Korean Job Discussion Forums

[seoulunitarian]

Judges 19:22-30

"While they were enjoying themselves, a crowd of troublemakers from the town surrounded the house. They began beating at the door and shouting, 'Bring out the man who is staying with you so we can have sex with him.' The old man stepped outside to talk to them. 'No, my brothers, don�t do such an evil thing. This man is a guest in my house, and such a thing would bring dishonor to me. Here, take my virgin daughter and this man�s concubine. I will bring them out to you and you can abuse them and do whatever you like. But don�t do such a shameful thing to this man.' But they would not listen to him.

So the Levite took his concubine and pushed her out the door. The men of the town abused her all night taking turns raping her until morning. At dawn they finally let her go. At daybreak, the woman returned to the house where her husband was staying. She collapsed at the door and lay there until it was full daylight. When her husband opened the door to leave, he found his concubine on the ground. He said, 'Get up. Let�s go!' But there was no answer. So he put her body on a donkey and took her home. When he arrived home, he cut up her body into twelve pieces and sent one piece to each tribe."

Where to start? The first thing that caught my attention was not the actual violence of the account, but what is called evil and what is called good. This goes directly to my point of relative sexual/familial ethics. The owner of the house calls it evil to request sex with a stranger (it has nothing to do with man on man sex), but considers it good (or at least better) for the men of the village to rape and possibly kill his own daughters. And the reason he considers such things evil and good is not because of the sexual acts involved, but because of his reputation within the community.

It is just a matter of fact that women were considered property during the historical period in which this story was written, and I am not judging the scenario morally one way or the other in that regard. It is what it is. But fundamentalists should not be able to bypass this story when it comes to developing a set of biblical sexual or family values. So the men abuse the concubine (lucky virgin daughters escaped this one) until morning. The husband finds his dead or near dead concubine on the doorstep (after his morning coffee?) and simply tells her it�s time to go home. There is no attempt at care or resuscitation, just a bit of butchering practice when they arrive home.

Inevitably, my reason for posting this will come into question, and my answer is that I am sick of Christian fundamentalist ignorance equaling bliss.

Peace

[Demophobe]

You're trying too hard. Get some rest.

[seoulunitarian]

[Qinella]

[seoulunitarian]

[Demophobe]

I replied perfectly the first time, but I'm not sure you can read.

Once more, and in a word....

context.

[seoulunitarian]

[RACETRAITOR]

The Bible supports slavery, murder of your own children, and genocide. Christians really just pick and choose the sections that suit their needs. To any sane person it pokes holes in the idea that the Bible is some holy text that was perfect when it was written and will stay perfect forever, but any Christian who wants to defend that ground has to get through a lot of that stuff.

We all have a slightly different interpretation of the Bible. I read the part about Sodom and Gomorrah and I see it as God's condemnation of rape, not homosexuality. I read the bit about Onan and I see it not as a condemnation of masturbation, but of the rhythm method of birth control on a woman. It's impossible to pin anything on the Bible, because it's just so damn vague, and you can find all sorts of contradicting statements to support anything you want to say.

[seoulunitarian]

[seoulunitarian]

[Demophobe]

It's always the same clowns in every thread about Christianity...even when a complete loony starts it, someone they probably have zero in common with, they still feel the need to chime in with their homegrown philosophy for the hundredth time.

You are the zealots, and boring ones at that.

I am totally and completely comfortable with the OT. It's you that seem to have the problem with it.

You think 'context' is an "out"?

Perhaps it's your continued blindness to the big picture that has Christians repeating the word ad nauseum.

Where would you people be without the internet? Talking to the TV, invariably.

[Demophobe]

[Demophobe]

You are so lost, Daniel...searching for justification, even from nameless strangers.

[seoulunitarian]

[seoulunitarian]