh-gilead they found four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

    The Israelite assembly sent a peace delegation to the little remnant of Benjamin who were living at the rock of Rimmon. Then the men of Benjamin returned to their homes, and the four hundred women of Jabesh-gilead who were spared were given to them as wives.  But there were not enough women for all of them.  The people felt sorry for Benjamin because the LORD had left this gap in the tribes of Israel.  So the Israelite leaders asked, “How can we find wives for the few who remain, since all the women of the tribe of Benjamin are dead?  There must be heirs for the survivors so that an entire tribe of Israel will not be lost forever.  But we cannot give them our own daughters in marriage because we have sworn with a solemn oath that anyone who does this will fall under God’s curse.”

    Then they thought of the annual festival of the LORD held in Shiloh, between Lebonah and Bethel, along the east side of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem.  They told the men of Benjamin who still needed wives, “Go and hide in the vineyards.  When the women of Shiloh come out for their dances, rush out from the vineyards, and each of you can take one of them home to be your wife!  And when their fathers and brothers come to us in protest, we will tell them, ‘Please be understanding.  Let them have your daughters, for we didn’t find enough wives for them when we destroyed Jabesh-gilead. And you are not guilty of breaking the vow since you did not give your daughters in marriage to them.'”  So the men of Benjamin did as they were told.  They kidnapped the women who took part in the celebration and carried them off to the land of their own inheritance.  Then they rebuilt their towns and lived in them.  So the assembly of Israel departed by tribes and families, and they returned to their own homes.

These women were repeatedly raped. It was excused on the pretext of religion, as the gods of the Old Testament take an active role in rape and plunder (Zechariah 14:1-2 NAB):

    Lo, a day shall come for the Lord when the spoils shall be divided in your midst.  And I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle: the city shall be taken, houses plundered, women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be removed from the city.  

The sole exception is if the girl is “engaged” (a public announcement of betrothal is made):

But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her (Deuteronomy 22:25-27; cf. Schroeder, Joy A. (2007). Dinah’s Lament: the Biblical Legacy of Sexual Violence in Christian Interpretation. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, Press; and, חיון, חיים (2011). ותצא דינה : קריאה בסיפור המקראי ועיון בזיקותיו. הוצאת ספרים ע״ש י״ל מאגנס, האוניברסיטה העברית, Yerushalayim : Hotsaat sefarim a. sh. Y.L. Magnes, ha-Universitah ha-Ivrit.

On the other hand, abortion is not condemned nor denied in the Bible.  If it occurred during the time of war or other conflict it was merely an accident for which a monetary price had to be paid; Exodus 21:22 reads:

When people who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and yet no further harm follows, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman’s husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine.

While there is no word for abortion in the Bible, the gods of Old Testament delighted in the slaughter of fetus and new born children:

• Numbers 31:17 Now therefore kill every male among the little ones.
• Deuteronomy 2:34 utterly destroyed the men and the women and the little ones.
• Deuteronomy 28:53 And you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters.
• 1 Samuel 15:3 slay both man and woman, infant and suckling.
• 2 Kings 8:12 dash their children, and rip up their women with child.
• 2 Kings 15:16 all the women therein that were with child he ripped up.
• Isaiah 13:16 Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled and their wives ravished.
• Isaiah 13:18 They shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eyes shall not spare children.
• Lamentations 2:20 Shall the women eat their fruit, and children.
• Ezekiel 9:6 Slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children.
• Hosea 9:14 give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
• Hosea 13:16 their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

“Fruit” (וּפְרִי־) was another word for fetus (cf. Isaiah 13:18:  וּקְשָׁתֹות נְעָרִים תְּרַטַּשְׁנָה וּפְרִי־בֶטֶן לֹא יְרַחֵמוּ עַל־בָּנִים לֹא־תָחוּס עֵינָם׃) he destruction of the fetus was not knew in the ancient world, but was especially common among the save polytheists known as the Apiru (Hebrew), especially when fighting for the Akaddians.

