Oklahoma Republican Declares That Rape Is The "Will Of God."

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24. Agree with you that it is not necessary to hit people over the head with hyperbole. . .

. . . Not when we actually occupy the higher ground.

At no point did the unfortunate Republican from Oklahoma actually "Declare" rape to be the will of God. His responses were intended to convey that general idea that (his) God is in charge of everything and that even bad things are allowed to happen because God allows it or tacitly "wills" it.

A person can offer a critique of the choice of wording in the OP's title thread without tacitly approving of the Oklahoma legislator's belief system or insinuating that rape isn't a serious concern.

For the record, I think that the "God wills everything good or bad belief" system is dangerous and I also know that other people with more liberal political beliefs who still lean towards magical thinking espouse a similar line of reasoning. (If you can call it that.)

Some people believe in the "Law of Attraction". Others will state that "The Universe is unfolding as it should." Bible-believers subscribe to the idea in Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose", for themselves and can point to a host of other verses that basically mean that if it happened, then it is God's Will.

People who think like that are not only a serious threat (no hyperbole needed) to women's reproductive rights but also to the well-being and progress of the human race at large. They see everything through the prism of a book that posits absolutes and that has -- in essence-- already recorded the end of the world.

Even when such people promote policies that seem to be directed to helping people in the here and now, they have one foot in the Biblical agenda. That particular stripe of Christian is the sort that should be questioned about "dual loyalty", not Muslim Americans or Jewish Americans or Catholic Americans such as JFK.

To address the point that legislator doesn't think that rape is a crime, it needs to be understood that the Bible treats rape as a crime against property, not a woman's personhood. Furthermore, the real danger is that--with the passage of some sorts of laws-- a rapist could claim parental rights of a sort over the outcome of his violent attack on someone. I want to believe that an outcome like this is also a ridiculous hyperbolic alarm. Unfortunately, laws granting legal personhood to a fertilized egg and DNA technology could lead us in that direction.

Let's just cross our fingers that I am being absurd.