Sexual Mores and the Bible

Allen Brill has a wonderful post up at The Right Christians about how sexual standards have evolved vis the Bible:

The truth is that Christian ideas about sexuality and marriage have not been frozen in time. They have evolved, been debated and changed throughout the past 2,000 years. Most of us would recognize that many of these changes have been for the good. Who would want to return to the days when women and children were considered the property of the male head of household who could offer them up to a mob or marry them off to a rapist? What is divine about a legal code that punishes women with death for adultery but allows men to sleep with prostitutes without any sanction?

[The Christian Right is] not mistaken, however, when they point out the importance of sexuality and marriage to the well-being of our society. The forces of modernization have done much to undermine family stability and hamper the nurturing of children. We should all be alarmed at statistics that show rising rates of divorce and child poverty. But if the welfare of society and Christ's directive to be concerned for the least among us are the real concerns, all Christians should be uniting around efforts to support our nation's families rather than enacting a Constitutional amendment aimed at discriminating against gays and lesbians.

As usual, Allen's look at biblical issues is scholarly and insightful. Go read the whole thing.

(via Body and Soul)

ntodd  ¶ 1:16 PM