Holy Debauchery, Batman!

Trey Smith

Let me tell you a secret about Bible believers that I know because I was one. Most of them don’t read their Bibles. If they did, they would know that the biblical model of sex and marriage has little to do with the one they so loudly defend. Stories depicted in the Bible include rape, incest, master-slave sexual relations, captive virgins, and more. Now, just because a story is told in the Bible doesn’t mean it is intended as a model for devout behavior. Other factors have to be considered, like whether God commands or forbids the behavior, if the behavior is punished, and if Jesus subsequently indicates the rules have changed, come the New Testament.

Through this lens, you find that the God of the Bible still endorses polygamy and sexual slavery and coerced marriage of young virgins along with monogamy. In fact, he endorses all three to the point of providing detailed regulations. Based on stories of sex and marriage that God rewards and appears to approve one might add incest to the mix. Nowhere does the Bible say, “Don’t have sex with someone who doesn’t want to have sex with you.”

Furthermore, none of the norms that are endorsed and regulated in the Old Testament law – polygamy, sexual slavery, coerced marriage of young girls — are revised, reversed, or condemned by Jesus.
~ from Captive Virgins, Polygamy, Sex Slaves: What Marriage Would Look Like if We Actually Followed the Bible by Valerie Tarico ~

I find it interesting that, as Tarico points out, the idea that a person shouldn't have sexual relations with another person AGAINST THEIR WILL somehow did not get enshrined in the 10 Commandments. It certainly is not that this wasn't a problem in biblical times!

Yet, for some reason, "God" didn't see fit to list this as one of the great prohibitions.

Now, if I were to look at this [glaring] omission as a sociologist -- particularly if I removed "God" from the equation -- what might I surmise? I might theorize that the reason there is no explicit prohibition against sexually victimizing females is that the rules were written by men within a deep-seated patriarchal society. In such a society, women and girls might be viewed as little more than property and so they would possess little civil recourse.

Even further, I might postulate that these males might view it as their right to deflower or debauch a girl or woman who was not betrothed to (i.e., the property of) another male.

Yes, this is what I might theorize if there was no "God" in the picture.