The God Of Small, Mean Things
Posted: February 20, 2012 Filed under: abortion rights, Anthony Comstock, birth control, Feminists, fetus fetishists, health, Human Rights, Planned Parenthood, PLUB Pro-Life-Until-Birth, religion, religious extremists, Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, Rick Santorum, Women's Healthcare, Women's Rights 41 CommentsIf there’s a positive aspect in the recent skirmishes of the Contraception Wars, it’s the exposed, full Monty view of right-wing political theology.
Rick Santorum, a self-appointed moralist in this ancient battle, espouses views that neatly summarized the public’s [primarily men’s] viewpoint on women’s issues some 100 years ago.
When I listen to Rick Santorum and his carping supporters, who fervently believe that they and only they have a right to determine a woman’s reproductive destiny, I’m certain that the Comstock Laws [back in the day] would have suited them perfectly.
In the waning years of the Grant administration, Anthony Comstock waged a one-man crusade in the US against what he viewed as pornographic, obscene and lewd materials. He was the judge and jury in this matter and after great effort and energy, the Comstock Act was written into law in 1873, amending the Post Office Act. It read as follows:
Be it enacted…That whoever, within the District of Columbia or any of the Territories of the United States . . .
shall sell…or shall offer to sell, or to lend , or to give away, or in any manner to exhibit, or shall otherwise publish or offer to publish in any manner, or shall have in his possession, for any such purpose or purposes, an obscene book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture, drawing or other representation, figure, or image on or of paper of other material , or any cast instrument, or other article of an immoral nature, or any drug or medicine, or any article whatever, for the prevention of conception, or for causing unlawful abortion, or shall advertise the same for sale, or shall write or print, or cause to be written or printed, any card, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any king, stating when, where, how, or of whom, or by what means, any of the articles in this section…can be purchased or obtained, or shall manufacture, draw, or print, or in any wise make any of such articles, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof in any court of the United States…he shall be imprisoned at hard labor in the penitentiary for not less than six months nor more than five years for each offense, or fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars, with costs of court….
For the next forty years, Anthony Comstock wielded a censoring club on all things he deemed smutty and obscene. That included any and all materials related to contraception, abortion, sex education, sex itself and managed to extend itself not only in posted materials but literature, suppressing the works of DH Lawrence and Theodore Dreiser as well as banning nudity in artworks, even images and text in medical books, describing and illustrating reproductive functioning.
This is where the push to purity takes one, a mindless rejection of the human body and human nature, an extreme Sin of the Flesh philosophy.
Comstock had a particular problem with women, particularly the likes of Margaret Sanger and her supporters, as well as the Suffragettes, who openly defied Comstock’s puritanical attitudes. These women marched, sent pamphlets to supporters, 
opened health clinics, smuggled contraception devices into the country, went to jail, went on hunger strikes, put their bodies on the line. And did not give up.
Women earned/won their right to vote in 1920. Griswold v the State of Connecticut was decided by the Supreme Court in 1965. The decision protected the right of married women to practice contraception and demand access to reliable reproductive services. These rights were eventually extended to unmarried women, the right to privacy established, which later swung the door open to the Roe v Wade decision.
I have no doubt that Santorum and like-minded, right-wing adherents would have no problem, slamming that door shut, hopping into a time machine and revisiting the days of Comstock purity. Let’s review the latest Santorum Hit Parade:
Telling a crowd at the Ohio Christian Alliance on Saturday that President Obama’s agenda was a “phony ideology” not “based on the Bible,” Rick Santorum has offered two explanations: the imposition of secular ideas on the Catholic Church and radical environmentalism that he claims the President specifically and Democrats in general have been pushing to the max.
Where to begin?
On the first charge, Santorum said:
The president has reached a new low in this country’s history of oppressing religious freedom that we have never seen before. If he doesn’t want to call his imposition of his values a theology that’s fine, but it is an imposition of his values over a church who has very clear theological reasons for opposing what the Obama administration is forcing on them.
This is clearly an example of contorted gamesmanship. When there is no defense to your position, you claim your opponent is doing what you yourself desire to do, in this case, impose your beliefs on the greater population. Very Comstock-like.
