{"id":6373,"date":"2012-02-22T12:19:13","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T17:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=6373"},"modified":"2012-02-22T12:19:13","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T17:19:13","slug":"against-such-there-must-be-a-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/02\/22\/against-such-there-must-be-a-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Against such there must be a law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cThere is no law against such things,\u201d the apostle Paul wrote of \u201cself-control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silly man. People can\u2019t be allowed to control themselves<\/em>. That\u2019s why we have all kinds of laws<\/em> against such things.<\/p>\n

Laws forbidding self-control are, in fact, the essence of contemporary American evangelicalism. Advocacy for such laws are what we have made the central, defining characteristic of our faith.<\/p>\n

Who decides? Who will be trusted to decide? Who is in control?<\/p>\n

Not you<\/em>. You can\u2019t be trusted to decide for yourself.<\/p>\n

Self-control? Against such there must be<\/em> a law.<\/p>\n

s.e. smith: \u201cReproductive Parts<\/a>\u201c:<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is only this, the steady and escalating war for control. The reminder that the state owns us and our pieces, will carve us up and use us as it sees fit. The state has all the power in this equation. It expresses no remorse.<\/p>\n

I feel like I am living in a speculative fiction nightmare. I snap the light by the door off and on to see if that wakes me up. I start to wonder if I\u2019m floating in a tank somewhere and this is all being fed into my head. If I selected this from a library of entertainment options before entering hibernation mode. (Why would I have done that?) Maybe I\u2019m actually hurtling through space, getting ready to found a colony on a distant world, waiting for landfall and the activation of the wakeup sequence.<\/p>\n

A politician says abortion is bad for women. A politician says birth control is bad for women. A politician says he wants to ban prenatal testing. A politician says women should focus on their families. A politician says sex is for reproduction only. A politician says queers are disgusting. A politician says.<\/p>\n

A friend in Canada asks if it\u2019s really true.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d I say. \u201cYes, yes it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow is that even legal,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the lawmakers say so,\u201d I say.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Georgia state Rep. Yasmine Neal introduces the Anti-Vasectomy Act<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thousands of children are deprived of birth in this state every year because of the lack of state regulation over vasectomies. It is patently unfair that men can avoid unwanted fatherhood by presuming that their judgment over such matters is more valid than the judgment of the General Assembly, while women\u2019s ability to decide is constantly up for debate throughout the United States. Women, our bodies, and what we do with it are always up for debate.<\/p>\n

This bill has been drafted for all women who have the wherewithal to choose. The day has come where men should feel the same pressure and invasion of privacy that women have faced for years. I have introduced this legislation because it is the purpose of\u00a0 the General Assembly to assert an invasive state interest in the reproductive habits of the men of this state and substitute the will of the government over the will of adult men.<\/p>\n

This bill states that vasectomies can be performed to avert the death of a man or to avert serious risk of substantial or irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the man. This bill mimics the abortion bills throughout the nation, and just like the abortion bills interfere with a woman\u2019s right to choose, it\u2019s only fair that the General Assembly debate the men\u2019s right to choose, as well.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere is no law against such things,\u201d the apostle Paul wrote of \u201cself-control.\u201d Silly man. People can\u2019t be allowed to control themselves. That\u2019s why we have all kinds of laws against such things. Laws forbidding self-control are, in fact, the essence of contemporary American evangelicalism. Advocacy for such laws are what we have made the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAgainst such there must be a law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""There is no law against such things," the apostle Paul wrote of "self-control." Silly man. People can't be allowed to control themselves. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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