Prince William Del. Bob Marshall, R-13th, has offered his own rather dark explanation for birth defects and child disabilities: divine retribution for women who have had abortions. Marshall told a crowd that the Bible says that the first born is a gift to God, resulting in “special punishment” for those who have abortions.
At a press conference, Marshall stated “The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children, . . . In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”
I am not why people like Marshall would want to spend eternity with a being who imposes birth defects on infants as punishments for their parents. Of course, he did not explain what those other men and women did to warrant their miscarriages and birth defects.
The press conference involved various Christian clergy calling for the elimination of state funding for Planned Parenthood because the organization provides abortions.
Marshall insists that Planned Parenthood should be called ” ‘Planned Barrenhood’ because they have nothing to do with families, they have nothing to do with responsibility.”
The only funding Planned Parenthood receives from the state is from Medicaid reimbursements and amount to about $35,000 in the 2009 fiscal year.
Marshall’s official bio boasts “a personal library of 2000+ books.” It certainly seems to reaffirm Voltaire’s statement that “the multitude of books is making us ignorant.”
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It’s not really surprising that a fundamentalist would have that opinion. The woman’s role in a fundamentalist lifestyle is a subservient role. While most people with some measure of self confidence can choose to assume a subservient role in some regards for a variety of reasons to live a life of subservience that you do not choose as one of many options open to you requires conditioning and constant reinforcement. People have to be raised and trained to be, essentially, second class citizens unless the enter the lifestyle as an adult with low to non-existent self esteem.
To blame women for the disability of their children reinforces their conditioned notion that their value is not as great as their patriarch(s). It reinforces a lack of self esteem necessary to keep ‘their’ women subservient. If their children are flawed, it’s because she is flawed and with every sight of the child, the mother is presented with her own flaws and lack of worth. A disabled child is probably one of the most effective tools that can be used to prey on these women. IMO.
Bob Marshall is a monster. If you’ve got a spare pitchfork or cudgel I’m up for giving him a dose of enlightenment. The sad fact is though that a whole bunch of ignorant people elected him and you just can’t beat sense into all of them. I’ve been stewing about his pronouncement all day. What an evil bastard.
FFLEO,
It’s even more basic than that. You have to look to math. DNA replication is a complex process. Complexity breeds error. For X number of transactions, there will be Y number of errors simply as a matter of operation even discounting mutations caused by supervening external sources like radiation or chemical exposures.
Canadian eh:
I certainly understand the very human desire to internalize every ill that befalls us, believing we could have done more. Alas, we are imperfect creatures with no pretense of omnipotence, floating on currents that decide our fate more than we care to admit. I made no castigation either, merely wanting to separate your supporters (who are legion) from your antagonist (who is very much alone — I always wonder what his wife thinks). Nothing more.
“Marshall’s official bio boasts “a personal library of 2000+ books.” It certainly seems to reaffirm Voltaire’s statement that “the multitude of books is making us ignorant.”
**********************
Historian Thomas Fuller wrote, “A book that is shut is but a block” — sort of like a mind.
I commend one of Fuller’s works “The Holy State and the Prophane State (1642)” to our good Mr. Marshall. Fuller wrote of hypocrites like Marshall who inhabit the profane state:
“By hypocrite we understand such a one as doth ” practise
hypocrisyj” (Isaiah xxxii. 6,) make a trade or work of dissem-
bling : for otherwise,
Hypocriseorum macula carere, aut paucorwm est, aut nullorum,( The best of God’s children have a smack of hypocrisy.)
MAXIM I.
A hypocrite is himself both the archer and the mark, in all
actions shooting at his own praise or profit. — And therefore he doth all things that they may be seen. What, with others, is held a principal poiat ia law, is his main maxim in divinity, — to have good witness ! Even fasting itself is meat and drink to him, whilst others behold it.
II.
In the outside of religion he outshines a sincere Christian. —
Gilt cups ghtter more than those of massy gold, which are
seldom burnished. Yea, well may the hypocrite afford gaudy
facing, who cares not for any Uning ; brave it in the shop, that hath nothing in the warehouse. Nor is it a wonder if in out-ward service he outstrips God’s servants, who out-doeth God’s command by will-worship, giving God more than he requires ; though not what he most requires, I mean, his heart.”
It may not be Marshall’s fault, after all. Heart? What heart?
Recombinant organisms with defects that are comprised of the multifarious combinations of parental genes are the fault of no individual person. The only manner in which any reproductive organism can avoid the probabilities of genetic defect happenstance in their offspring is to never reproduce.
