Or: Should the Communications Decency Act Prohibit the
Bible?
I posed this question a few days ago and nobody had the courage to
touch it.
The main question: If the Bible is really taught as
history/literature, are the teachers to be given free rein to teach EVERYTHING
in it -- or are they to be advised to stay away from the "questionable"
things in the Bible?
The Ranting Religious Right often holds up the
Bible as a model for "morality". The RRRs also are often active in
censoring "unfit material" from school libraries. If some of the
stuff below appeared in a contemporary novel, the RRR would appear before the
school board in a swarm demanding it be removed from the shelf.
Alcoholism:
Recall Noah was selected above all others to round up the animals and herd
them onto the Ark. But in Genesis 9 we find that he "planted a vineyard:
and he drank of the wine and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent".
Fortunately his sons found him and threw a blanket over him to conceal his
nakedness.
Incest: Lot left Zoar and climbed up into the
mountains with his two daughters and lived in a cave. In Genesis 19 the oldest
daughter observed that there were no men around to satisfy their sexual needs
so "they made their father drink wine that night: and the first-born
went in and lay with her father". The next night "they made their
father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose and lay with him".
"Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father".
The oldest had a child named Moab; the other a child named Ben-Ammi.
More incest: In Genesis 29:12 Jacob told Rachel that he was her
father's brother -- i.e. Rachel was his niece. At any rate, Jacob worked 7
years to marry Rachel -- but was then told he had to marry Leah, the oldest
daughter first -- so he married Leah, worked 7 more years and married Rachel.
After many years, Rachel had a daughter Dinah. Then things get really
interesting for Jacob had sex, and children, with wife Leah, wife Rachal,
Leah's maid Zilpah and Rachel's maid Bilhah. What a man!!!! Oh yes, how do
you like polygamy???
Rape and murder: Dinah, the
daughter of Jacob, "went out to see the daughters of the land".
Sachem (Genesis 34), prince of the country, saw her and lay with her and
defiled her". Sachem wanted to marry Dinah, and her brothers agreed the
crime would be forgotten if Sachem's people would be circumcized. But "on
the third day when they were sore" -- from the impromptu surgery? --
Jacob's sons reneged on the bargain and slew Sachem and all the males of the
city. So now we have rape AND murder in this affair.
Whore: Judah (Genesis 38) was walking down the street one day, saw a women
he presumed to be a whore, so when she demanded "thy signet, thy bracelets
and thy staff", he gave them to her and had sex. Jacob was supposed to
bring her a kid and get his property back, but when she was not found, tried to
cover-up, "Let her keep the things as her own, lest we be laughted at".
Turned out the women was his daughter-in-law, Tamar. Tamar had twins,
children of Judah.
Child Abuse: Jepthah (Judges 11)
was so enraged in his battle with the "children of Ammon" that he
agreed if the Lord would deliver them to him, "whosoever cometh forth of
the doors of my house to meet me when I return from the children of Ammon ... I
will offer up for a burnt offering". He won the battle, and when he
returned home the first person to greet him was his daughter, his only child.
She was allowed to go to the mountains for two months but when she returned to
her father he "did with her according to his vow". Henceforth the
daughers of Israel went yearly to lament the dauther of Jepthah.
Adultery
and Murder: David, walking on the roof of the king's house in the evening
(2 Samuel 11), saw a woman washing herself. Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, was
very beautiful so David "lay with her" and she conceived. Eager to
conceal his affair, he ordered Uriah home so it would be believed the child was
Uriah's, but Uriah -- apparently suspecting a cover-up -- refused to go into
his house. So David wrote a letter to Joab in which he ordered Joab to put
Uriah in the front lines of the battle "that he may be struck down and die".
Uriah was killed of course and David "fetched her to his house and she
became his wife".
Incest and Rape: Amnon, the son of David, was attracted to Tamar,
the sister of his brother Absalom. Amar pretended illness and requested David
to send Tamar to prepare food for him. "Let my sister Tamar come ... and
prepare food ... that I may ... eat it from her hand". Amnon directed
all his friends to leave and directed Tamar to come to his bedroom, asked Tamar
to have sex, and when she refused, he "but being stronger than she, forced
her, and lay with her". (2 Samuel 13).
Is THIS
what you are demanding be taught in the public schools to your children??? And
I'll bet you are opposed to sex-education in the public schools.
D. Ferrel Atkins