Jason Rapert, a fundamentalist Christian and Arkansas politician, patrols the ramparts of Castle MAGA, protecting God-fearing Arkansans from the contagion of liberal rage. On his Save the Nation with Jason Rapert TV show, he warned a State Senator of the threat:
“And I am telling you, we have let the left so redefine everything, that anger in and of itself is not bad. And we have seen this, Senator Sullivan, creep into our own ranks, all right.”
Who knew that the violence of the Jan 6 insurrectionists, the spit-spumed rage of election deniers, and the tide of vituperation leveled at Trump’s prosecutors, judges, and witnesses were the result of a Democratic infection?
He went on to offer a case study of his theory.
“You get people, that you get up and giving an impassioned speech about abortion. “Oh well! You just hate women! You don't like women.” And you hear this stuff takeoff. And I see our own side get into this junk. And it really is a stench in the nostrils of God, in my opinion.”
He did not explain why stripping rights from women was not misogyny. Nor did he elucidate why his passionate desire to mandate forced birth was noble, while the equal passion of pro-choice advocates was beyond the pale.
This hypocrisy is hardly surprising. Rapert lives on the extreme edge of anti-choice zealotry. He believes that abortion should be a crime in every circumstance — no exceptions for rape, incest, or even to protect maternal health.
As a state senator, he sponsored the Arkansas anti-abortion trigger law in 2019 that went into effect when the Supreme Court overturned Roe. It banned abortion in all cases except to save the life of the mother. Rapert called exceptions to protect a woman’s health “an open door you could drive a truck through. You could describe anything that way.”
He then turned his attention to censorship. We must note that Rapert is more than a voice in the chorus. He can act on his bigotry. On Monday, Gov. Sarah Sanders appointed him to the state library board. This elevation is like calling Jack the Ripper in for a surgical consult.
Rapert suggested there was no evidence conservative politicians were incendiary censors. However, he added that Jesus’ biblical temple tantrum proves that the Son of God would be an enthusiastic book burner today.
"Because we see that Jesus … there were times even when Jesus went into the temple. He took a whip of cords, that he made, and he flogged people, and he ran them out, turned over the tables. Well, I don't see Senator Sullivan and people going into the library and throwing books out into the yard and burn them and that sort of thing. But you know that Jesus might just have done it himself if he were here."
Like a typical Bible cherry-picker, Rapert left out important details in his version of events. His “whip of cords” reference — you know the sadist likes that part, which is not in the other Gospels — indicates his source was John. Here is the complete text (John 2:13-16 NIV)
"When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.
So he made a whip out of cords and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.
To those who sold doves* he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”."
Nowhere is there anything about books. This omission is hardly surprising as there were few written documents. More importantly, Jesus’s prohibition was on mixing religion with commerce, or worse — the other gospels refer to a den of thieves.
Rapert does not mention that if Jesus returned today, he would be pissed at the merch stores on every church’s website. And righteously infuriated by the obscene wealth of the rapacious members of his fan club.
A further exegesis of Rapert's chosen reference shows that Jesus’s actual problem was with money changing hands. Libraries are the antithesis of commerce — they are free (except for the fines, do not get me started).
Rapert is no stranger to hyperbolic bigotry. His views on civil rights for gays et al. are as extreme as his position on abortion. And his language is equally unhinged.
"The LGBT activists who behave as Nazis are trying to ruin anyone who ‘disagrees’ with them – even grandmothers. Simply believing in the Bible is offensive to these activists. They can’t stand it if you disagree. They demand full compliance with their diminished morality. They clearly behave just like the ‘brown shirts’ and ‘SS’ troops that Nazis used to destroy Jews and anyone who disagreed with the Nazi ideology."
There is that MAGA projection again.
*Side note: As a child I was confused why Jesus had a problem with people selling doves. I later discovered that animal sacrifice was a significant and mandatory part of biblical Jewish religious ritual. Doves were the cheapest animals available. And Jesus was irate that the poor were forced to give money they could not afford to merchants who did nothing to honor his Father, based on rules set up to benefit religious profiteers.
Sound familiar?