Sunday, September 18, 2022

Rape And Consensual Sexual Sins

There a vaster difference between non-consensual sex and all forms of consensual sex than there is even between consensual heterosexual sex in a committed relationship and consensual but adulterous, promiscuous, incestuous, or homosexual sex.  These latter examples of sexual acts are consensual, but they are sinful regardless for additional reasons.  All the same, the fact that rape is nonconsensual, no matter the age, gender, or social power of the victim and perpetrator, makes it worse than mere adultery, promiscuity, and so on could ever be: only with rape is a person victimized in one of the most personal, degrading ways possible.  Something like adultery might be degrading in other ways, but as long as it is consensual, neither participant is going so far as to have sex with the other party forcefully or without caring if they are not willing.

Even consensual sexual acts beyond adultery, promiscuity, or homosexual sex are not exactly common subjects of popular, open discussion within evangelical groups, with the fact that incest is a capital sin alongside adultery and homosexual sex going almost completely unmentioned.  Adulterous sex and promiscuous sex are the two kinds of sexual sins that evangelicals, without the culture war that has made homosexual behaviors a much greater philosophical focus in modern times than it would otherwise be, would give their primary attention to.  Rape only tends to be addressed by them when it occurs or when they dwell on the various sexist ideas about rape that in turn stop them from treating women and men alike in the just manner the Bible prescribes.  Otherwise, they are likely quite content to never bring it up, if they even think about it left to themselves at all.

Though evangelicals might stupidly think that things like extramarital flirtation or even platonic opposite gender friendships are adulterous when they are objectively nonsinful, at least they recognize extramarital sex involving a separately married person is adultery.  With rape, they might not identify many forms of rape as rape or might outright defend or trivialize some of them.  They tend to have all sorts of double standards, ranging from thinking women invite rape when they do not cover some random amount of their body (as if nonconsensual sex could ever be "invited" and as if the exposed human body is sexual in the first place!) to thinking women would or could never rape men to thinking that rape is a deserved fate of people in prisons, especially rapists or pedophiles.  It is no wonder that rape is either ignored or absolutely misunderstood by most evangelicals as a basic metaphysical act and as a sin the Bible demands execution for (Deuteronomy 22:25-27).

It is not that adultery and promiscuity and certain other kinds of consensual sex are not sinful.  They just cannot possibly match the depravity of a sexual sin that combines immoral sex with the violation of someone's will, whether through physical force or emotional manipulation or threats.  Rape is inherently more destructive, more degrading, and more oppressive than anything having to do with voluntarily cheating on a spouse or having casual sex, as asinine and immoral as the latter two might be.  There is no excuse for taking them more seriously than the only kind of sex where one person, again, regardless of their gender or age or other such factor, imposes their will on another person when it is not desired by the other party.  All sin is sin, and there are other sexual sins that the Bible prescribes execution for.  Rape is still by necessity the worst of them because it shows the most disregard for people made in the image of God out of every possible category of sexual sin.

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