I was wondering does the bible or Christians blame people for being molested or raped? This was just a question racing in my mind.

That "blame the victim" nonsense seems to have more to do with extreme conservatism, and not with theistic belief. That has been my observational experience.

I should add, though, that perhaps this question is best put to a board more thickly populated with Xians.

Oh, and welcome to the boards!

[This message has been edited by sentinel00 (edited April 05, 2001).]

I am sorry. I am very new to the board and to the terms. What is a Xian? And what defines a theistic? Thanks.

Hello Bella.

The Bible does not blame people for being raped. As for "Christians", that all depends on the individual in question I guess, like any other broad group of people.

Theistic belief deals with "God beliefs"- like Christianity but also applying to others. From "theos"- the Greek for 'god.' A 'Xian' is a somewhat derogatory term the non-Christian population sometimes uses for "Christians"- substituting the X for Christ. Xtian is the same. Like X-mas. X closely resembles the Greek letter 'chi', which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ, and some use this as a reason, although most probably do not.

The Bible doesn't generally blame people for being raped. But it seems to be regarded as a crime against the woman's male guardian, rather than the woman. It is a crime to rape married or betrothed women: if the woman does not cry out, she's assumed to be partly responsible and gets the death penalty along with the rapist.

Raping a single woman is a crime against her father, the theft of his daughter's virginity. The rapist must atone by marrying the victim or paying compensation to her father.

Raping and forcibly marrying/enslaving captured female virgins was authorized by Moses at one point (non-virgins were killed along with males and children). On other occasions, total genocide was ordered and the taking of virgins was forbidden, it depended on who the enemies were. As the Bible also mentions male slaves, it was presumably sometimes OK to let non-females live.

For a list of misogynistic Biblical passages, see the Insults to Women section of the Skeptics Annotated Bible.

You can blame Christians for "Xian." Non-Believers did not coin the term

Visit the II FAQ for answers to most of your questions. When visiting a new chat forum of any kind, it is usually a good idea to spend some time on the FAQ.

Mosaic law deals very harshly with the question of rape, sentencing the man to death for doing this.

Deuteronomy 22:25-27 But if out in the country a man happens to meet a girl pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die. Do nothing to the girl; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders his neighbor, for the man found the girl out in the country, and though the betrothed girl screamed, there was no one to rescue her.

In the case of a man raping an unbetrothed woman, he is forced to reimburse the girl's family, and to marry her, since the fact that she would no longer be a virgin would make her unmarriageable.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

It may appear harsh to us that the girl is required to marry her rapist, but in a culture where an unmarried woman becomes either a slave or starves, it was considered to be the most just solution. The fact that her rapist must bear responsibility for her, and is never permitted to divorce her guaranteed that he would pay for his crime through reimbursement of the girl and her family. Please note that the man is the one being held responsible for the crime, and not the girl.

Probably one of the saddest and most tragic stories in the Bible is the rape of King David's daughter Tamar by her half-brother, Amnon, who is then murdered out of revenge by Tamar's brother Absalom. The story is found in 2 Samuel 13, and the end result is disaster for the entire family, serving as one of the great moral lessons of the Bible.

Welcome to the boards bella, I hope this helps to answer your question.

Peace,

Nomad

I think it's worth mentioning the story of David and Bathsheba at this point. David is a hero, and mostly God approves of him. But David sees Bathsheba bathing, commits adultery with her, and she bears him a son. David has her husband Uriah killed by sending him "to the forefront of the hottest battle", and marries Bathsheba.

God is angry with David for having Uriah killed. As punishment, God kills the baby (killing kids to punish their parents is a common theme in the Bible). He also arranges to have ten of David's concubines raped by David's estranged son Absalom. Afterwards, David has the women imprisoned for the rest of their lives.

>It may appear harsh to us that the girl is required to marry her rapist, but in a culture where an unmarried woman becomes either a slave or starves, it was considered to be the most just solution. The fact that her rapist must bear responsibility for her, and is never permitted to divorce her guaranteed that he would pay for his crime through reimbursement of the girl and her family. Please note that the man is the one being held responsible for the crime, and not the girl.<

The idea that an Omnipotent, all-Good God would accompodate to the culture in this way makes me want to puke. An all-good God would never make a law such as you describe.
Instead, how about this.
"If an unmarried woman is raped, then the sorry sack of manure who did it will be tortured and killed as painfully as possible in full view of everyone. I, the Lord God, declare that the woman who was raped is a special child of mine and I will bless her all the days of her life, she shall have many children and the government will give her 100 oz. of Gold from the treasury. Furthermore, all of the unmarried men in the community will gather in the town sqaure and the woman will choose her husband and he shall love her forever. I will give them a happy marriage, abundant riches, and will bless their children and their childrens children."

An omnipotent, good God could surely do this. I bet there would be a quick cultural change.