Assigning parental blame is pointless since you would have to blame the whole of your ancestral, familial lineage.
Mespo;
Sorry for the misunderstanding, I read all of the above comments with the sarcasm with which they were intended. I felt it was important to point out who could potentially believe this type of nonsense and why. I am educated and have a career in mental health ( and was/did before my son was diagnosed ). I know how genetics work, I knew that I had done everything ” right ” to make a healthy baby. Even with all of the knowledge at my fingertips…I still looked for something to blame on myself. If I could go to that dark place, I can’t help but think of how these comments could affect an uneducated, ” God fearing ” woman who may have had an abortion at some point in her life.
The pitchforks, torches, and truncheons sound like reasonable recourse to me though!
Canadian eh:
We likewise have a child with a disability in our extended family. I think the humor you see here is not mocking. It simply stops us from grabbing pitchforks, torches and truncheons; massing at the Capitol; and giving this buffoon what he so richly deserves.
VLF2112….
” While I find this lastest ignorance spewing forth from a repuglican quite funny, I find it sad that people actually believe this silliness. ”
As the mother of a son born with a disability, I can tell you that it becomes very easy to blame yourself for causing that disability. I spent a lot of energy, early in his life, trying to figure out what I had done wrong before, during and even after my pregnancy to have caused the challenges that he lives with everyday. Sadly, comments, such as these, can be easily believed by mothers looking for ” what they did wrong “. Ignorant indeed, but to many, not at all funny!
Just when you thought the Republicans could not get any crazier, this guy opens his piehole and insults all families with disabled children. Even if government is broken, I don’t want this guy and his radical religious ideas. Any aspect of religion needs to stay away, far away, from government.
Whelp, I was gonna say gawdoffal ugly but I’m tryin’ to mind my manners since he is an important ‘Viginnie’ legislator.
FFleo:
“I wonder what Mr. Marshall’s momma done that was so bad to have caused gawd to make him be borned so dadgummed ugly…”
*************
Totally without authorization but nonetheless on behalf of Bob the Buffoon, let me just say: “Touche’.”
I wonder what Mr. Marshall’s momma done that was so bad to have caused gawd to make him be borned so dadgummed ugly…
Byron:
“isnt our governor cut from the same cloth?”
***************
Nah, Gov. Bob’s more opportunist than dogmatist. He’ll take his support wherever he gets it — Robertson, Falwell-istas, space aliens – he’s not real picky. Now our new AG is the dogmatist. He recently told us global warming is a joke. Joke’s on him.
mysterious are the ways of the lord
through genetics he does tutor us
though a bachelor up in heaven
down here he’s into uterus
++++
Alex 1, February 22, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Can’t help but wonder where Sarah Palin stands on this particular conservative viewpoint, given her own experiences?
Maybe you can help remake Sarah and all that glitz’s she will need it after all, based upon her desire to mend the fold….
33 Remarkable Photoshop Brushes
http://www.onextrapixel.com/2009/09/16/33-remarkable-photoshop-brushes-that-you-must-bookmark/
Mespo:
isnt our governor cut from the same cloth? Maybe a little more sophisticated but similar notions.
rcampbell:
“And those women to whom disabled children are born but where no abortion has ever taken place are being punished by this god for what?”
Because these women didn’t have the kids in bed, dinner on the table, martini in hand, and dressed in her Sunday best when the man of the house came home?
While I find this lastest ignorance spewing forth from a repuglican quite funny, I find it sad that people actually believe this silliness.
And those women to whom disabled children are born but where no abortion has ever taken place are being punished by this god for what?
“Marshall told a crowd that the Bible says that the first born is a gift to God, resulting in “special punishment” for those who have abortions.”
****************
Bob does have a pipeline to the Almighty — as he has told us many times. We in the Commonwealth think that Bob is God’s special punishment for us since we seem to elect these theocrats on a regular basis.
Here’s another bit of “divine” wisdom from the self-described “God’s Chief Homophobe”:
“There is a natural order of things, a natural order where gay marriage is an impossibility,” he said, books tucked under his arm and waving a hand for emphasis, like the disheveled college professor he often resembles. “For example, a woman’s arm is constructed at a certain angle so that she can adequately cradle a baby. This is the way we’re created. There are just certain things that nature intended.”
In the words of Stevie Wonder, “Lord, Heaven, help us all.”
brushed? I can’t say I’m familiar with the term.