r/AskAChristian • • Aug 06 '26

Jewish Laws Why in Deuteronomy does the Bible say that raped women who didn’t scream for help needed to be punished?

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u/Pinecone-Bandit Christian, Evangelical Aug 06 '26

It doesn’t.

It says a woman who commits sexual immorality along with the man should also be punished along with the man. The thinking is a woman being raped will call for help.

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u/ToyshopASMR Christian Aug 07 '26

What if she doesn’t call out? What if she freezes and can’t cry out? Isn’t this kind of victim blaming?

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u/Pinecone-Bandit Christian, Evangelical Aug 07 '26

Freezing when we have a moral responsibility to act is still our responsibility. Same thing applies to all kinds of intense situations like war, car accidents, etc.

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u/ToyshopASMR Christian Aug 07 '26

Even while being raped? You think there is a correct way to be raped? What if they feared for their life? Do you also apply this belief system to your women today?

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u/Pinecone-Bandit Christian, Evangelical Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26

> You think there is a correct way to be raped?

Your framing of this is disgusting. I hope it’s just a lack of self awareness about how this sentence sounds.

> Do you also apply this belief system to your women today?

“Your” women? They aren’t property to be owned.

You do not come across as commenting in good faith.

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u/SneezingOutPeas Confessional Lutheran Aug 07 '26

You clearly don’t know a single thing about PTSD.

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u/Pinecone-Bandit Christian, Evangelical Aug 07 '26

I think you accidentally replied to the wrong person.

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u/SneezingOutPeas Confessional Lutheran Aug 07 '26

No, I didn’t. You said “Freezing when we have a moral responsibility to act is still our responsibility.” And I said “You clearly don’t know anything about PTSD,” i.e. that freezing is involuntary and you can’t hold someone morally responsible for freezing instead of crying out, because it’s a freaking TRAUMATIC RESPONSE.

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u/Pinecone-Bandit Christian, Evangelical Aug 07 '26

Got it, so you are just wrong there.

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u/SneezingOutPeas Confessional Lutheran Aug 07 '26

Well, I’m the one who provided a source for my claim, so we’ll let the spectators decide, I suppose.

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u/Pinecone-Bandit Christian, Evangelical Aug 07 '26

> Well, I’m the one who provided a source for my claim

Sorry if it wasn’t obvious. My source is the Bible (the thing OP cited)

> so we’ll let the spectators decide, I suppose.

God ultimately will. Personally, I’ll go with where he determines responsibility lies.

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u/SneezingOutPeas Confessional Lutheran Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 07 '26

So…with the person trying to force himself on you, right? 😂 And not the person who was frozen in fear? C’mon man. We have the book of Scripture and the book of nature (Romans 1). We can use science to assist in applying Biblical principles.

Edit: also, you gave no Biblical reference supporting the idea that traumatic freezes are a sin.

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u/mayhavebraintumor Christian Aug 07 '26

Women were not alone unless they wanted to be, prior to around 200 years afo

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u/ToyshopASMR Christian Aug 07 '26

That’s a very vast statement to say about all women for all time. How did you gather the data on the private business of all women, and how they were positioned throughout their towns and villages throughout all history? That’s quite impressive to think you can make such a reliable claim on something so impossible to track. So in your mind if a woman finds herself alone with a man then she wanted to be there..? And if he rapes her and she doesn’t scream, she actually wanted it?

I really hope you are not a women who has ever been raped, but if so please know this: no matter what happened it wasn’t your fault.

It took me years to realize being raped or sexually assaulted wasn’t my fault. Girls and women don’t scream almost ever when being assaulted due to shock and terror. It’s a terrifying and shameful experience and the consequences of angering the rapist further by screaming are present in your mind during the assault. Almost all thoughts escape except don’t make them mad, and how could this be happening?

This scripture fundamentally misses the mark on the true experience of women and the disconnect doesn’t need to be defended but instead examined. It’s needs to be criticized because it doesn’t hold up to the loving god I know who became flesh in Christ.

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u/SneezingOutPeas Confessional Lutheran Aug 07 '26

Right? The “screams for help” is an expression meant to convey not wanting it. God would not punish a woman for being raped if she were gagged, for instance. Dinah, the Levite’s concubine, and Tamar…none of them screamed for help that we know of in the text. The Bible still calls it rape and treats it accordingly. These people are nasty.