In this week’s look at the funny, the scary and just plain weird passages in humanity’s holy text, is a return to the Bible and its skewed sense of justice. This passage this week comes from Deuteronomy 22: 28-29, New International Version:
28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
Such is the value of a woman in the Bible. Note that this is not the punishment for a violent attack on a human being who has been violated both physically and emotionally in the most horrible way possible. This is a legal resolution for a property crime. The real victim, according to the Good Book, is the rape victim’s father, who is going to have a hard time marrying off his damaged goods.
Well, rapist. You broke it, you bought it.
No stray thought seems to go into the horror a rape survivor would feel when they learn that they’re being forced into marriage with their attacker. A marriage that can never be ended or annulled. That’s right. If you’re caught raping someone, the punishment is pretty much the same as being caught eating out of a box of cereal at the grocery store.
If you have a passage of holy scripture that you find funny, scary or just plain weird, send it our way. Whether it’s from the Bible, the Qur’an, the Bhagavad Gita, the Book of Mormon, or even Dianetics, click on the big, red, shiny button at the top of the page and we may even read it on the show!
