I can't quite tell what Richard Mourdock's church background is from a quick Google run; his campaign site has him "active in Christian Missions in Bolivia" and has been comfortable campaigning at conservative churches. He's the GOP nominee to replace Richard Lugar for Indiana's senate seat.
If a conservative says something bad's in God's will, liberals will make a knee-jerk trip to open theism, saying that the bad happening isn't in God's will-"My God wouldn't have let that happen." We saw that earlier this year when George Zimmerman chalked up his shooting of Travon Martin as God's will, much to the consternation of Papa Martin-"There is no way that my God wanted George Zimmerman to murder my teenage son."
We had a replay of that when Mourdock was grilled on abortion in the case of rape-that's an area where some pro-lifers will make an exception but other's won't; the latter thought is that 9 months of grief isn't worth killing someone for. Here's Mourdock's reply from last night
"I struggled with it myself for a long time, and I realized that life is a gift from God, and I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something God intended to happen," Mourdock said, explaining that he would allow for exceptions to an abortion ban when a mother's life is in danger.
That's not to say that rape is a good thing, but if you have the concept of a God who is omnipotent and omniscient and all those other omnis, God at least is OK with everything that is going down. However, that doesn't sit well with a lot a folks at first blush-here's his foe for the Indiana senate seat, Joe Donnelly
Donnelly also responded, writing, "I think rape is a heinous and violent crime in every instance. The God I believe in and the God I know most Hoosiers believe in, does not intend for rape to happen–ever. What Mr. Mourdock said is shocking, and it is stunning that he would be so disrespectful to survivors of rape."
That's not shocking, unless the concept of a seriously powerful God is shocking; Donnelly would likely be less shocked if he weren't trailing in the polls and needed something to wedge moderate Republicans away from Mourdock.
Job is oft-quoted in tragedies-"The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" is the slight misquote of the King James that I remember. I guess the liberal version only gives.
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