No one is forcing anything on Santorum, the Church or those who agree with their rigid position. The ‘compromise’ the Administration offered has already been accepted by Catholic charities, hospitals and universities as reasonable and workable. The fact that Santorum and the Catholic Bishops want to run their position into the ground does not make it right or timely. It’s simply a narrow, constipated outlook that belongs to an age when women were securely under the thumb of men like Santorum and the whims of Catholic Church. History has passed; attitudes and positions change.
In defense of the second explanation—radical environmentalism—Santorum had this to say to Bob Schieffer’s Face the Nation:
This idea that man is here to serve the Earth, as opposed to husband its resources and be good stewards of the Earth. And I think that is a phony ideal… I think a lot of radical environmentalists have it upside-down.
What pops out to me is the phrase ‘husband its resources.’
Change that phrase to the single word ‘extraction’ and we get the gist of what’s being said. So, anyone opposing the Keystone Pipeline would be deemed a ‘radical environmentalist,’ even though the 1700 mile pipeline endangers America’s bread basket and a major aquifer, would not reduce our dependence on unfriendly oil suppliers [80% of the refined tar sands is contracted for export] and would offer, at best, 5000-6000 temporary American jobs. Even an amendment to this new bill, a proposal that would have ensured that at least the steel for the pipeline would have been from the US, was rejected out of hand.
Color me a Environmental Radical. The Keystone project benefits no one but the rich financiers behind it. They get the mega-profits; we [the public] get stuck with a wasted landscape and the cost of any cleanup.
Or perhaps, Santorum is speaking about the WH’s kibosh on the uranium mining deal for the Grand Canyon. Splendid idea there. Turn one of the Wonders of the World, a national treasure into a money pit for mining interests. I’ve stood on the rim of the Canyon, marveled at the grandeur, the colors, the staggering expanse. And this, we would turn into a uranium mine? What a small, stingy idea!
I suspect Teddy Roosevelt [one of those evil progressives] is turning in his grave.
But Santorum outdid himself with this comment:
He lambasted the president’s health care law requiring insurance policies to include free prenatal testing, “because free prenatal testing ends up in more abortions and therefore less care that has to be done because we cull the ranks of the disabled in our society.”
Culling the ranks of the disabled?
Don’t mistake this comment as a defense of religious liberty because this is a coded charge that what contraception and abortion [presumably determined through prenatal testing and care] really involves is a form of eugenics. We will cull the herd of imperfections. Or we will attempt genocide of minorities. This is Glenn Beck hysteria. Billboards in Georgia revived the old smear against reproductive rights, charging that African American women were being targeted for abortion services. Black children, the claim stated, were an ‘endangered species.’
Funny that. I thought we were all of the same species.
If we truly want to talk about minorities being endangered, why don’t we talk about our prison population, comprised primarily of people of color. But, of course, that would be uncomfortable, deemed unfair by Republican politicians, who in their infinite wisdom want our prison system privatized, which will ensure maximum capacity for the sake of profits.
These arguments are old and pathetic. They’ve been leveled against anyone and everyone who have supported basic health services to women. Prenatal screening is a mainstay in the health of an expectant mother and the viability of any pregnancy. Problems can be picked up early and corrected before a delivery. The health of an expectant mother translates into the health of the developing fetus. The idea that screenings should be done away with or not offered to low income women is cruel.
The religion that Rick Santorum and his ilk would like us to swallow whole is one dictated by religious fanatics, purists like Anthony Comstock, where it’s their way or the highway. It is small. It is mean. It is unworthy of anything approaching the Divine.
We want a healthy society? Then we offer health services to all our citizens. Yes, even women, who deserve to be the arbiters of their own reproductive lives.
Garry Willis, historian, journalist and Catholic intellectual had this to say in a piece entitled “Contraception’s Con Men”:
The Phony “Undying Principle” Argument
Rick Santorum is a nice smiley fanatic. He does not believe in evolution or global warming or women in the workplace. He equates gay sex with bestiality (Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum). He equates contraception with the guillotine. Only a brain-dead party could think him a worthy presidential candidate. Yet he is praised by television pundits, night and day, for being “sincere” and “standing by what he believes.” He is the principled alternative to the evil Moderation of Mitt Romney and the evil Evil of Newt Gingrich. He is presented as a model Catholic. Torquemada was, in that sense, a model Catholic. Messrs. Boehner and McConnell call him a martyr to religious freedom. A young priest I saw on television, modeling himself on his hero Santorum, said, “I would rather die than give up my church’s principles.” What we are seeing is not a defense of undying principle but a stampede toward a temporarily exploitable lunacy.
