December 3, 2009
Oregonian headline: Domestic abuse can be subtly sinister
....But he would not listen to her; and being stronger than she, he forced her and lay with her. Then Amnon was seized with a very great loathing for her; indeed, his loathing was even greater than the lust he had felt for her. Amnon said to her, "Get out!"
(2 Samuel 13.14-15)
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The issue of sin and sex is certainly worth an on-going dialogue. In the text mentioned, is this an illustration of "the sin of the fathers being visited on the children..."? I seems like Adam's sin (I will be like God knowing good and evil!) has inherently within it and maybe central to it the use of force to maintain the distorted sense of self actualized in the attempt to be "like God knowing good and evil".
ReplyDeleteI would agree and would add that I wonder if the objectification of the 'other' (Tamar in this case)precludes genuine relationship? Tamar is an object for Amnon to manipulate.
ReplyDeleteWhen people (or Creation for that matter) are experienced as objects the relationship is distorted. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked: (Gen. 3.7)
Adam and Eve...and God become objectified and relational existence is fatally damaged. In the words of Martin Buber, man becomes an It rather than a Thou.
I think of sin as the 'absence of authentic relationship'