Bodily Functions

Prudery can extend to more about the body than mere genitalia and sexual acts--the two not being identical whatsoever.  Though consumption of food is correlated with the energy that keeps physical creatures alive, it leads to excrement, the same as how the intake of liquids leads to urination.  Deuteronomy 23:12-14, with the preceding two verses setting up part of the context, actually had to do with the visibility of certain biological waste in a camp.  It might seem at first to some readers that this is God here treating defecation as evil or at the very least as something that is immoral to see despite its biological occurrence.  However, the human body with its anatomy, including the genitalia and buttocks, and physiology, including the activity referenced in Deuteronomy 23:12-14, is very good (Genesis 1:31).  Yahweh is not a prudish being since it is he who would have created living creatures and their workings and approved of them.

Also, some clarifications can be discovered about or relating to this set of verses.  Verse 9 already specified the military context of a camp, not that defecation is limited to a martial encampment or a battlefield.  The wording of verse 10 also references male soldiers despite how female soldiers are never prohibited by the Torah, and as fellow bearers of the divine image (Genesis 1:26-27, 5:1-2), they are of course permitted to fight righteously just like the men who are no more expendable than they are, with Deborah the judge being a Biblical example of a woman appointed by God to preside over male soldiers (Judges 2:16-19, 4:4-7).  Humans defecate and not men alone.  In fact, there is something else that in part follows from this to be mentioned later on.  Any female soldiers would of course have the same obligations described here.

The passage says to bury the excrement resulting from when people relieve themselves on the battlefield, not because it says God is disgusted by the human body that he made or its functions or waste, but because it is a way to respect the divine force that is said to have actively moved about the encampment.  Now, there is nothing here or elsewhere said to be immoral about defecating in front of others or seeing others do this thing, and the same would go for urination by logical extension, which is not even addressed here since the text speaks of excrement (23:13).  It is leaving human feces unburied during a military campaign that is prohibited, far from having the same moral weight as something like engaging in an unjust war as the aggressor or torturing captives (combatants or civilians alike).  It is also not something to be buried because other people might see it outside the camp.  No, it is a way to respect God in this scenario.

From this brief set of verses, a great deal is affirmed one way or another, even if these things could be discovered from other verses (Genesis 1:31 and Deuteronomy 4:2 would already tackle how such activities are not evil, nor do they need to be hidden from other people).  While personal comfort or discomfort with bodily functions like urination is a subjective thing that for some people might simply have no matter what their cultural background is, hiding people away when relieving themself in either manner by default is just a social custom that some people are so adjusted to or appreciate so much that they might not think about how it is just that: an unnecessary habit.  Segregating people when performing this activity by gender is likewise a social construct, not something done out of some logical necessity for the act itself or to honor any Biblical command.  No such thing is prescribed in the Bible in itself or by logical necessity through a separate command.

There is no need for any unwilling person to proceed with these biological functions while being watched, as that does not logically follow.  What is the case is that inside or outside of the Christian worldview, there is no rational (true and logically verifiable, that is) basis for conversationally  shunning any mention of urination or defection, for striving to only perform then in secret--or maybe in the presence of a significant other--except out of sheer personal preference, and for treating these aspects of biology as non-applicable or offensive to women, as well as for believing that men and women should take great care to not speak of or do such things in front of each other (again, perhaps except for spouses on the prudish stance).  Thinking one could add to one's moral obligations, as if God's nature does not reflect all that is good and his revelation does not at least indirectly convey all of them, is itself sinful, as addressed by Deuteronomy 4:2.