I have been reading Why Christianity Must Change or Die by John Shelby Spong. I found his discussion of sexual ethics and the Ten Commandments both interesting and funny and thought I'd share. This comes from a chapter called "A New Basis for Ethics in a New Age":
. . . The full text of the final commandment says, "You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbor's (Exod. 20:17). Please note that there is no written prohibition anywhere in the Torah against coveting your neighbor's husband!The reason for this was that a husband was not property, but a wife was. The neighbor was a male. His assets were listed in descending order of value. His house first, his wife second, his slaves third, and then his ox, his ass, and his other possessions. . . .
How do you like that?! The wife coming in second behind the house! I suppose we women should be grateful that we were at least ahead of the ox and ass.
Later Spong discusses the sexual ideas from the Bible that are largely ignored compared to those accepted as law:
In a pamphlet that was as unusual as it was devastating to that attitude toward scripture, Professor Walter Wink, of the faculty of the Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City, documented the inconsistent biblical attitudes toward all human sexual practices. The Bible, he wrote, condemned the following sexual activities, which we also condemn: incest, rape, adultery, and intercourse with animals. But the Bible also condemned, Dr. Wink continued, the following practices, which we today generally allow or at least do not universally condemn: intercourse during menstruation, celibacy, marriage to non-Jews, naming sexual organs, nudity under certain conditions, masturbation, and birth control. Granted, some Christians today still condemn one or more of these things. The biblical voice of God, however, is regarded as uncertain on these matters today, whereas in the past the Bible was assumed to be quite clear and debate was, therefore, not allowed.The Bible, Dr. Wink went on to say, also "regarded semen and menstrual blood as unclean, which most people living today do not." In this analysis we can see just where and how sexual attitudes have changed and that whenever these changes have occurred, the literal biblical attitudes are set aside.
Finally, Dr. Wink noted that the Bible permitted these behaviors that we today condemn: prostitution, polygamy, levirate marriage, sex with slaves, concubinage, treatment of women as property, and very early marriage (for the girl aged eleven to thirteen).
He went on to say that "while the Old Testament accepted divorce, Jesus forbade it." In conclusion, Dr. Wink observed that "of the sexual mores mentioned here, we only agree with the Bible on four of them and disagree with it on sixteen."
Ginny