Jimmy Carter Blames Religion for Abuse of Women

Jimmy Carter, thinker extraordinaire, has weighed in on what causes the abuse of women and girls, and he has found the answer: religion. 

Appearing on Meet the Press with Andrea Mitchell, Carter decided to grace the western world with the view from his mountaintop:

For the last three years we’ve been concentrating on the relationship between religion on the one hand and the abuse of women and girls on the other. Existing abuse of females is the worst and most pervasive and unaddressed human rights violation on Earth. That is really derived, I would say, indirectly from the fact that religious leaders say that women are inferior in the eyes of God, which is a false interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, but when they see that the pope and the Southern Baptist Convention and others say that women can’t serve as priests and so forth equally with men, they say, “Well, I’ll treat my wife the way I want to because she’s inferior to me.”

Mitchell then asked, “Why do you think the Pentagon is so resistant to changing and reforming the way sexual assaults are handled in the military?” 

Carter replied:

I think the same thing happens in universities in America as happens in the military–because presidents of universities and colleges and commanding officer don’t want to admit that under their leadership sexual abuse is taking place. So rapists prevail because they know they’re not gonna be reported.