‘Legitimate rape’ remark fuels women’s skepticism about religion

[cbayer]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/religions-need-women-more-than-women-need-them/2012/08/21/332a88bc-eba7-11e1-9ddc-340d5efb1e9c_blog.html

Posted at 01:04 PM ET, 08/21/2012
‘Legitimate rape’ remark fuels women’s skepticism about religion
By Susan Froetschel


Todd Akin, Republican candidate for U.S. Senator from Missouri taking questions on Aug. 10, 2012 after speaking at the Missouri Farm Bureau candidate interview and endorsement meeting in Jefferson City, Mo. (AP)

As a roar has erupted over the now-famous phrase “legitimate rape,” Rep. Todd Akin’s clumsy attempt to justify fundamentalists’ justification of strict anti-abortion measures. Echoing President Obama’s assessment that rape is rape, the Washington Post editorial board suggested that a code is in play, that “the remarks are not the first, nor are they likely to be the last, in a long-running effort to downplay the horror of rape as a way to restrict access to abortion” and what anti-abortion politicians suggest is “that not all rape victims are victims.”

I’d go a step further. The code from fundamentalists sends a message that good women are not raped.

Yet women, particularly the most vulnerable, have difficulty abandoning religion. They’re less likely to become nonbelievers, because the church, mosque, synagogue and other religious communities promise security that their families might not provide.

R. Elisabeth Cornwell works with Richard Dawkins at his Foundation for Reason and Science, and in her 2009 article “Why Women Are Bound to Religion: An Evolutionary Perspective,” she explains that religious organizations offer an instant support group, whether real or illusionary: “Why are women even more likely to be religious than men? The simple answer is that it is safe…. the fact that women are less likely to push the status quo for fear of social exclusion and even retribution makes a lot of evolutionary sense.”

more at link

[Humanist_Activist]

1. It probably stems from here...

If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city. Deuteronomy 22:23-24

Apparently, if she doesn't cry loud enough, it isn't "legitimate rape", at least according to the god of the Bible.