Saturday, February 27, 2010

Delegate Bob Marshall Offends Everyone



The only thing I have found error with in this video is that Marshall did "apologize" if not to MSNBC...to a local Fox outlet.



He basically says that everyone was misinterpreting him and that isn't what he believes. Besides, he never even said 'it's god's punishment'. Ahem, last time I checked, referencing the Old Testament can be construed as quoting the Christian God. Plus, he still tries to defend his statements by saying that there can be consequences for abortions, i.e. low birth weight and preterm labor. Hmmm. Well, as any qualified practitioner will tell you, every pregnancy and birth is different. It is a huge leap to state that those statistics represent "nature's vengeance,” especially considering low birth weight and preterm labor happen with women who have never had an abortion. I don't know where he pulled Cerebral Palsy from...

What shocks me about this story is not that Bob Marshall said something offensive, it is what the religious folks said in response. I swear I wish that they would read their own holy book. Ms. Kemper, an Arlington area consulting minister for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun was shocked by Marshall's statements.

As a minister, I believe that God is neither vengeful nor vindictive, and I am offended by Mr. Marshall's blatant use of religious zealotry to further his limited agenda. He claims to be a supporter of family and children while denigrating the most vulnerable group of children in our society. Children with disabilities are blessings from God, just as all children are, not proof of God's punishment. This increasingly common habit of blaming hardship and difficulty on the "sins" of one group or another is hurtful to the very people we ought to be helping and undermines the bedrock of compassion and decency that characterize American society at its best.
The part I find especially intriguing is her belief that the Christian God is "neither vengeful nor vindictive." Has she read the bible? Whether New Testament or Old, there are plenty of deplorable acts carried out by Yahweh. She isn't alone in her deluded perception of the Christian God either. Take this quote from the article of Marshall's apology that I linked earlier:
"I am amazed that someone has been able to slander my child, my wife and my God in one comment," said Brett Wills, 38, a Staunton paint salesman who is the father of an 8-year-old boy with autism. "To imply that someone's disabilities are an act of God to punish women in an immoral society is just the most outrageous thing I've ever heard."
Really? Several stories come to mind when I think of Yahweh punishing innocent bystanders and children of those who have pissed him off...I am not even thinking of stories that aren't well known. Let's see...


Exodus chapters 12 & 13 tell that ever so popular tale of Yahweh killing all of Egypt's firstborns. You know, that part of the movie The Ten Commandments where everyone is screaming their heads off after discovering their dead sons. Of course, the only screen shot we get is of the loyal followers who skip town across the Red Sea a few minutes later. Moses hates all the little boys in chapter 31 (specifically versus 15-19). Then there was that time that Yahweh flooded the entire Earth with the exception of one little family. Every man, woman, child, and infant.
Just check out: Hosea 13:16; Revelations 2:23; Ezekiel 9:5-6, 26:6; Lamentations chapters 2-4; Jeremiah 14:16, 19:9, 51:22; Isaiah 14:21...and on and on and on and on and on. Seriously, look these scriptures up. All of them tell stories of children being murdered for the supposed “sins” of their parents or religious/political leaders. In some cases, their parents were forced to eat them. Lovely guy that Yahweh, huh?

Then there is the fact that the entire Christian religion is based on the sin of Adam and Eve who by Creationists' calculations lived about 6,000 years ago which means that the whole of humanity still hasn't been able to make up for their little mishap, a mishap that no one living in all this time even committed. Really? 6,000 years isn't enough to satisfy your deity? Talk about holding a grudge against every man, woman, and child!

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