Think how many times we heard the word "rape" in the last election, sometimes referred to as "legitimate"rape. That definition is not in the recognized categories, which list only anger rape, power rape, sadistic rape, and gang rape.

Some candidates even insisted that a raped woman should be forced to bear the child. Wondering why the raped woman's fate was so insignificant to these avowedly religious candidates, I checked out their guide: The Bible.

I found rape to be a prominent theme in the Old Testament, sometimes used by an avenging male whose honor has been stained. The end result is a total degradation of women, with utter disregard for the trauma of rape (See Judges 19; 22-29). Virgins were considered booty of war, to be kept alive for the troops' pleasure (Judges 21:10-12). In Numbers 31:17-18, soldiers are told: "But all the women-children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." All other inhabitants are to be killed.

The Biblical denigration of women starts early, when a month after birth -- the earliest any value is assigned to human life -- a male is already worth a greater monetary donation than a female, with similar discrepancies in valuation for the remainder of life (Leviticus 27: 1-7). The Ten Commandments classifies women as a possession, along with cattle (Exodus 20:17).

But the most horrifying story I found was Genesis, Chapter 19. Two angels disguised as men visit a man named Lot. A mob surrounds his home, demanding that Lot turn over his guests to them. Quick-thinking Lot, no doubt fearing heavenly wrath if he did as they demanded, proposes a substitute plan: "Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man: let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only unto those men do nothing…"

Personally, I find the picture of Lot's offering up his little girls for mob pleasure much more revolting than the possibility of men attacking men, but religionists never express revulsion at this; instead, they use this fable as a basis for their opposition to homosexuality.

We should be appalled by such tales, and recognize them as stories of primitive civilizations whose "Lord" reflected their own undeveloped morals. Today, society no longer condones coercion of any sexual act. A father offering his daughters for gang rape would be sentenced in a court of law. Morality has clearly evolved since Biblical times.

Sadly, we still have throwbacks dedicated to this 5000-year-old Biblical thinking when it comes to women.

Congressmen working on the government-mandated health insurance program who want to give businesses "the right to refuse to provide contraceptive coverage to women" reflect this antiquated thinking. Contraception represents a threat to "manhood," since its use gives women the power to control whether men can reproduce.

Withholding contraceptives from women becomes another way to dominate women.

Perhaps those who do, like actual rapists, enjoy the power such action gives them. The description of "power rape" says this "feeds their issues of mastery, control, strength, authority and capability."

Contraception, it seems, has become a "pawn of power" to such people and withholding it has become a new way to rape women.

A New Form of Rape by Janet Brazill

Janet Brazill is the former editor of Freethought Views, a long time member of the Freethinkers of Colorado Springs, a long-time advocate of women's rights.

Published September 2013 with the quote below.

"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."  Galileo Galllei