Even Jesus noted that women would come to the day in their life when they wished they had not been pregnant nor give birth to future generations: “For, behold, the days are coming, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the womb that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck” (Luke 23:29: ὅτι ἰδοὺ ἔρχονται ἡμέραι ἐν αἷς ἐροῦσιν· μακάριαι αἱ στεῖραι καὶ αἱ κοιλίαι αἱ οὐκ ἐγέννησαν καὶ μαστοὶ οἱ οὐκ ἔθρεψαν).  The antiabortion position does not demonstrate love for humanity, or compassion for real human beings, but glories in the suffering of woman in testimony to Genesis 3:16 (KJV): “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee”.

The biblical injunction “Thou shalt not kill” (KJV: Exodus 20:13, copied into Deuteronomy 5:17; cp. Numbers 35:27; 1 Kings 21:19; Hosea 4:2, ref. Deuteronomy 4:42) forbids killing anyone outside of the womb.  When the fetus is mentioned it is mentioned as “fruit” that is not fully ripened or formed.  Pregnancy was “to be fruitful” and if the zygote developed into a fetus, that fetus was referred to as “fruit of the womb.” The Greeks were equally explicit as to the timetable of the development of the fetus (see: Ide, Arthur Frederick (1993). Catechism of Family Values Based on the Bible (Arlington, Liberal Arts Press), pp. 241ff).

Abortion is considered a valid alternative to slaughter: “…but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born (Matthew 26:24). Abortion was common throughout the ancient world. While many medical professionals would administer certain herbs to expel the fetus, women of station who were raped committed suicide to protect their “honor”—a practice that last beyond the beginnings of the Christian church (c. 325 CE) and was a mark of martyrdom for many who ultimately were canonized as saints.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) does find cases where abortion is accepted, however reluctantly: “Some exceptional circumstances may justify an abortion, such as when pregnancy is the result of incest or rape, when the life or health of the mother is judged by competent medical authority to be in serious jeopardy, or when the fetus is known by competent medical authority to have severe defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth. … Those who face such circumstances should consider abortion only after consulting with their local Church leaders and receiving a confirmation through earnest prayer“. 

In 2011, two out of three women having abortions in the U.S. identified as Christian.  Few women capriciously elected abortion.  Most of the women who had an abortion showed their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life. Three-fourths of women cited concern for or responsibility to other individuals.  Three-fourths say they could not afford a child; the Qur’an forbids “the killing of a child for lack of food in the home (Al-Israa 17:31 and Al-An’aam 6:151: And kill not your children for fear of poverty. We provide for them and for you. Surely, the killing of them is a great sin” but says nothing about abortion; this is mentioned only in Hadith – Sahih Bukhari 8.732 that mentions only a “blood price” if the woman herself kills the fetus; a woman who strikes another woman who is pregnant and kills the fetus is to be put to death in Hadith – Abu Dawood 4555 but says nothing about a voluntary abortion; a similar sentence is at Hadith – Al-Muwatta 43.5) and three-fourths said that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents. No less than half said they did not want to be a single parent or were having problems with their husband or partner (Finer L. B., et al. (2005). “Reasons U.S. women have abortions: quantitative and qualitative perspectives”, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 2005, 37(3):110–118.).

Richard Mourdock (who claimed that God intends rape to occur can be seen here). “Mourdock’s belief that there should be no exception that allows a woman to end a pregnancy is shared by the GOP platform and at least 40 Republican candidates for the House and Senate including Rep. Paul Ryan, the GOP nominee for vice-president, and Rep. Todd Akin,”) comes from the Paul Ryan (who sponsored Fetal Personhood and opposes family planning, read here), Todd Akin (who claims that it is impossible for a woman who is raped to conceive; watch here, and read Jason Sattler at The National Memo), Joe Walsh (read here:  “there is no need for an abortion to save the mother’s life”,  with update), Rick Santorum (who carried a dead fetus to his children for them to play with and opposes all abortions in all cases (althought his wife, Karen, had one) and claims that their is no constitutional right to privacy, opposes birth control (read here and here), and is equally equated with the Afghan Taliban being for the mind control of Opus Dei and stagnating education (read here and here), Sharron Angel (against abortion claiming that her god has a plan for babies born as the product of rape; read here) wing of the GOP that believes in abortion for zero percent of all cases — no abortion, no exception for rape, incest, life of the mother, or health of the mother. Period.

It is a great shame that none of these men are raped.  If these men could become pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament. despite the ignorance of Timothy Dolan, Bryan Fischer or the German Joseph Ratzinger.