Jesus was against victim blaming for sexual assault

As an atheist, I don't believe the Bible is divinely inspired. And as a reasonable person and a Religious Studies graduate, I don't agree with a lot of what the Bible has to say. That being said, according to the story, Jesus got at least one thing right: accountability when it comes to sexual “sins.”

We live in a society in which victim blaming appears to be the default. If a woman is sexually assaulted, immediately we hear from those who want to know what she did to bring that attack upon herself.

"What did she expect?" they might ask. "Did you see what she was wearing?"

They might also inquire, "Why didn't she just leave?" Or they may suggest, “She was asking for it.”

In the famous Sermon on the Mount, on the other hand, Jesus paints a picture of accountability when it comes to sins associated with lust. Whether looking or touching, Jesus tells his followers to look inward and not at the subject of the lust (in the case of this particular discussion, the victim or survivor of the attack).

Let’s start by looking at Matthew 5:29, which states, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.^”

Now, Jesus here is not literally telling someone to pluck their eyeball out. However, what it is saying is that, if you look at someone with lust, it is a sin, and the best thing to do is to fix yourself rather than blame the person you are lusting after. Here’s what Got Questions Ministries has to say about this:

“Jesus is making an important point about how dangerous our thoughts and desires can be. Being led by our urges, rather than keeping our desires under control, is a path to destruction. In that vein, He says that it's worth losing an eye rather than letting that eye drag someone into sin, and by extension into hell.”

In other words, a Christian is directed to keep their own desires under control, and not be controlled by their desires. The latter is a victim blaming mentality, while the former is one of accountability.

Jesus doesn’t stop with looking and lust, either. The next section, Matthew 5:30, goes further by applying the same logic to actions taken when one is controlled by their lustful thoughts. It states, “And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

Here’s what Got Questions Ministries has to say about this verse:

“While the prior reference involved the eyes, and implied sins like lust, Jesus' current analogy speaks of one's hand. The overt meaning is that we ought to be in control of our urges—not to let the desires of the body take us over. Once again, the point is that it's better to lose a body part rather than be thrown into hell. Some scholars suggest the words used here might have also been used as a polite euphemism for lustful acts, more generally.”

Basically, Jesus is saying it’s better to cut off your hand (aka penis) than to engage in a sexual sin, such as an assault. Although he was clearly exaggerating here, it isn’t unheard of in ancient times for a Christian man to do exactly that, by removing the offending body part when unable to control their urges.

While the Bible certainly doesn’t get everything right, it’s worth reminding modern Christians what Jesus had to say about victim blaming.

Stay Reasonable,

David G. McAfee