Stoner paradise
By Gene X. Christian
Image Credit: Gemini
In Deuteronomy 22:13-21, YWHW gives the Israelites some good old-fashioned laws regarding how to deal with women who are lairs.
The passage gives instructions for if a man is caught falsely accusing a woman of not being virgin when he marries her. His penalty was 100 shekels of silver for falsely accusing her of not being a virgin.
However, if a woman was found to not be a virgin, her punishment was also 100 shekels of silver. Oops, my bad. Her punishment was death by stoning.
How did they determine who was lying? “… ‘But here is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ Then they shall spread out the cloth before the elders of the town.”
Yeah, they put the cloth down that was there when the marriage was consummated. Blood? Virgin. No blood? Slut.
But about half of women don’t bleed their first time (my wife says she did not, and she wasn’t a user of tampons, either). That means people following this law killed innocent women, brutally.
So when preachers talk about how god used women, they were the exception, in the Hebrew bible and in the New Testament.
While I appreciate the sentiment that “god uses women”, it cherry picks away from the reality that the Holy Bible is an oppressive book for women, while going easier on their male counterparts.
The reason why women have to navigate their environments of exploitation, is because the book gives men direction and permission to do so.
Published on 2025-02-28