No Apologies writes:
Another thing, if a woman was out in a field and was raped even though she screamed, the accused rapist would be executed. Where are the two witnesses in this scenario??? How could a man be put to death in this kind of case?
Actually, there are two possible scenarios:
"If, however, it is in the field that the man found the girl who was engaged, and the man grabbed hold of her and lay down with her, the man who lay down with her must also die by himself, and to the girl you must do nothing. The girl has no sin deserving of death, because just as when a man rises up against his fellowman and indeed murders him, even a sould, so it is with this case. For it was in the field that he found her. The girl who was engaged screamed, but there was no on to rescue her." - Deuteronomy 22:25-27.
Second scenario, involving an unengaged virgin:
"In case a man finds a girl, a virgin who has not been engaged, and he actually seizes her and lies down with her, and they have been found out, the man who lay down with her must also give the girl's father fifty silver shekels, and she will become his wife due to the fact that he humiliated her. He will not be allowed to divorce her all his days." - Deuteronomy 22:28, 29.
In the first case, the insult is not to the girl, but to her future husband. That's why the verse describes it as though the rapist had murdered his fellowman, and why the rapist was supposed to be executed. In the case of a murder, there may not have been eyewitnesses either, but you have a dead body and a family of the victim. If a girl claimed that someone raped her and became pregnant as a result of it (you know how Jehovah always has a way of making these things known) that would be the second "eye-witness".
In the second scenario, the insult is against the father of the girl. The rapist ends up having to pay a bride price for her to her father, and he's not permitted to divorce her during his lifetime. Nobody gives a $h!t that the girl has to live with someone who raped her for the rest of her life, and bear children for him and raise them, and have sex with him whenever he demands it of her.
Yep, Jehovah really cares about rape victims, doesn't he?
One has to remember that this was a time when women were mere chattel. They were owned by their fathers until they were "bought" by their husbands with a bride price. They didn't have a say in who they were going to marry. The marriages were contracts between heads of families, in exchange for goods and services. Women were not educated, they were only allowed to do menial labour and bear children. The more children a woman bore for her husband, the more valuable she was. Inheritances went to sons, not to daughters. A man who only had daughters was someone to be pitied.
JWs aren't much different from Old Testament Israel. As JT says, among JWs the only thing lower than a woman, is a black woman. It's really appalling how there are so many women in that Organization (I believe the stats are something like 68% of all JWs are female) when the Organization does nothing but oppress and disrespect them with articles like this one.
Love, Scully
Edited by - Scully on 27 December 2002 16:7:59
Edited by - Scully on 27 December 2002 16:8:40
