Chick-fil-A Biblical Family of the Day

October 30, 2012 By 18 Comments

Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy: “We support biblical families.”

Today’s Chick-fil-A Biblical Family of the Day: Benjamin and the rape of Shiloh (Judges 21:15-23).

The people had compassion on Benjamin because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel. So the elders of the congregation said, “What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since there are no women left in Benjamin?”

And they said, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, in order that a tribe may not be blotted out from Israel. Yet we cannot give any of our daughters to them as wives.” For the Israelites had sworn, “Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin.”

So they said, “Look, the yearly festival of the Lord is taking place at Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, on the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”

And they instructed the Benjaminites, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards, and watch; when the young women of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and each of you carry off a wife for himself from the young women of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. Then if their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Be generous and allow us to have them; because we did not capture in battle a wife for each man. But neither did you incur guilt by giving your daughters to them.’”

The Benjaminites did so; they took wives for each of them from the dancers whom they abducted. Then they went and returned to their territory, and rebuilt the towns, and lived in them.

Filed Under: evangelicals Tagged With: , , 18 Comments
  • PandaRosa

    Oh dear, oh dear…
    Admittedly it sounds akin to the Rape of the Sabine Women, and that wasn’t good either.
    Although “The Rape of Shiloh” does make me think of a Western, with Gary Cooper as the Sheriff and Jimmy Stewart as the villain, a clergyman gone bad…

  • aunursa

    “I don’t understand why they would do that. They can’t get the women pregnant if it was a legitimate rape.”
    - Todd Akin

    “Yes, actually they could get the woman pregnant, if God intended it.”
    - Richard Mourdock

    “I know it wasn’t Rape-rape. It was something else, but I don’t believe it was Rape-rape.”
    - Whoopi Goldberg

  • Lori

    This all started because the rest of the tribes did not think things through.

    “Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin.”

    “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, in order that a tribe may not be blotted out from Israel.”

    Did no one see the problem with that combination?

  • flat

    Hmm I can’t come up with a good kidnapping/rape joke here, can you people help me out?

  • http://apocalypsereview.wordpress.com/ Invisible Neutrino

    I think the absurdity is that a mutually contradictory command came down regarding a surviving tribe of Israel.

  • Ben English

     Yes, let’s worry about the fathers and brothers ‘complaining’. Forget the hell-hath-no-fury-like-scorned women who’ve had their daughters taken. Forget the daughters themselves.

    (Also who would see their daughter or sister kidnapped and go COMPLAIN about it. They should be worried about Shiloh mounting up and kicking their asses.)

  • PandaRosa

    Assuming the question is rhetorical, still, there is the musical ”Seven Brides For Seven Brothers”

  • D9000

    25 In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
    Gorram moral relativists.

  • banancat

    This is one of those passages that makes the Bible so horrific for me to read.  It’s not outright misogyny.  It’s not a case of a man intentionally harming a woman to make her suffer.  Instead, it’s a story where women are just literally objects and it’s not even presented in a way that this is unusual.  Somehow the complete dismissal of women is far, far worse than even the most rapid misogynist.  It’s like women aren’t even worth getting mad at because they’re just so low.  I can’t help but think of the fathers of these women knowing what would happen and being complacent in the deceit.  I can’t believe that every single man was just an outright sociopath, but it sure seems that way.

  • Dan Audy

    Cultural norms are a powerful, powerful thing.  Many of the things we now consider abhorrent have been widely accepted by most societies throughout history and were practiced and endorsed by the moral leaders and genuinely good people of the day who simply accepted them as ‘the way things are supposed to be’.  

  • http://www.facebook.com/jrandyowens Randy Owens

    …even the most rapid misogynist.

    Vapid?  Rabid?  What were you going for here?

  • Dan Audy

    Rampant was my assumption.

  • P J Evans

     Probably ‘rabid’. Which is easy to confuse if you’re typing  by ear.

  • banancat

     Ok, you caught a typo on the internet.  Shame on me, point for you. I meant rabid.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jrandyowens Randy Owens

    You mistake me; I don’t give a rat’s ass about points.  I only care about understanding what you actually meant.  And I’m sick of people thinking I’m after “points”.

    ETA: P.S. “Rat’s ass” vitriol wasn’t really meant for you; it’s for all the other times someone makes such an assumption.

  • banancat

    My intended meaning was clear in spite of the typo, so what reason would you have for making a point of it? If multiple people think you are trying to score internet points, maybe there’s a reason for it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jrandyowens Randy Owens

    If multiple people think they can read my mind, they’re still wrong.

    ETA: And no, the intended meaning wasn’t clear. Someone else thought “rampant”. My first thought was “vapid”. Not to mention that the typo happened to produce a legitimate word, kind of a worst-case scenario for typos. So, clearly not clear, so to speak.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jrandyowens Randy Owens

    As an aside (to an aside), though, I do find the mental picture of a “rampant misogynist” quite droll. :)  Try it.