Continuing our series addressing questions brought up by deconstructors, one of the accusations that I’ve recently run across is that the Bible condones rape, specifically that Numbers 31 condones it, which I will address in this post. Of course, this is yet another dumb claim that, when looked at in context, can easily be debunked, so let’s get into it.
First of all, though rape is something that is often talked about in the Bible, it is never portrayed in a good light. Some examples include the rape of Dinah in Genesis, Bathsheba being raped by David, the men of Sodom wanting to gang rape the angels who were in Lot’s house, etc. In every instance where there is a rape or attempted rape, bad things happen to the perpetrators. Shechem (who raped Dinah) is killed by her brothers (the only reason why they were punished was because they also killed a bunch of other people who weren’t involved), David was punished when his son by Bathsheba died, the men of Sodom were punished by being totally destroyed, and the list goes on.
This alone should be all you need to know to say that the Bible clearly sees rape as an evil thing, but we have to keep going, taking me to my second point which is that the Bible provided justice for rape victims. Deuteronomy 22:13-29 clearly lays out the groundwork of what to do when dealing with a rape case. If the woman fought back, that was a clear indicator that the encounter was not consensual, and the man was to be stoned to death (get wrecked, buddy). In cases where there was no one around to help testify to the woman’s innocence (for example: if she was raped in a rural area), the law still worked in her favor, giving her the benefit of the doubt that she fought back and once again, the perp was stoned to death. However, if the woman didn’t fight back, then both parties were in trouble. Usually, what would happen in this case was that the man who had slept the woman (which is the more accurate way of translating “rape” in Deuteronomy 22:28-29; Exodus 22 also has a parallel law) was forced to pay the father and marry the woman and could never divorce her.
Just like with many other laws in the Bible, this one was groundbreaking, given that the surrounding pagan cultures only treated rape as an offense not against the woman, but against her male guardian, be that her husband or her father. It was viewed through the lens of a being violation of another’s personal property and the social order instead of being seen as a personal violation. Instead of promoting this view of rape, the Bible condemned it as a violation worthy of death.
Third, in the case of marriage, the New Testament indirectly condemns marital rape. In Ephesians 5 (a commonly misused chapter that I discussed in my previous apologetics post), while women are called to submit to their husbands, men are called to be loving husbands who love their wives as Christ loved the church. That means that there in a loving, godly relationship, there can be no room for rape because rape is not loving as it instead uses sex as a weapon to abuse the victim.
Now, I will address the controversy around Numbers 31. Once again, this is a case where you need to read the Bible in context, the context beginning several chapters back in Numbers 22. The Moabite/Midianite leaders were trying to figure out a way to destroy Israel so this guy, Balaam, suggested that they corrupt them from within by sending in the women to seduce the men. The ploy worked, the men slept with the women, the women convinced them to start worshipping Baal, and all hell broke loose for the Israelites as God sent a plague to punish them for their deeds. Then, in Numbers 25, God commanded Moses to treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them. Moses obeys and attacks them. The men were killed for obvious reasons, but the non-virgin women were killed specifically because they had been the ones to use sex as a weapon against the Israelites. The virgin women were spared, which leads to the controversy surrounding this chapter because the 32,000 virgins were given to various soldiers, priests, and civilians.
While this might sound absolutely horrible since (out of context) it seems that 32,000 women were raped, this actually was a merciful act and was not referring to wartime rape (if a rape did take place, under Deuteronomy 21:10-14, that was a serious crime that would be dealt with accordingly). Keeping the women as wives or servants was merciful because they had nothing to go home to after the battle. By being married off to people or kept as a servant, they were given food, clothing, training, and protection. Once again, compare this to the pagan societies of the time where wartime rape was normal and the soldiers who engaged in it were never held accountable for their crimes.
