A certain conceit that’s gotten a lot of traction in the mainstream media these days is this idea that there is a so-called “war on women,” perpetrated especially by conservatives who believe in life at conception and thus do not support the medical practice of abortion.
Women should, by all means, be able to do whatever the hell they want to with their bodies. But of course, the GOP thinks it needs to stick its nose in people’s business. The right to life movement is vehemently opposed to abortions and has been trying to repeal the women’s right to choose for years now, and you’d think eventually they’d just give up and let people have their rights in peace. But no.
Jeff Crawford, a pastor at a multicampus Baptist church in Missouri and Arkansas claimed in a Sunday sermon that, indeed, women do not have ownership of their bodies: “only God does”. The sermon, of course, started with the evils of pornography – a medium of which studies suggest 90 percent of men use – before Pastor Crawford let out the kicker, stating that:
“This thing you hear about that a woman has the right over her own body: no, that is not true … your legs and your arms and your eyes and your head; it all belongs to God.”
Left unsaid: “your womb also belongs to God so forget making choices for yourself.”
The pastor’s ideas, however ignorant and narrow-minded, will play a large role in the upcoming presidential elections. And that is sad, to me. America has MUCH larger issues at stake that cold be used as campaign fodder than women’s rights and abortion. It is unbelievable to me that this is still an argument in 2015… we could talk about about stemming the threat of ISIS, making the scientific and historic voyage to Mars, curing cancer or aids. But instead, a bunch of loud-mouth hillbilly Jesus-freaks need to make a stink over something they have no goddamn business caring about.