I rest my case!
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
This is one of those situations that’s hard to watch, but the disinfecting light of day should work wonders.
I certainly hope so, Kat. I am boggled but not surprised that we are even having this conversation.
“If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities”. -Voltaire had it right on religion.
If this gains any more momentum, and I believe it will, then I think it will be the final undoing of the institutional Roman Catholic church…at least in the United States. The church is already pretty irrelevant in Europe. The fanatics will cling to the existing structure, and we will see a sort of diaspora church not unlike the early days of Christianity.
That’s certainly possible and, from my point of view, would be a positive outcome. In a sane country, this would also turn the Republican party into the Whigs.
I agree. It’s hard to stomach. It’s really hard to listen to Santorum but this viewpoint, in all its mean, petty glory, is being exposed for what it is. I heard a piece this morning with Santorum describing the WH, making a comparison to the US sitting on the sidelines, watching Europe fall to the Nazis.
This stuff is so over-the-top it’s ludicrous.
That’s a chilling quote by Voltaire, Btw. All too applicable.
Great post Peggy,and you are right about that quote from Voltaire, chilling.
Thank you, Ma’am. And yes, that quote can you give you the willies.
Rick the Dick is a pathetic speciman of manhood! Funny, I don’t think his wife married him out love, but to escape something in her past.
I wonder if Santorum is familiar with Tay-Sachs and Sandhoff diseases?
What about phenylketonuria (PKU) which can be detected prenatally so parents can be prepared to give the child a special diet that will permit normal development?
http://odphp.osophs.dhhs.gov/pubs/guidecps/text/ch44.txt
There are numerous diseases that can be detected through genetic screening in the womb that can allow parents to prepare for what is to come–either to care for the infant to control the disease (e.g. sickle-cell anemia or phenylketonuria) or to make a decision not to let their infant suffer a horrible lingering death from a disease like Tay Sachs or Huntingtons.
Rick Santorum’s a dangerously ignorant and narcissistic person who projects his own fears and anxieties onto normal Americans who simply want to make their own private medical decisions.
What about the problems that can be fixed now with fetal surgery? He’s also ignorant of the fact that if you find some of these abnormalities you can stop some of the damage. Besides, children with trisomy are born every day. It appears some parents are fine with that outcome. He thinks every person is just going to end every pregnancy because the outcome isn’t perfect? WTF kind of twisted thinking is this? I never thought I’d ever say this but he makes Michelle Bachmann look rational.
I have worked with clients who were born before the testing were available and the end result of not having the special diet is very hard. The physical deformities are visible and the mental degeneration is severe, in addition to the other health issues they develop.
Does Santorum even have a clue? I guess he hides his ignorance by talking about theology and sex, sex and SEX!
He seems to like to invite disastrous pregnancies with horrible outcomes. I would think he’d feel bad about continually putting his wife’s life in danger. This ignores that he’s producing situations where he basically brought on horrible suffering to a child or infant. Is it just to see how far you can push the envelope for personal glory? Could he really be that fanatical that he embraces the suffering of others to follow a blind dogma that even seems to go beyond what the church demands? He seems to use and create personal tragedies resulting from really bad decisions for campaign props and proof of sainthood. He doesn’t seem to care about how any one else suffers to prove his points. It’s really pathological. Why not get fixed if you know your wife is still fertile into those dangerous upper forties? Why invite suffering onto others? What possible point does this prove other than he’s a heartless ass? I still reel when I think of his Terry Schiavo antics. It’s like all these beings are props for him.
The Santorum’s of this country are the reason people like me used to carry ‘Right To Die’ membership cards, with clear instructions to medical staff, family as to OUR wishes of declining care if our mental state was no longer working to make to most basic decisions, or even feed ourselves.
I guess I had better contact them and renew membership…
I still say santorum’s level of stupidity should be made illegal — No Amnesty!
