This is one of two stories I came across today. The other was on the radio.
So, "god" wants women who were raped (or 10 year old girls in Alabama who were raped) to get pregnant, and to be saddled with children they didn't want, maybe couldn't care for, and about whom they have very mixed feelings, to say the least.
Of course, if we focus on the "be fruitful, and multiply" bit, we might further assume that "god" wants females to be impregnated, whether or not they want to. That is to say, "god" presumably wants females to be raped, unless they happen to be consenting. But if they're not, then some male, or a group of them, get to make the decision for the female.
And if the female doesn't want to get pregnant, or not by the person who impregnated her, or will be harmed by a pregnancy, or is not in a position to provide adequately for a child, well, that's just not "god's" problem.
The other story was from...oh, also Alabama. It was about Kenneth Smith, a guy who, with the aid of another guy, killed a pastor's wife, because the pastor paid them to kill her. This was in 1988. The pastor later killed himself. Smith's confederate was executed by Alabama in 2010. Smith was to be executed by lethal injection, but prison staff couldn't find a vein, after working on Smith for two hours. So, Alabama, which I'm sure promotes itself as "pro-life" (at least when it comes to 10 year old girls who were raped and impregnated), had to figure out some other method. Alabama Prepares to Carry Out the First Nitrogen Gas Execution (theintercept.com)
For some reason, they didn't shoot Smith, or hang him, or electrocute him. They wanted something different. So they settled on a method that had never been attempted before, and about which no one really knew anything.
"God" likes live babies, no matter how messy and unworkable the circumstances, and s/he likes dead adults. The OT "god" was notorious for liking people killed. The NT "god" is often imagined to be more loving and forgiving, but it is that "god's" followers who advocate more or less fiercely for as much misery, disadvantage, and death as they can engineer. But as far as I know, the OT "god" and the NT "god," and the Qur'an "god," are all the same "god," so it's unclear why his or her moods were so different. Maybe parenthood instilled a kinder disposition, but that "god's" followers seem to prefer misery. If there was such a thing as "god," I'd ask what s/he really wants.
I've asked Orthodox Jewish people why they don't believe in Jesus as the messiah, since the NT is a scripture, just like the OT, but they say the OT was written by "god" (as if anyone could know that), and the NT was only written by people (decades after Jesus' reported death), so they disqualify the NT, and only have faith in the OT. So, if there was such a thing as "god," and if the Jews were right about why the OT counts, and the NT doesn't, then we would have to assume that "god" is the angry and punitive one of the OT. Even the alleged NT adherents seem more comfortable with a "god" who rages and harms than one who loves and forgives, so maybe, if there was such a thing as "god," that's what "god" is really like, and what "god" really wants.
I don't think I'm missing out on anything. Smith was in fact executed today. No court would reverse the sentence, and the governor of Alabama refused to commute his sentence, as she has refused to commute any death sentence (13 of them) that came her way. I wonder if she's a NT adherent. She sure sounds OT to me.
I made two mistakes with this post. Well, one mistake, and one omission. The mistake was that the state of Alabama spent four hours, not two hours, failing to find a vein in Smith last time. The omission was that the jury voted 11-1 to execute Smith, but the judge used his or her available discretion to order execution anyway. "Pro-life?" NT? Evidently not. It's true that Smith's case was on Governor Ivey's desk for consideration of commutation, and she preferred to see how this vile circus would play out. And it's true that appeals courts refused to reduce the sentence. I don't know if it's Americans or Christians who just love to execute or assassinate people. I'm just assuming that they checked in, by whatever method was available to them, with "god," and "god" is into this, too. If I am missing out on this approach, I'm glad I'm missing out.
ReplyDeleteNow that I think about it, it's not just the OT "god" that likes dead adults, or only has a passing interest in live children. The NT "god" made sure there was record of his or her son until the lad was 12. "God" then lost interest for 18 years (did Jesus even have a Bar Mitzvah, or was "god" already too checked out to bother), and when this now 30 year old son resurfaced, "god" no longer had parental feelings. S/he didn't seem to care what happened to Jesus, who himself asked why "god" forsook him. (Yikes, it just occurred to me that right wingers always think "god" is male. If "god" is only interested in children, or in "his" own case, sons, does that make "god" possibly an incestuous and maybe homosexual child molester? No wonder the right wingers are so fixated on challenging homosexuality, and worrying about "grooming.")
ReplyDeleteAlthough today's NT adherents don't seem to care about children from the moment they're born. And to be clear, I don't think indoctrinating children/students with nonsense represents caring about them.