*this post includes talk about sexual violence
I don’t know what to write. How many times has that happened in the last year? Too many to count.
There are so many heavy things and so many essays and books already written about them. So many people are trying to understand and to explain how the Evangelical church got to this point.
There are no surprises here. This is nothing new. There is nothing new under the sun.
King David raped Bathsheba and killed her husband to cover it up. David’s son raped David’s daughter. David’s other son raped David’s concubines on the roof of the palace. The Levite’s woman was raped to death. I don’t really want to write any more examples of the violence against women in the Bible.
But, importantly, do we honestly think these were done in secret? Do we really think no one around knew what was happening? How many servants and co-conspirators were well-aware of what was happening? Absalom did his violence in the presence of all Israel, on the roof of the palace. David had to call for Bathsheba to come. He didn’t use the phone, he sent a servant. How many people not only turned a blind eye but condoned and even participated in and enabled such behavior? There were systems in place, structural and relational, that allowed this to happen.
Readers of the Bible consistently misinterpret stories of women in the Bible. Emphasis is placed on abusers rather than on victims. Women are seen as harlots and sex objects. Almost every story in the Bible about a woman is intricately wound up in her sexuality and is interpreted in a way that implicates her. How dare Bathsheba bathe on the roof? How dare she go to the palace? How dare Tamar let herself be found alone with her brother? How dare the concubines…well, concubines be concubines, they are there for sex, no matter who the man is.
It all makes me want to scream. Because sure, these are ancient stories, things were different back then (really? were they so different than the people we have in power now? Pretty sure I could name some names). But the story flows on and on and on and very little has changed. The women are still blamed. The men are still exempted from responsibility. The women are still objects. The men are still powerful and will fight and claw to maintain that.
Jump ahead thousands of years and the past centuries have been rife with sex scandals and devastating teachings that twisted our sexuality and relationships.
Some say it comes down to Christians’ attitudes about sex. Yes. Some say it comes down to attitudes about women in the church. Yes. About power? Yes. Domination? Yes. Independence? Yes. Isolation of men in power? Yes. Celebrity culture? Yes. Focusing on the perpetrator rather than the victims? Yes.
It is all so horribly broken.
I don’t believe simply putting women into positions of power would automatically change things but I do think it would be a good start. If we only focus on the one man who harmed, there will be no actual change. We have to reimagine the structures and systems.
The Evangelical View of Sex is at the Root of Our Sex Scandals is a good article about the problematic history of teachings in Evangelicalism. Here’s a quote:
“Every Man’s Battle” presents masturbating in gym parking lots or to the sight of one’s sister-in-law sleeping as normal male behavior. In the same book, a youth group volunteer who was married with three kids rapes a 15-year-old girl and is portrayed sympathetically, since his lust overwhelmed him…
…When abuse scandals like Ravi Zacharias or sex scandals like Carl Lentz are exposed, we should stop being surprised. These men acted out exactly what so many evangelical resources taught them: Men need physical release; they can’t control themselves without women’s help; if they don’t get help, they could easily become predators. And this is all presented as God’s design.” The Evangelical View of Sex is at the Root of Our Sex Scandals
Oohhh dang. Messed.Up.
What do we do?
Personally, I am beginning on a journey of re-reading the stories of women in the Bible. I want to see how the traditional interpretations have been used and misused in our modern culture and I want to understand the stories at a deeper, more complex level.
This is a rather abrupt end to today’s post but frankly, like I said at the outset, I don’t really know what to say.
Do you have suggestions for action? I’m overwhelmed by all of it. I think we could all use some hope and something tangible.
If you enjoy Do Good Better would you share it with a friend? Pass the conversation on!
How Did We Get To Ravi?
I also have no words. Thank you for your example of wrestling with the deeper issues instead of rushing for the easier explanations. I liked what Sheila Wray Gregoire said in the article you linked to: "Jesus told us to look at the fruit to judge the tree, and the fruit of this tree is nasty." Praying and hoping that more and more people will see the dead fruit as a sign to stop ignoring the root issues... and that I'll have the courage to do the same.
Actually I’ve learning about and reflecting on the women listed in Jesus’s genealogy and some of the featured female characters in the biblical narrative. They were women of faith but not all of them Israelites. Tamar’s story is very interesting! God elevates these women. Sex and sexuality can be powerful and the story goes all the way back to garden. We were originally intended to help each other. Instead we fight for power over one another and the right to serve ourselves. Interesting also to study the world context as the early church began, how sex and women and slaves and children were viewed; how the early church turned their current cultural values upside-down, including prioritizing monogamous marriages and building of nuclear family. Humanity is deeply flawed and depraved. God goes after the heart and sees what we can’t see. We see the ugly, dirty, confusing behavior and may be quick to assume we understand motives. The Ravi situation is deeply disturbing on so many levels...we may be too quick as humans, even Christians, to idolize someone and then stand around appalled when they fall off the pedestal they never should’ve been up on in the first place. Anyway. I hear what you’re saying here - such important conversations.