I'm not a religious person in the traditional sense -- I don't go to church or temple each week, but I do believe there's a greater force in the universe. I don't believe it's a total coincidence that my husband and I became the parents by adoption of the fabulous PunditGirl!
Some people would call that God at work, others wouldn't. While I don't believe much in fate or an invisible hand guiding all we do, I respect the fact that others believe that God has a plan for them.
But when people want to tell us what they think God's plans are for the rest of us or that they can speak for God, that's where I have a little problem. So, yes, I've got an issue with Sharron Angle, the GOP/Tea Party candidate running for Harry Reid's U.S. Senate seat in Nevada, and her comments about the Almighty's agenda.
In a recent radio interview, Angle said she doesn't believe there's any reason ever for any woman to have an abortion. It's not that view I take exception with, per se -- many people feel that way. It's how she came to that conclusion that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
She's against giving victims of rape or incest the option to terminate their pregnancies because:
"You know, I'm a Christian and I believe that God has a plan and a purpose for each one of our lives and that he can intercede in all kinds of situations and we need to have a little faith in many things."
So somehow Angle knows that if a girl or woman has been raped or is the victim of incest, that's part of God's plan? If my daughter is ever sexually assaulted, I'm supposed to accept the consequences and find solace in Angle's belief that it's all part of a bigger picture?
I'm certainly not surprised that Angle is anti-abortion. (I refuse to call her "pro-life." Those of us who believe in a woman's right to control her reproductive destiny are also pro-life). And I understand there are many people who feel there are no circumstances under which a pregnancy should ever end in abortion. But Angle's comments go further than that by suggesting not only that God plans all pregnancies, but also how women become pregnant, including those who end up that way as a result of sexual violence.
While we may think or feel that there are some things in life that are destiny, serendipity, or Divine Providence, I can't accept the proposition that the acts of a sexual offender are part of "God's plan," because it's a slippery slope from there to the Republic of Gilead.
Some of Angle's supporters contend that Angle only meant that God has a plan for every child. But you know what? That's not what she said, and it sure doesn't sound to me like that's what she meant.
If God does have a plan for everything, I hope electing Sharron Angle to represent Nevada in the U.S. Senate isn't one of them, because she's got some other pretty extreme and out-of-touch views on other important topics, as well.
You can read more of Joanne's political musings at her earlier Speaker of the House posts.
Image via spaceodissey/Flickr
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Comments 47
I had heard about this, and it still sickens me. So being born gay is "against God's plan" but a grandpa diddling his granddaughter is just part of His plan? Such hypocritical BS.
Rape and icnest is sick it's not part of god's plan.
Wow, God's really got some plan going on in the Congo right now.
It isn't as if she is advocating incest or rape. She is saying that abortion is wrong in her view. And in the case of rape and/or incest, there are other ways of dealing with an unwanted "result" than an abortion. And God does work in mysterious ways, there IS a reason for everything. We may not see that reason right away, it may not be something that we like, or agree with, but it is there all the same. And how many abortions are done because of rape and/or incest? The percentage is in the single digits, less than 5%, so not very many. The thing is, if those two reasons were the ONLY reasons acceptable to get an abortion, I might feel differently about it. But it is used as birth control for the most part, so I just cannot feel that it is right at all.
Acting as if people just need to "get over" incest and rape and try to see a light side to it is horrible.
29again, I'm disturbed to see you trying to defend it.
29again -- it is not "used as birth control" for the most part. The ACTUAL statistics show women have a variety of reasons for it -- among them incest, rape, being too young for a child, a man FORCING them to have an abortion, a risk to their own health. Yes, there are many women who say they aren't "ready" for a child and choose an abortion, but that doesn't mean it was their birth control -- in MANY, MANY cases, it's because their primary birth control failed.
In fact, if you look at the statistics, MORE women who have an abortion actually used contraception.
Regardless: even if it's less than 5 percent, to say that incest and rape are "God's plan" is simply abominable. I say this as both a victim of an attempted rape and as a female.
This makes me sick. Rape and incest are NOT a part of God's plan. 29again, its disgusting that you are sticking up for her. Way to make heros out of rapists and people who commit incest...you and Angle just justified and gave people a green flag to rape and attack women...cause they are just "following God's plan." Maybe you should think before you type and she should think before she speaks. What awful things to say...
WOW - I have no idea what Angle meant when she made that statement, but I can tell you how I perceived the written statement above...the same as 29Again. It's not accepting rape or incest, it's not saying the sexual violence in any way is at all was okay...it's saying a baby is always a gift from God - regardless of the conception and there ARE options besides abortion - it is a basic Christian belief. period. I am actually shocked that anyone could blame a baby for how it was conceived - and that is IN NO WAY IS A GREEN FLAG TO RAPE.
Sorry MomIWant, but that is how many psychos are going to take it. You might not see it that way, but I can definitely see how her statement could be taken that way. Don't talk to me about Christian beliefs because they are not all the same. Many Christians, including myself, are pro-choice and I definitely think that being raped or a victim of incest is a perfectly reasonable reason to have an abortion. Would I do it myself, nope, but I would not ever tell someone that they can't. Until you have been through that yourself, you can't know what you would actually do. Sure, babies are a gift from God, but that doesn't mean that the person carrying that baby is going to see it that way when she was raped or a victim of incest. Your beliefs are not universal and neither are mine...that is why nobody...government or church or citizen should make that kind of decision for someone else. I think it is between the individual and their God. I hope this Angle woman gets laughed out of Washington...with comments like this, she obviously does not need to be there.
Frankly, if we're going to attribute all human action to "God's Plan" (a theory that somehow seems to be selectively applied, as jeannesager pointed out), then we must consider that the plan also allowed for humans to develop and refine skills/ techniques in things such as the practice of medicine, and the fact that we have free will.
Ergo, it's part of the big guy's plan to let us choose the course our lives and our bodies take, and that includes the option to have an abortion--a medical procedure. Women have plastic surgery all the time, and no one ponders whether it's part of some god's plan.