From this, we can see that God does not condone rape and to end this post I would like you to consider this. It’s in part because of these teachings from the Bible that condemn rape that women in Christian countries have vastly more protections than women in non-Christian countries. It’s the reason why in Western countries, if a woman is raped and the man is caught and proven guilty, his punishment will be severe. Meanwhile in non-Christian countries or ones that are increasingly turning towards non-Christian religions, violence against women and protections for women are few or non-existent. For example, England is famously a Christian country, but ever since the influx of Muslim immigrants coming into England and taking control, it is becoming increasingly Islamic and women in Britian have been reporting how it has become more and more dangerous to exist as a woman there as the number of assaults rise. Recently in Britain, a thirteen-year-old girl found in her underwear in a house full of seven Pakistani men was arrested for hooliganism while the men who had clearly been raping her were charged with nothing. This has been a trend that has been going on for close to a decade as far as I can tell from my research, as Pakistani grooming gangs have been sexually exploiting minors and getting away with it thanks to woke and Muslim politicians. If you want some more examples of this, just look at how women are also treated in other countries that don’t operate with Christian ethics, like India, China, almost every African country, Iran, Afghanistan, etc. Christianity is unique in that it is the only religion on Earth that treats rape as a crime of personal violation and addresses the trauma of it while every other religion treats it as something that’s just a problem of violation of property.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
Any sex that is non – consensual is rape. Period. In fact, as a mental exercise I want you to imagine you are around twelve or thirteen, your entire tribe/nation including every member of your immediate family and every relative has just been brutally slaughtered. You are cowering in your house that is awash with blood and a soldier hauls you screaming and crying and as a war trophy you are given as a wife/ concubine to (sic) middle aged priest to do as he pleases.Now tell me honestly, in your heart of hearts, that you as a twelve/ thireteen year old child having to submit sexually to a total stranger whose army has just killed every person you ever knew that this is not rape.As for how wonderful Christian countries are toward women. The gods you are ignorant and naieve.For millenia woman have traditionally been regarded as property and bargaining tools in the affairs of state throughout Christendom and had little or no say in who they were married off to/ traded for. In fact, in the UK rape within a marriage was only considered a criminal offense in1991!
So, yes, if the Bible tale of the Midianite slaughter were anything but geopolitical foundation myth your god, Yahweh did condone rape.
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And yet, the Bible still includes provisions in Deuteronomy for women captured in battle that were totally new back then and Leviticus provides protections for rape victims. And, once again, any time a rape occurred, there were serious reprocussions.
Sadly, the way the Christians have treated women over the course of history has been much different than the way that God treated women. Don’t judge Christianity based on the actions of fallen man, however. Judge it on how God acts.
Lastly, name a single non-Christian country that treats women well.
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You did not address a singe point I raised.
So try again, and THIS time have the integrity to answer them with honesty. Rape: Start with imagining you are a thirteen year old virgin girl and, as a war trophy are about to be obliged/ forced to have sex with a middle age Israelite priest after recently watching your entire family and relatives, including babies, being brutally slaughtered in front of your eyes.
Then address the issue of marital rape in so-called Christian countries.
Then I will gladly address your question about non Christian countries.and how they treat women.
You’re up…
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To your first point, while that would admittedly be traumatizing, the rules laid out in Deuteronomy would give me a month to mourn and get used to my new reality. Not only that, but if I wanted to, I could divorce my new husband, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Moreover, if I stayed with him, though I might not have liked him, it would’ve been the better of two evils: marry the guy who I don’t like and raise my status in society by doing so, now being clothed, fed, trained, and protected, or run away to nothing to face a world where I would be treated as less than an animal. Perhaps I sound like a gold digger, but if I lived in that society, I would much rather stay with the Israelite guy than take my chances elsewhere and be treated worse.
(That’s not even mentioning the fact that the Midianites were terrible, inhumane people who worshipped Baal, would use babies as human sacrifices, had temple prostitution, or that by 12-14, I would’ve likely been either given to be a prostitute or forcefully married to someone much older who would’ve treated me much worse than the Israelites would’ve done.)
As for martial rape in Christian countries, I have already addressed that. Humans are inherently sucky creatures thanks to the Fall. Though we may be commanded to act one way by the God that created us, unfortunately we don’t always do that, which can mean that things like making marital rape illegal take much longer. However, in today’s world, no Christian country on Earth allows for rape in any case. It’s been a long time coming, but it’s here now. That’s not God’s fault; that’s the fault of humanity. Meanwhile, 43 countries including Pakistan, India, China, and Saudi Arabia still allow marital rape, while out of the 150 countries that have criminalized it in some way, shape or form 110-120 of them have had some sort of Christian influence on them in the last 100 years that also intersected with human rights and feminist advocacy groups.