Yep!
http://jezebel.com/5886533/rick-santorums-mardi-gras-of-wtf
Rick Santorum’s Mardi Gras of WTF
GOP Presidential hopeful and grimacing zealot Rick Santorum celebrated President’s Day by unleashing a series of jaw-dropping absurdity almost majestic in scale. From chastising Obama for not governing America with Biblical values to calling for an end to public schools, it was a veritable celebration of fuckery. Let’s tour the inanity.
I’ve always felt that home schooling was child abuse and a symptom of insanity. Any one that home schools should have the local health and human services do a battery of psychological testing unless they live in some extremely rural environment where it takes days to get to a school. Even then, since you choose that kind of life style, you should at least have the sense to have your child shipped off to civilization so they don’t go crazy too. I can’t imagine any benefits to having a parent try to teach everything. I doubt even the world’s geniuses could handle all the curriculum well. Plus, removing your child from interaction with other children is really really abusive, imho.
I have a friend from high school who homeschools her kids… she’s a really lovely,smart person. Religous. yes, but she always seemed a bit of freespirit in her own way. I kind of see how it works out in her case…since she’s really fostering a spirit of curiosity and learning and getting outside in the world.
But yeah, generally the concept of homeschooling has always freaked me out personally. Children learn by interacting with the world, not retreating from it. …And, the idea of getting rid of schools and reverting to homeschooling freaks me out even more. WTF? Logistically–how is a home where both parents are working 9 to 5 supposed to theoretically accomplish that, even if homeschool wasn’t so problematic.
Had a business partner and his wife who home schooled their two kids and it worked out really well. He’s an engineer and his wife’s a stay at home mom who had been a teacher in Iowa. They did it because of dissatisfaction with their local schools and not for religious reasons. Both kids are college graduates and doing very well now.
They kept the kids involved with other kids through Y activities and every kind of sports leagues imaginable. All the kids in the neighborhood seemed to hang out at their place to so socialization didn’t seem a problem.
note — you said that she was a teacher — this is the key. many kids are home schooled by untrained and often ignorant parents.
I agree with Dak — psych evaluations should be done on both parents and kids before the kids are allowed to be home schooled. There are a few successful home schooled kids — but my guess not that many.
My aunt is a master teacher and after she was retired she helped home school her adopted son’s kids. The school district was not very good (uncontrolled bullies etc.) — and my aunt had taught from first grade through high school during her long career.
I agree here with Potty Mouth Lee Camp, that it is all about men keeping power…they want to time machine us all back in time to where they were the only ones making decisions. Hell NO, we won’t GO BACK!
“The Right Wing Is Taking Rights Away From Women…
ayup.
How true!
Hahaha! Ejaculation Proclamation. Love that. Still laughing.
Potty Mouth Lee was spot on there…I believe Wall Street would close and congress recalled back to Washington if Viagra and other ED drugs were included with the ‘pill’ and other draconian laws being proposed.
Charles Pierce: Wreck The Vote
wonk the vote wreckers
Instead of “American white supremacy,” I suggest Mr. Pierce should have said “American white male a–hole supremacy.” The male addition is obvious. And there are a lot of nice white all-American males who do not buy what the GOP “leaders” like Santorum are selling.
djmm
Basically Pierce is correct. That old style white supremacy did not include any female leadership.
From Maddow blog …
Silent protest outside, Virginia House puts off ultrasound vote
That’s a hopeful sign at least, ralph. I like the idea of a silent vigil, bearing witness. It’s a powerful symbol. Of course, these zealots are likely to wait until people go home, and then push this monstrosity through in the middle of the night.
So much for liberty!
But this is already law in Texas. No silent vigil in Texas and very little national publicity.
djmm
And support from the federal courts too.
That has fuck all to do with stopping it in Virginia. Most people in Texas didn’t know the damn bill was even in the legislature before it was a done deal. I’m personally a little pissed off about that myself.
Hello!!! Happy President’s Day to everyone! A Happy Birthday to our first president, George Washington: 🙂
Happy Prez Day back at you, foxy!
So, in Santorum-land would a Christian Scientist employer be able to deny his or her employees any health care other than prayer? Would a Jehovah’s Witness employer be able to deny coverage for blood transfusions? Would an Orthodox Jewish employer be able to deny coverage for insulin derived from non-kosher animals?
see it is just one huge mess. 🙄