Christian morality has been steadily under assault since Satan’s rebellion and the Fall of Adam and Even in the Garden, but this attack has been especially pervasive in the West over the past several decades. The rejection of Christian morality manifests in the moral language of cultural Marxism. Christians are bombarded with a litany of “isms” and “phobias” that were completely unknown to our Christian ancestors such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc. In addition to these newly minted categories of secularism, traditional moral concepts have also been redefined to suit the egalitarian morality. Murder has defined down to exclude abortion and euthanasia. Rape has also been redefined in order to promote the agenda of egalitarianism, and the recent case of the allegations made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh are a case in point.
For those who are unaware, Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual assault in the early 1980s by two women, Christine Ford and Deborah Ramirez. The allegations against Kavanaugh are particularly weak, with key details in the accusers’ stories being inconsistent, missing, or contradicted by other more reliable witnesses. Christine Ford’s accusation in particular ought to be taken with the utmost credulity given her past history of sexual indiscretion and drunkenness. The frailty of the case against Kavanaugh is readily apparent. Liberals are willing to trot out anyone willing to make accusations of sexual assault or rape against their political opponents because it is advantageous to do so. Liberals appeal to traditional conservatives’ morality and sense of justice, as well as the political pressure of not wanting to alienate angry women. Mainline conservatives are willing to prostrate themselves before such accusations so as not to seem insensitive or even callous towards victims of abuse. This strategy worked well for liberals in the recent Senate race in Alabama, which witnessed former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore being narrowly defeated by hardline liberal Doug Jones.
The traditional Christian understanding of rape as carnal knowledge of a woman against her will has been cast aside. This isn’t to say that all accusations of rape are false or that post-Christian culture has abandoned any concern over actual rape, but rather that the primary focus of our society is rape as an egalitarian hammer with which to bludgeon men and especially white men. Rape is presented by academia, the media, government, sports, and entertainment industries as a ubiquitous manifestation of “the patriarchy.” All traditional Western mores and values, particularly those pertaining to masculinity, femininity, and gender roles, are a manifestation of the hated patriarchy and must be torn down in order to liberate women from “rape culture.” The recent unfounded accusations against Roy Moore and Brett Kavanaugh are two prominent examples of liberals crying rape in order to gain political advantage.
The Duke Lacrosse rape hoax was an example of a black stripper and ambitious district attorney using race to their advantage. The media eagerly embraced the narrative of rich privileged white boys using their status as an excuse and opportunity to take advantage of a poor defenseless black girl. Accusations of rape made against white men are supposed to be believed on principle no matter how flimsy or inconsistent the evidence against them may be. Only after a case becomes embarrassingly weak are people allowed to call the purported victim into question or defend the accused. Women are to be believed because they have been coerced into silence for so long — or so we are told. What made the Duke case particularly intriguing is that the media sought to draw attention to something that virtually never happens…the gang rape of a black girl by white men.
Our modern focus is not on preventing and punishing actual rape, as much as using the concept of rape to promote equality. Rape is ignored when it doesn’t fit into the left-wing narrative, while cases or accusations involving men who are white and “privileged” receive almost exclusive attention. Christians have traditionally been very concerned with rape…actual rape. Credible evidence that a man had committed rape was taken very seriously when presented for judgment, and perpetrators were likely to find themselves dangling from the end of a rope. The racial discrepancies in rape explain why so many black men were punished as rapists, even if errors in judgment or unjustified prejudice are taken into account. None of this is ever admissible in discussions about “rape culture.” Non-whites are given a pass as though their crimes aren’t even criminal since they supposedly lack the “power” to adequately actualize their hatred of whites to the extent that they would desire.
The abandonment of Christian morality has inevitably led to the forsaking of justice in the sense of rewarding those who do well and punishing those who do evil. The understanding of rape has shifted in order to accommodate leftist “social justice” planted on the foundation of equality. True Christians have always despised rape and took pains to see that rape was appropriately punished and avoided whenever possible. The Bible condemns rape, and men who are guilty of rape are to be sentenced to death (Deut. 22:25-27). The Bible makes a distinction between an encounter that happens in a city, in which it is presumed that a woman would be able to cry out as she is being attacked and would be delivered by those who hear her cries for help, and an encounter in the country, in which this opportunity to cry out for help would be more limited. A woman’s innocence is presumed when she makes a credible claim of rape if there was no one to deliver her from her rapist.
Christian civilization was also concerned with limiting the opportunities for rape to occur. The old patriarchal rules that everyone was expected to follow, now denounced as demeaning and oppressive by feminists, were in place to protect women. Women weren’t allowed to keep company with men that her father didn’t know and who had not been formally introduced to her with his consent. This naturally flowed from the requirement of the father to ratify all vows and oaths made by his daughter while living under his authority (Num. 30). Presumably the marriage vow would be the chief example, so it follows that a father should be active in guiding his daughter’s time spent with men who could be considered prospective husbands. This seems quaint at best and hopelessly patriarchal to many people today, but the strict social codes of the past were in place in part to prevent instances of rape or sexual assault, and by and large this system worked pretty well.
As Christians who revere God’s law, we ought to seek justice for victims of rape while also doing whatever is needed to prevent rape from occurring. We also need to defend and vindicate men such as Brett Kavanaugh and Roy Moore who have been falsely accused of rape. We must not allow women to act as Potiphar’s wife, who was able to falsely accuse Joseph of attempted rape in order to coerce him (Gen. 39). The leftist duplicity that levels false accusations of rape against the innocent in order to promote their narrative while ignoring actual rapes that do not fit the narrative must be confronted and rejected. Finally we must utterly reject the feminist notion that patriarchy somehow perpetuates a mythical “rape culture.” The traditional patriarchal family, with its accompanying emphasis on the importance of fathers and brothers, is the best guarantor for the protection of women’s chastity and integrity.
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