The Bible REALLY Says That? -Part 2

"But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right, and hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a woman during her menstrual impurity"  then "he is just, he shall surely live, saith the Lord God"

 -Ezekiel 18:5 to 18:9

It sounds like God has some pretty bad attitudes towards women. 

How can you "defile" someone by having sex with them?  How can you stain what makes them a good person?  Stated simply, you can't.  Sex doesn't "stain" you, nor "defile" you, nor "ruin" you.  It has no bearing on your morality or worth as a person.  It can't make you less honest, less empathic, less loyal, less loving or even less intelligent. 

It has no bearing on your value as a human being.

Unless...

You are property. 

Unless you have attributes of sale and your value will be decreased by the amount of miles on your product, there is no reason to define a woman who has had sex as "defiled". Plus the language of it is as though it is something a man does TO a woman (implying her lack of choice) and not done WITH a woman.  Why is HE not defiled by such an act?  Remember, God is referring to a woman in the possessive as the "Neighbor's".  he is not saying don't do this to women, but don't do this to HIS woman. 

Maybe they mean don't rape your neighbor's wife.  Is this any better?  Not much, because he isn't saying;

"Don't get rapey with women, it's just not cool";

 

he is saying;

"Please, if you're getting rapey, don't do it to a woman who belongs to someone else, that isn't cool.  Find your own."



Find my own?? DAMN YOU BRAD PITT!



That is really just a side issue to the real and most confusing point in this verse though. 

Never come near a mentruating woman?? 

Why?

Pretty sure this isn't what happens

How is a natural body function able to make a man (to whom is isn't even happening) not lawful or right??  That is a complete non-sequitir.  One has nothing to do with the other.  To say that something to central to a woman is dirty, or stained is a completely immoral, disrespectful and disgusting statement. 

We honour women for being able to bear children on one hand and then condemn them for the bodily functions that allow that on the other one?

Terrible.

To say that you are not a just or lawful man if you go near a woman on her period is equally ridiculous.  She is not evil, nor possessed, nor given monthly superpowers that can affect your personal morality by her mere proximity.

PLUS, if we can't be near them, how will he ever garner "man points" that we so desperately need if we can't go to the store to buy her tampons?

We NEED those points for when we screw up.  I can't afford to be a bad person for even talking to her during her most "sensitive" time!

Her WEDDING DRESS?  Bad dog!  I'm in so much trouble...

Does this sound more like the Wisdom of an omnipotent God, or the ignorant ramblings of an iron age sheep herder?

Read up, and you decide...

The Bible REALLY Says That - Part 1

Let's set this one up before exposing it, just to give it context.  David had killed a man and taken his wife for his own. 

Thus says the Lord: 'I will bring evil upon you (David) out of your own house. I will take your wives while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.'

Then David said to Nathan,

"I have sinned against the Lord."  Nathan answered David: "The Lord on his part has forgiven your sin: you shall not die.  But since you have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed, the child born to you must surely die." 

-2 Samuel 12:11-14 NAB


So the punishment for David killing a man and taking his wife?  To have his innocent wives raped, and to kill his innocent child. 

How is this a moral story, and how is any book that contains it supposed to be informative of our (or our children's) morality?

It was clearly a book written by iron age sheep herders based on their own skewed "morality".




It's time to recognize this book for what it is.


What is it?


Read up, and YOU decide.



  

The pic is from "Nothing is Sacred"