I would call this book a warning, others call it a good place to start.
I'm sure by now you've heard about the Miscarriage as Murder bill in Georgia (have you guys considered keeping the peaches and exporting the crazies?), but what I haven't seen anywhere other than a message board devoted to discussions of religious zealotry is the background behind it.
Theocracy. Scary, scary theocracy.
The bill's sponsor is Republican Billy Franklin, who, as it turns out, attends
Chalcedon Presbyterian in Cumming, GA, where Joe Morecraft III is pastor. That would be Pastor Joe Morecraft III, Vision Forum speaker and writer
If you're not familiar with Vision Forum, they're Quiverfullers. Quiverfull theology is based upon one little line in the Bible, and includes adherents like the Duggars (19 children), the Bates (pregnant with #19) and the Jeubs (pregnant with # 16). Their religion is pretty simple: women are to produce as many babies as they possibly can, ignoring health, sanity and finances, while submitting to the husbands and staying home to cook and clean and homeschool. In Quiverfull theology, women are useful for producing babies and have literally no other purpose. Girls are raised to never have dreams or hopes. Boys are raised to be dictators "leaders in the home".
And Billy Franklin wants to make it the law of the land. It's a testament to how far the Dominionist movement has come that while most everyone looked at this bill and said GAH!, the theocratic elements of it are so mainstream at this point, that most people argued the logistics of checking out every miscarriage, not the religion behind the imperative to do so.
I really hope I'm dead before The Handmaid's Tale becomes law. I really do.
::sigh::
ReplyDeleteI'm actually going to have to start getting involved in local politics, aren't I? At least at the local level. School board, city council... whatever.
I hate the whole idea of it, but if this is the alternative...
Did you know that the same asshat behind this garbage bill also introduced legislation mandating that victims of stalking, sexual harassment, molestation, domestic violence and rape be legally defined as "accusers"?
ReplyDeleteHe's a special, special brand of bananas.
I am starting to believe that we need riots against sexism. Nothing but NOTHING scares these guys more than an angry woman, except a large group of angry women.
Oh oops!
ReplyDeleteAlso: See http://tigerbeatdown.com/2011/02/25/are-you-there-representative-bobby-franklin-its-me-devery/
for a HI-LAR-I-OUS plan to respond to this garbage.
part of the reason that the Theocracy is able to take over in The Handmain's Tale is because there was a "plague" of infertility - over half of women were infertile [or something like this - it was the REASON for the Handmaids - they were "of proven fertility" and given to rich men whose wives weren't fertile...]
ReplyDeletewe haven't had that infertility...
but - every day, i become more terrified. i'm divorced. i'm not STERILE, but i WILL die if i try to carry a pregnancy. will that be enough? to stop them from shoving me into one of those BS things? or will i be forced into prostitution?
where can i run? i'm DISABLED? even if i could afford to emmigrate, i don't know that any place would TAKE me!