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Capital News Service, Legislator Says Disabled kids are God’s Punishment:

[Virginia] State Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas says disabled children are God’s punishment to women who have aborted their first pregnancy. He made that statement Thursday at a press conference to oppose state funding for Planned Parenthood. “The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said Marshall, a Republican. “In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”

Delegate Bob Marshall, Statement on Recent News story by Capital News Service:

A story by Capital News Service regarding my remarks at a recent press conference opposing taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood conveyed the impression that I believe disabled children are a punishment for prior abortions. No one who knows me or my record would imagine that I believe or intended to communicate such an offensive notion. I have devoted a generation of work to defending disabled and unwanted children, and have always maintained that they are special blessings to their parents. Nevertheless, I regret any misimpression my poorly chosen words may have created as to my deep commitment to fighting for these vulnerable children and their families. Sincerely, Delegate Bob Marshall

No need to apologize, State Delegate Marshall!  Because you were right the first time.  Christianity does consider the disabled to be cursed by God. Let’s consult the primary evidence…

Who makes people blind? “Who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?” – Exodus 4:11.
Does God make people blind as a punishment? “The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart.” – Deuteronomy 28:28
What about people with other disabilities; does God hate them too? “Whosoever … hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God. For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous, Or a man that is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded, Or crookbackt, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye, or be scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken; No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. [...] Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries.” – Leviticus 21:17-23
And those who God favors, if they kill disabled people are they rewarded? “And David said on that day, Whosoever [...] smiteth [...] the blind that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.” – 2 Samuel 5:8
Did Jesus know about these laws and want us to keep them? [Jesus said] “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall nowise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:18-19.

See, State Delegate Marshall?  You stood up for your faith in the public square.  Don’t let your critics force you to back down.  In fact, I’d like to encourage you to go that one step further and detail what you mean when you say “In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord.”

Should we sacrifice first-born babies likewise as we sacrifice ox, sheep and liquor? “Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me. Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it me.” – Exodus 22:29.
That’s pretty harsh. Sure about that God? We’re supposed to kill children for you? “Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah…. And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over unto the children of Ammon to fight against them; and the LORD delivered them into his hands…. And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she was his only child…. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back. And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth…. And it came to pass at the end of two months, that she returned unto her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed.” – Judges 11:29-40.
Just asking one more time, God, it’s right in your eyes to offer human sacrifices? “Josiah … did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord … And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars.” – 2 Chronicles 34:1-5.
Yikes. How do you think I’m supposed to feel after killing a child? “Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.” – Psalm 137:9.

The problem isn’t that State Delegate Marshall misrepresented Christianity.  It’s that he represented it accurately to a Christian nation that makes a point of being ignorant of its own religion. Let’s see what else this moral giant has said.

Wikipedia, Robert G. Marshall:

Marshall sponsored the Marshall-Newman Amendment to the state constitution that prohibited same-sex marriage as well as civil unions, domestic partnerships, and “other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage.” It also prohibits the recognition of other states’ such legal arrangements. [...] When asked about abortion in the case of incest, Marshall replied that sometimes incest is voluntary. In response to abortions in the case of rape, Marshall said, “Your origins should not be held against you [referring to the victim's unborn child]. The woman becomes a sin-bearer of the crime, because the right of a child predominates over the embarrassment of the woman.”

God bless State Delegate Marshall. He’ll get nothing but curses from me.  Spitting hatred and contempt.