Furthermore, you’ve had the great privilege of growing up in a world that has been civilized by Christian ethics, but unfortunately you are so blinded by your comfy life and the belief that everything – including morality – comes by the hands of man (Romans 1:18-22) that you can’t recognize that your argument is based on Christian morals. The only reason why the wars the West fights are relatively civilized is because of the Christian ethics that we’ve knowingly or unwittingly adopted. If it were not for Christian ethics, things like the Geneva Convention’s rules about warfare would never have come about. In your arrogance stemming from the comforts of growing up in a civilized Western society, you have failed to realize that only until fairly recently, the rules we have did not apply to the warfare of ancient cultures that were largely pagan (and still, many non-Christian countries do not abide by the Geneva convention, as we’ve seen in the case of Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7). It wasn’t until Christianity became widespread that social reform started taking shape though it was a slow process.
Now you can answer my question.
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I am guessing you were completely unaware rape in marriage in the UK was only deemed a criminal offence after 1991. That says a lot about your ignorance and personal bias in this situation.
How your make believe Canaanite deity treated women has already need addressed. As for the so called Fall… This also is nothing but a man made doctrinal piece of nonsense.
It nmight be a good exercise to set aside your religious indoctrination for a while and look at the evidence from a purely historical perspective.
This might help you view Christianity in a more objective light.
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“1: So your god, Yahweh did condone rape and as a trophy bride you would have had no status and obliged to have sex whenever your rapist /husband(sic) wanted.”
It’s interesting that you tell me to “look at the evidence from a purely historical perspective” and then make this assertion. If you would do what you’re advising me to do, you would see that in every ancient culture on Earth up until relatively recently allowed for early marriages. The reason for this was because:
1). There was a cultural understanding that, as a woman, you likely wouldn’t live long because of things like war, famine, disease, abuse, and complications from childbirth, so early marriages were the best way to make the most out of your biological clock since you would likely be dead by 30.
2). Early marriages also provided status and protection for women because if they were unlucky enough to have their father or other male relatives die, they would have a man to take care of them and any other females in the family. If it wasn’t for that, they would be thrown out to the world and treated as objects for men’s enjoyment with no rights whatsoever. Fathers who did their best to make good matches for their daughters were actually doing them a favor, and God allowing that was not Him condoning rape.
Now since you’re so intent on running around delaying answering the question that I asked you with your last two points, let me be so kind as to answer them for you. A Christian country is any country that has primarily built its legal system around Judeo-Christian values. For example, Britian was founded on Judeo-Christian values, and it thrived for centuries, eventually being the birthplace of the Magna Carta and the Oxford Accords, which were sets of rights written by the British people who were being oppressed by their government that would play a large role in the writing of the American Constitution and Bill of Rights (two other documents that were based on Judeo-Christian morality). Even if their governments have become largely secular (as in the case of Britian and Finland), that does not deny that their most fundamental laws are built around Christian morality.
From this definition of what a Christian country is, the definition of a non-Christian country should be pretty self-explanatory, but I’ll explain that, too. A non-Christian country is any country that has built its laws off of religions other than Christianity. For example, Afghanistan is a country that has built its laws off of the teachings of Islam and it is an absolute hellhole. These definitions are not subjective.
Currently, there are 27 official Islamic states that explicitly reject Judeo-Christian (or Western) moral foundations, with 20 of the 27 being in the Middle East and North Africa. They operate by the teachings of Sharia law, which draws from the Quran and the Hadiths, which significantly affects things such as family, inheritance, and criminal codes. Even ones with some secular or Western laws tend to reject those in favor of Sharia law more and that’s not even mentioning countries who, while having a large Christian majority, are being taken over by Islamic radicals (such as what we’re seeing in Sudan, Congo, etc.) Women are not treated well in these societies, with Sharia law allowing for them to be beaten on a whim, treated as sex slaves, etc. Going back to my example of Afghanistan, women are currently not allowed to go outside without a male escort, cannot speak, read, or sing in public, are not allowed to be educated past the 6th grade, and have to wear clothing that covers absolutely everything.
