Catholic League: New York Wants To Erase “Christian Heritage” By Striking Down Law Criminalizing Adultery

March 28, 2024 Christianists, Hate Groups

From hate group leader Bill Donohue:

“Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery.” The Sixth Commandment has been encoded in civil law throughout the world, and though it has proven to be unenforceable in most instances, it has nonetheless functioned as an example of the law as a teacher: what it taught is the importance of the marriage contract.

Charles Lavine is an Assemblyman from New York, and he wants to rid the law of prohibitions against adultery. Adultery has been a misdemeanor in the state for nearly 120 years, but he thinks it’s time to move on. “It’s a celebration of someone’s concept of their own morality.” That’s a poorly constructed sentence. It is also sociologically illiterate.

Laws against adultery are a recognition of our Christian heritage, and that’s not exactly the same as “someone’s own concept of their own morality.” It’s a cultural statement writ large. But with characteristic arrogance, Lavine thinks we are mature enough now to free ourselves of this ancient taboo.

It would be instructive to learn from Lavine why he thinks laws against adultery have been ubiquitous throughout history.

Among primitive peoples, women were regarded as the property of males, hence the focus of adultery laws on women. In Babylonia civilizations, women who engaged in adultery were put to death, but adulterous men simply paid a fine.

In Mosaic Law, adultery meant a wife who had sex with a man who was not her husband, but if a married man had sex with a single woman, that was considered fornication, not adultery.

Matters changed under Christianity. Jesus taught that adultery was wrong, independent of the sex of the offender. Therefore, adultery laws that discriminated against the wife were nixed—the immunity enjoyed by the husband came to a screeching halt (Matthew 19: 3-13).

Much has changed since as laws against adultery have almost vanished in the western world. It must be conceded that if adultery laws are stricken in New York, no one thinks there will be an increase in marital cheating. But there is more at stake than this.

There is a reason why an ethic of sexual reticence best serves society—it guards against the promiscuous abuse of the faculty of sex. Sometimes it is best to let sleeping dogs lie. We are sending this to New York lawmakers and New York bishops.

Read the full rant. The Catholic League is based in New York City. Per Wikipedia, adultery remains a crime in 17 states. In three states – Oklahoma, Michigan, and Wisconsin – adultery is a felony offense. Adultery is no longer a crime in any European country.



Tags

© joemygod.com 2024