The Supreme Court of the United States handed down a historic 5-4 verdict in?Obergefell v. Hodges, effectively making same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states and court-punching the conservative claim of “traditional marriage” right in its nose.
I comically assumed heads of religious conservatives exploded all over the nation, like that guy in?Scanners.
But what is “traditional marriage?” One man and one woman? Well, that’s the claim religious conservatives vehemently make, but as many religious conservatives don’t know their Bible any more than they know the actual age of the Earth, “traditional marriage” is about as far from one man, one woman as can be taken.
Instead of providing a critical dissection of every aspect of the “traditional marriage” claim religious conservatives make, I’m going to instead let the Bible speak for me. When religious conservatives claim “traditional marriage,” their claim is not bolstered by their source material. In fact, their claim is refuted, rather effortlessly, by the “word of God.”
Polygamy
“And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.” — 1 Kings 11:3
“But Abijah waxed mighty, and married fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons, and sixteen daughters.” — 2 Chronicles 13:21
“And Jehoiada took for him two wives; and he begat sons and daughters.” — 2 Chronicles 24:3
Captive Virgins
“When you go to war against your enemies and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take captives,?if you notice among the captives a beautiful woman and are attracted to her, you may take her as your wife. Bring her into your home and have her shave her head, trim her nails and put aside the clothes she was wearing when captured. After she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month, then you may go to her and be her husband and she shall be your wife.” — Deuteronomy 21:10-13
Sex Slavery
“If a man sells his daughter as a female servant, she will not go out as the male servants do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he must let her be redeemed. He has no right to sell her to a foreign nation, because he has dealt deceitfully with her. If he designated her for his son, then he will deal with her according to the customary rights of daughters. If he takes another wife, he must not diminish the first one’s food, her clothing, or her marital rights.?If he does not provide her with these three things, then she will go out free, without paying money.” — Exodus 21:7-11
Extramarital Sex
“Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not given birth to any children, but she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar.?So Sarai said to Abram, ‘Since the Lord?has prevented me from having children, have sexual relations with my servant. Perhaps I can have a family by her.’ Abram did what Sarai told him.” — Genesis 16:1-2
Some religious conservatives would claim these points to be invalid. After all, the scripture above comes from the Old Testament. Well…
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.?For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” — Matthew 5:17-18
Jesus, assuming he actually existed, did not condemn acts of sexual slavery, polygamy, the taking of virgin girls, and sex outside of the sanctity of marriage. Jesus endorsed them. The Old Testament — the Law of Moses — is what Jesus is referencing above.
I suppose it’s interesting that there is no mention of sexual consent anywhere in the Bible.
