WTLies
Junior Member
United States of America
Posts: 32
Since: Aug 5, 2001 | | Is the bible God's Word? | Aug 29, 2002
09:00 | |
The Watchtower once believed that if a woman did not scream while being raped, then she was guilty of fornication. She was 'in on' her own rape, thus she too is just as guilty as her rapist. I don't think there is a person in this forum today, who does not find this reasoning repugnant and archaic. But from where did this belief originate? Did the Governing Body come up with this on their own, was it misapplied scripture, or was it right from God's own word the bible? Deuteronomy 22:23-24 "In case there happened to be a virgin girl engaged to a man, and a man actually found her in the city and lay down with her, YOU must also bring them both out to the gate of that city and pelt them with stones, and they must die, the girl for the reason that she did not scream in the city, and the man for the reason that he humiliated the wife of his fellowman. So you must clear away what is evil from your midst."
The WT went along with what was written here in God's Word and nearly everyone on this forum would disagree with that stance. However if you believe in the bible as the unerring word of God how can you blame the WT? God created woman and knows their mental physical and emotional make up. Why would HE tell us that she has to scream, or she dies along with her attacker if it were wrong? All of you who believe in the bible as Gods word yet attack the WT on this issue and many others like it (more to come in this series) are you being fair here? This was not the WT's law, it was God's, according to the bible. Thousands of years old yes, but still God's law. Where the woman at that time so different that they were all able to scream, yet woman today at times are not able to? I have no love for the Watchtower Society (thus my screenname) but you can't have it both ways. The WT was following what was written in the bible when they disfellowshipped hundreds, if not thousands of woman who did not call out while being raped. If you are outraged at the WT for the second rape of those women, losing their families and friends, kicked out and shunned, only because they could not scream, due to the anxiety and trauma of their rape. Then you should feel more so, for the thousands who were STONED TO DEATH along side their rapist in ancient times. Does this sound like the word of God to you? Even the WT realized that not every woman could scream while under such an attack. They saw the need to change their stance on this issue despite what is written in the bible. They went from saying things like this: Watchtower Oct 15,1980 page 7 "Avoiding the Tragedy of Rape" "A Christian woman is under obligation to resist, for the issue of obedience to God's law to "flee from fornication" is involved. (1 Cor. 6:18) By no means would it be proper for her willingly to submit to being raped."
Changing to saying things like this: Awake March 8,1993 page 5 "The Reality of Rape" "Rape by definition takes place when force or the threat of force is used to gain sexual penetration, of any kind whatsoever, against a person's will. It is the rapist's use of force against an unwilling victim that makes him a rapist. Thus, a rape victim is not guilty of fornication. Like an incest victim, she may be forced to submit to an act she doesn't want because of the perceived power held over her by another person. When a woman is forced to submit to a rapist out of terror or disorientation, it does not mean that she consents to the act. Consent is based on choice without threat and is active, not passive."
According to Gods Word, not to scream is to submit to, or be a willing party to being raped. Thus the woman is stoned along with her attacker. If this is what God said, why would it need to be changed today in light of new information about rape, and what force by intimidation does to a person under duress? That by definition rape is an act forced upon her, against her will, there is no way she is an accomplice . Wouldn't God know all of this before making the law? Doesn't He know the end from the beginning? If God's Organization saw fit to change God's Law, do they then, know more than God? Is God blood guilty? What about all those woman, who were pelted with stones until they died because they were too intimidated to scream, will they be brought back, since God's law was adjusted by man? Was this really the word of God?I was brought up to believe the bible is the unerring word of Almighty God. But things like these makes me wonder. Do you wonder as well?
William, Former member of a Non-Prophet organization |
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