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Garden of gethsemane (thelemmy.club)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
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[–] 31 points 5 months ago (1 child)

It is central to most major religions the need to control the sex lives of their followers.

The Bible doesn't say that masturbation is a sin, but since Christianity is a religion, they cannot permit their followers to control their own sex lives.

As a result, most sexual expression is considered a sin, and they will use any excuses or lies possible to make sure it stays that way.

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  • [–] 27 points 5 months ago* (6 children)

    To add to this, the most closely related passage in the bible is in Genesis 38, where this guy Onan was ordered to have children with his brother's widow so the child could inherit his brother's estate.

    This seems to me a bit outside your usual family obligations, and so did the guy because while he engaged in sexual intercourse, he "spilled his seed" on the ground to avoid fulfilling this familial duty.

    God didn't think much of that and killed him on the spot.

    The tale is usually linked more to the "sin" of contraception, but it seems like a much more pragmatic story: it's best you knock up your brother's widow than have everyone start a war over the spoils.

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  • [–] 9 points 5 months ago

    Fun fact: In the Indigenous Australian society I'm most familiar with, if you're a man and your brother dies, his wife is now your wife, and you have his familial obligations. This is to ensure that his family will be cared for.

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    his brother’s widow

    Tamar is an interesting character in her own right, and worthy of being named.

    After this, she’s supposed to marry Judah’s (Onna’s dad’s) third son, but considering he just lost two, he doesn’t want it to go through. He sends her home to her parents and blows her off when she asks when the marriage is going to happen. (The Bible has a lot of verses about leaving parts of your field unharvested for widows. Not having a husband = hellish poverty.)

    She eventually gets fed up with this, disguises herself as a temple prostitute, Judah shows up, has sex with her, and gives her a family emblem as an IOU.

    Later, she ends up pregnant, so the village elders drag her before Judah for punishment (he’s her father-in-law still technically.) They are going to put her to death, and Judah asks her who knocked her up. She produces his family emblem, and he has to be “well, you got me, I guess I have to take care of you.

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  • [–] 4 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

    This seems to me a bit outside your usual family obligations

    It was actually the law to do that, IIRC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yibbum

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago* (2 children)

    Well the article says that

    the brother of a man who died without children is permitted and encouraged to marry the widow. However, if either of the parties refuses to go through with the marriage, both are required to go through a ceremony known as halizah, involving a symbolic act of renunciation of their right to perform this marriage.

    So, permitted and encouraged, but not forced into it. Except by god it seems.

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago*

    I took this introductory passage to be the current tradition. The quoted bible passage makes it look like more of a mandatory thing:

    [5] If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child […]; her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her.

    [7] And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate unto the elders, and say: 'My husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother unto me.'

    [9] then shall his brother's wife […] loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face; and […] say: 'So shall it be done unto the man that doth not build up his brother's house.'

    Deuteronomy 25 (Modern English)

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  • [–] 2 points 5 months ago

    I always read it as being about defying the law (backed by divine enforcement):

    His father commanded him to "... fulfill [his] duty to her as a brother-in-law to raise up offspring for [his] brother", which implies that this was considered a legitimate obligation. His transgression, then, was that he pulled out "to keep from providing offspring for his brother", actively refusing to fulfill that obligation. In that reading, it's a tale about obeying the orders and customs of your elders.

    Of course, these don't have to be exclusive: "These norms exist for a reason, so you should damn well obey them."

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