There are also 2 officially Buddhist countries (5 if including unofficial favor) and while Buddhist women are treated somewhat better than in other countries, men are still favored and typically these Buddhist countries are hotspots for trafficking and domestic violence (in Thailand 1 in 4 women are victims of domestic violence and in Myanmar, rape is used as a military tactic.)
As for countries with Hinduism or animism as their official religion, though there are no sovereign states recognized as such, in states where Hinduism and animism are the majority, women are given fewer rights then men socially and economically. In countries where Hinduism is dominant, women are subject to systemic violence and cultural restrictions based in Hindu patriarchal traditions. In animist states, women are also favored less than men and, in some cases, like in Papua New Guinea (which though it has a 96% Christian population, 70% of rural peoples are animist), 67% of them are subject to domestic violence, they’re still seen as commodities and tribal conflicts reduce them to spoils of war, and they’re still often tortured or killed because of superstitious beliefs. Polygamy and female genital mutilation also still exist in many animist cultures.
Secular/atheist states are harder to define given that they could be considered to be any state that does not have an official religion though it may incorporate Judeo-Christian morality into its laws. However, some examples of atheist states that have treated women poorly are China and the former USSR who only saw women as a means to an end, pushing them into the workforce faster to help bring about socialism/communism. They were not treated any better because of any moral stipulation that said they should be. They were only given more rights because it could benefit their corrupt governments.
So, there you go. I have not only answered your questions but have also answered the question you were too scared to answer.
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1.As the main thrust of your post was did your god, Yahweh condone rape and you highlighted the slaughter of the Midianites it is interesting that having being pointed out more than once that your god, Yahweh condoned rape you still lack the humility to acknowledge this fact.
2. I was not afraid to answer in the least. I wanted to be perfectly clear what you meant by the terms you used. It was as I suspected.
Therefore, if you truly believe the average non believer has not encountered and dealt with the wet-behind-the – ears apologetics you gleefully push then you are more naieve than I thought.
So Judeo Christian Values, eh?
In actual fact the greatest strides for citizens and women in particular were taken when secularism took the place of Rule by Divine Right.
In general Christian morals have been a reflection of where they came from.. culture, which included religious beliefs, naturally, and religious texts.
So these values embraced slavery, misogyny, child labor, war, expansionism, colonialism(in the name of your god, Yahweh), to list a few.
So, all in all pretty darn vile when merely these things are taken into consideration. There are plenty of others.
It is pointless addressing your strawman nonsense about secular / atheist countries, so I won’t.
In conclusion, as this was the topic of the post; to reiterate: Yes, your god, Yahweh condoned rape.
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Oh, I forgot to add, Kudos to the proof reader and whoever trawled Google for you. 😊
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Well, thank you because I was the one who did all the proof reading and did all of that research (while recovering from surgery for bonus points), but thanks for implying that I’m too stupid to do any of that myself presumably because of my youth and religion.
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Would never imply you are stupid.
Ignorance because of the religious indoctrination you have been subject to, most definitely.
I would strongly recommend you listen to people such as Matt Dilahunty and Dan Barker.
You probably know of them already but might not know their back stories. Both men formerly heavily involved in Christianity.
Hearing from those who have been on both sides of the fence and how they shrugged off the supernatural beliefs they once firmly held and promoted/preached is a refreshing take on commonsense and the ability to exercise critical thought when all around them were hammering on they are sinners etc etc.
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Sorry.. Forgot. Speedy recovery from surgery. Wishing you all the very best of health.
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Everybody is indoctrinated by someone or something. It’s called influence. Atheists are influenced by Dawkins. Christians are influenced by Billy Graham, etc. Being indoctrinated isn’t the problem. The problem is whether or not the indoctrination is true. I have met some very smart individuals who hold PhD’s and have said really stupid stuff. On the flip side, I have met folks who never graduated high school hold incredibly intelligent conversations. The point is that critical thinking is not suspended on indoctrination. However, indoctrination is weighed on the scales of an absolute truth. But if there is no absolute truth (i.e. moral relativism) then there is no point in pointing out someone’s indoctrinated beliefs. If there is no such thing as absolute truth then this blog post and thread is pointless. If there is such a thing as absolute truth defining what is right and what is wrong (i.e. Moral Law) then the originator of such a thing would be worth considering (i.e. that God exists).
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