The GOP, Rape, Women, and Evangelicals

Women are the real problem. Rape, not so much.

by Alec Kohut

Any rational person paying attention to this election cycle can not help but be both shocked and outraged by comments of Republicans either holding, or running for very high level office concerning rape. Could even the most astute political observer predict that in the year 2012 GOP candidates for the US Senate and Vice Presidency would be redefining rape as “legitimate,” “forcible,” and even the “intention of God?”

The GOP can no longer claim that their insensitivity on the subject of rape, and their hostility toward women come from just a few outliers who do not represent the mainstream party views. Extremism and radical right wing ideas are now the mainstream beliefs of the Republican party. We have come to the point where the Presidential nominee of the GOP, stands in support of a US Senate candidate who states the when a woman is raped, and becomes pregnant, it is God’s intention.

The rise of the GOP’s radical right and its exorcism of moderates is a direct result of the rise of evangelical fervor in the party. The kind of evangelicals that believe the Bible should be taken as literal, and is without error. That explains how a man who just last month stated publicly that evolution, and the big band theory are “lies straight from the pits of hell,” is a Republican Congressman sitting on the House Science committee.

Understand, it is not the GOP’s abhorrent view about rape that make them seem hostile to women, it’s their hostility towards women that cause their caustic attitude about rape. One need not be a Biblical scholar to know that the “Good Book’s” view of women is hardly flattering or enlightened. It is women who are responsible for sin, for it was Eve who was deceived by Satan, who then deceived Adam.

It is the Bible that sees women as property. It is the book that is without error to the evangelicals that sees a woman’s only role to be childbirth, and subservience to men. That is why the punishment for all women due to Eve indiscretion was pain during childbirth. To this day the esteemed Catholic church of Paul Ryan still forbids women as leaders.

So to these evangelicals whom hold sway over the “Grand Old Party,” rape is a rare crime where the stereotypical thug breaks into the woman’s home and places a knife to her throat and commits the crime. See, that’s what Paul Ryan calls “forcible” rape, the only “real” kind of rape. And if she becomes pregnant, it is God’s intention, according to US Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, whom Mitt Romney continues to support.

Other kinds of rape, well, they’re not necessarily “legitimate” rape. The GOP reminds us that women routinely lie about being raped to gain access to abortion, but GOP leaders like Paul Ryan are on to that scam. Unlike the days of the more moderate GOP, the gravy train of free abortions and food stamps is over!

The Bible is very clear in a woman’s primary role above all others, giving birth. Any woman who shuns this role cannot be considered godly, thus in the eyes of the evangelicals, little more than a temptress, or harlot. And the act of rape hardly applies to them. They really have it coming, not what Paul Ryan and Todd Akin would call “forcible” rape. No, to the GOP and despicable Roman Polanski apologists like Whoopi Goldberg, rape, well isn’t necessarily rape.

It is important to the GOP to ask certain questions before falling for any claim of “rape.” Important questions like: What was she doing at that party, and why was she there in the first place? What made her dress like that if she didn’t “want it?” Didn’t she agree to go out with him? After all, back in my day the girls just put a Bayer aspirin between their knees.

The heart of the problem is simple for evangelicals, women have forsaken their God-given role in society. Obviously child bearing and subservience to men isn’t good enough anymore. But let’s not be too quick to paint all Republican with a wide brush, I hear there are some GOP men who are willing to allow women in the workforce, and thank goodness they are flexible enough to allow the women to be home at 5:00 pm to cook.