From: jcarroll@ferris.cray.com (Jeff Carroll)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: Christian Sex
Date: 29 Sep 92 06:34:49 GMT

In article <Sep.27.21.32.21.1992.939@athos.rutgers.edu> you write:
> Here are some references in the Bible about sex:
> 
> Deuteronomy 22:22-29	about rape and adultery
> Deuteronomy 23:17-18	about prostitution
> Leviticus 18:6-18	about/defining incest
> Romans 1:24-32		about homosexuality
> Deuteronomy 27:21	about bestiality
> 
> And these are just a few I whipped out quickly from my Strong's concordance.
> I'm not going to give my opinions on these things, because I don't think
> they're as important as what the Bible has to say (And, the meaning of the
> verses is pretty clear, anyway.)

I'm quite impressed by you and your Strong's Concordance.

OK, let's see if we get the same meaning out of these verses.

Deut. 22:22-29: Death penalty for adultery. Death penalty for rape of a
	betrothed woman, rapist (and victim alike, if she doesn't yell loud
	enough. If she's out of town, she gets the benefit of the doubt.)
	Fifty-shekel fine for raping a virgin (oh, and you get to keep her
	for the rest of her life).

	BTW, the legal means of capital punishment is stoning.

Deut. 23:17-18: No whores in the Temple. Pimps and gamblers have to keep their
	temple offering separate from their professional income (and presumably
	have to earn it some other way).

Lev. 18:6-18: You can't sleep with your mother, any of your father's other
	wives, any of your sisters or half-sisters, any of your granddaughters,
	aunts, daughters-in-law, or sisters-in-law. You can't sleep with both
	a woman and her daughters or granddaughters.

	Going further in the chapter, we find: you can't sleep with your wife
	during her period; you can't sleep with your neighbor's wife; you
	can't offer your children to an idol named Molech, and you can't
	"profane" (I didn't even know "profane" was a verb) God.

	You can't engage in homosexual acts, and you can't have intercourse with
	animals. Punishment for any of these offenses: deportment, or exile,
	or whatever you want to call it. No stones.

Romans 1:24-32: God allowed "them" to be consumed by lust, "worshiping and
	serving the creature rather than the Creator."

	God allowed "them" to become lesbian and gay, in particular committing
	unspecified "indecent acts". Inasmuch as they refused to acknowledge
	God, God gave in to their lust. "They" are described as having a
	number of undesirable characteristics.

	In verse 18, "they" are described as "men, who suppress the truth in
	unrighteousness". No names. No rules. No penalties specified.

Deut. 27:21: This is taken out of the context of a litany for the liturgy
	on the occasion of crossing the Jordan into the promised land.

	Levites: "Cursed is he who lies with any animal."

	People: "Amen."

	The other people cursed as part of this litany are
	craftsman who build and erect idols, people who dishonor their
	parents, people who interfere with the work of surveyors, people
	who mislead the blind, people who "distort(s) the justice due an
	alien, orphan, and widow", people who sleep with their mothers or
	sisters or mothers-in-law, people who "strike" other people in secret,
	professional hit men, and people who do not obey the law. Nothing
	here about rape, or homosexuality, or prescribed punishment.

I note (without comment) that you haven't quoted any scripture condemning
fornication.

I also note that you have left out of your citations:

John 8:1-11 ("He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw
		a stone at her")

Matthew 5:28 ("...every one who looks on a woman to lust for her has committed
		adultery with her already in his heart.")

I contend that your quotations from Leviticus and Numbers are Mosaic, that your
quotation from Romans is Pauline, and that *these* are Christian, in that they
actually came out of the mouth of Christ.

BTW, by the lights of Deuteronomy 27 *we* are just as cursed *for not obeying
the law* (inasmuch as we don't stone rapists) as him "who lies with any animal".

Jeff Carroll
carroll@reston.cray.com