Rape--Past and Present
Lately there's been a lot
of talk and writings about rape thanks to MO Rep Todd Akin and how he
“misspoke” about the rate of pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.” It's about time we talked about rape, what it
means, how it affects both women and men, and how it tears at the fabric of our
society. I hope that all of this talk will lead to men, as well as women,
taking a stand against rape and working to end its menacing presence in our
society. I don't know how to end rape. I just know that for the sake of my
daughters, for the sake of humankind, we must do our best to put a stop to the
culture of rape. We must talk about and
understand how destructive rape is to the victim and stop downplaying its
violence regardless of what kind of force was used.
Rape is not a new
phenomenon. The Hebrew Bible (Old
Testament of the Christian Bible) has several instances of rape. Genesis 19 tells the story of Lot who
welcomes two strangers into his home for an evening of rest and comfort. The men of the town, afraid of the strangers,
go to Lot’s house and demand that he release his guests. They are enraged and want to put the
strangers in their place by raping them. (Rape was a common form of humiliation
and warfare in the Ancient Near East.)
Lot refuses to send out the strangers and instead offers up his virgin
daughters. The men refuse and just as
they are about to break down Lot’s door, the strangers reveal themselves as
angels blinding the men and demand Lot and his family to leave town before they
wreak utter destruction upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
A few verses later, we
find Lot and his daughters cooped up in a cave fearing that they may be the
last people on earth. Lot’s virgin
daughters plot to save the human race, or at least preserve their family name,
by getting their father drunk and raping him.
Granted, the scriptures do not use the term rape, but our legal system
would define drugging a person so that a person could have sex with someone who
would otherwise not consent to sex is rape.
As I read this scripture I couldn’t help but
wonder if Rep. Todd Akin would say that Lot was “legitimately raped.”
Rape
is mentioned many more times and just as in our society sometimes it is
explicit and other times it leaves us to connect the dots and requires a great deal
of courage to name it rape. The story of
David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:2-5) is commonly referred to as adultery
rather than rape. However, there is
nothing in the story to assert that Bathsheba had given consent to King
David. As with many women who’ve been
raped the blame is put back on Bathsheba.
Bathsheba was beautiful, she was bathing and Kind David could see her
from his roof, she was asking for it. (Often people speak as though she was
bathing on a roof, but the reading states that King David was on his roof and
could see her. Most baths were not
enclosed; it’s no surprise he could have spotted Bathsheba.) King David called for Bathsheba and he “lay
with her” and she became pregnant (again, according to Rep. Akin—apparently not
a legitimate rape). A woman called
before the king. Was Bathsheba’s consent
even a question? A king who would kill
one of his soldiers in order to keep the soldier’s wife for himself? No, Bathsheba’s desire or lack of wouldn’t
have mattered. I dare to call it rape.
A few chapters later (2 Samuel
1-22), King David’s daughter Tamar is raped by her brother, Amnon. Amnon is in lust with his sister and his
friend gives him advice on how to seduce her.
Tamar begs and pleads with him to stop but he takes her by force and
then is disgusted by her (or by his own actions?) and throws her out. Tamar is a wreck. She tears her gown in mourning, puts ashes on
her head and wails. She is humiliated
but she will not be silenced. Another
brother, Absalom, tries to console her by telling her to keep quiet, that Amnon
loved her, all while hiding his anger at Amnon in his heart. Tamar takes refuge in Absalom’s quarters and
we don’t hear from her again. When King David discovers that Amnon has raped
Tamar he is furious but does not punish him.
It is hauntingly familiar, is it not?
Many rape victims are believed but then asked to remain silent by
someone who loves them; someone who fears that speaking out would only make
matters worse. Then there are the
courageous rape victims who face their rapists in court, often tried more
voraciously than their rapist, only to have the rapist receive a slap on the
wrist or a light penalty.[1]
Rape continues in the Bible as it
continues in the present. Rape continues
to eat away at the psyches of the survivors as well as the rapists. We must do better than Absalom, King David,
and the Church; we must acknowledge the pain and anguish, the violence in the
act of rape itself. We must not be
silent about the reality of rape in our world.
We must talk about it openly. We
cannot shy away from the harsh realities that every two minutes someone is
sexually assaulted and that 97% of rapists will never spend a day in jail. We must tend to the survivors of rape and
help them to heal physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We must hear their stories with empathy and
compassion. We must punish the rapists
and teach them that their victims are more than conquests, more than rags to be
used at their disposal, we must teach them to respect all humans regardless of
their gender. We must teach our children
to honor their bodies, honor the people around them, and to understand that sex
is something to be cherished and enjoyed consensually with eyes wide open.
[1] Even
when the rape is acknowledged, legitimized, the penalty is light—the average
sentence for convicted rapists was 11.8 years, while the actual time served was
5.4 years. Furthermore, only two-thirds
of convicted rape defendants receive a prison sentence, while those who receive
a local jail sentence average eight months in jail with less than 6 years of
probation. Statistics taken from the Bureau of Justice at http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/PSATSFV.PDF and the Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse at http://www.mincava.umn.edu/documents/sexoff/sexoff.html)
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