- May 5, 2012
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If your church follows the Revised Common Lectionary, you know that II Samuel 11:1-15 is the Old Testament reading for Sunday. I'm the lector for this coming Sunday, which means I'm immersing myself in this passage for a few hours so that I can read it well on Sunday.
The story is David and Bathsheba. Clearly, David is sinning here, and the text condemns him. Adultery, and murder. That's what my Sunday School teachers talked about, once upon a time. David sleeps with a woman who doesn't belong to him, and then murders her husband to cover it up.
But in this age of #MeToo, another aspect of the story has struck me: The writer of II Samuel doesn't seem to care about Bathsheba's consent. It's not clear that David cared about Bathsheba's consent. The king sends for you, and you go, because what else are you supposed to do? #BathshebaToo, sigh.
If I can, I'm going to try to communicate all this as I read on Sunday. Gak, I'd always sympathized with David, poor guy, made one little mistake and got in all kinds of trouble. Now I'm seeing it entirely differently. I note that David's son Amnon follows in his father's footsteps just a couple of chapters later.
Thanks, folks, for listening to my rant. Sunday morning church doesn't really provide a forum for discussing the readings, and I don't know whether my priest is going to preach about Bathsheba. He's a good preacher, but #MeToo may not be on his mind the way it's on my mind.
The story is David and Bathsheba. Clearly, David is sinning here, and the text condemns him. Adultery, and murder. That's what my Sunday School teachers talked about, once upon a time. David sleeps with a woman who doesn't belong to him, and then murders her husband to cover it up.
But in this age of #MeToo, another aspect of the story has struck me: The writer of II Samuel doesn't seem to care about Bathsheba's consent. It's not clear that David cared about Bathsheba's consent. The king sends for you, and you go, because what else are you supposed to do? #BathshebaToo, sigh.
If I can, I'm going to try to communicate all this as I read on Sunday. Gak, I'd always sympathized with David, poor guy, made one little mistake and got in all kinds of trouble. Now I'm seeing it entirely differently. I note that David's son Amnon follows in his father's footsteps just a couple of chapters later.
Thanks, folks, for listening to my rant. Sunday morning church doesn't really provide a forum for discussing the readings, and I don't know whether my priest is going to preach about Bathsheba. He's a good preacher, but #MeToo may not be on his mind the way it's on my mind.