Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
But everyone ignoring my religous underpinnings of wife-beating post? Shocking!
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Indeed.
The point made by the panelist that I wish more Westerners could grasp is that by bringing certain negative cultural realities into religious law, the behavior does not become "sanctioned by" the religion so much as it is controlled, by comparison to silence of religion in the face of those realities. The New Testament is silent on domestic violence, so when a Christian commits domestic violence we consider it largely irrelevant to his religion. By contrast, numerous passages of the Bible condone --- nay, compel --- beating your children, without proscribing limits, and somehow we consider ourselves a more civilized religion.
Resorting to violence against women is a cultural phenomenon that tends to become more and more limited with women's economic and romantic freedom. I think we all can agree that marriage prospects work better under a free market model.
