A recent conversation between Dr. Sean McDowell, the Associate Professor of Christian Apologetics at Biola University, and Dr. Carmen Imes, the Associate Professor of Old Testament, saw the novel “MeToo” reading of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 take center stage, with the latter arguing that David raped Bathsheba and comparing the situation to a plantation owner raping his slaves in the antebellum South.
During the interaction, the two professors let feminism take the wheel, lumping Bathsheba in with “sexual assault victims” while McDowell mostly lobs good-natured objections at her to easily bat away.
Some quotes from Imes:
“Part of the reason we have more people willing to call this rape now is because, before 30 years ago there really were not very many women in biblical studies. And the more we have women in the room having the conversation, the more we have a kind of sensitivity.”
“All of David’s wives are in a position where consent is not a category that’s very meaningful.”
On Deuteronomy 22:23-24: “Maybe an appropriate analogy would be a plantation in the American South…The plantation owner takes one of the slaves into his bed or visits her in her shack and rapes her. Who’s she gonna cry out to? He’s the boss. Everyone on that plantation is under his command.”
“What really matters about the way that we teach this story…is that there are people in every audience who have experienced unwanted sexual experiences, whether it’s defined as rape or as someone crossing the line without their consent. And the the way we characterize Bathsheba as we talk about her, I think, sends a signal to people that tells them: how are we going to handle their story? Are we a safe person for them to disclose what’s happened to them, or are we going to victim blame?”
“I’m hesitant to call this adultery, even though it is clearly a sexual relationship between a married man and a married woman, so it qualifies as adultery. When we use the word adultery, it implies that there’s consent on both sides.”
You can see an extended discussion of their conversation here. and a discourse here on why David did NOT rape her.
h/t to Woke Preacher TV for the transcript and some of the text.
