FREE WILL! why cant god physically show himself?

[Sword of Christ]

She still wasn't given a choice and that's the key aspect of rape, the absence of consent. She was told by Gabriel that God was going to impregnate her therefore even though there was no physical intercourse, her rights were just as breached & she was just as pregnant as if there had been.

Well she was the only human born without sin so was the only person viable to give birth to God himself who would then through his life and death lead mankind to the fulfillment of eternal life. So I'm sure she was accepting of her role in human destiny assuming Gabriel filled her in on all the details there. For Catholics she does have something of a divine status herself.

Really? Then you don't know your bible in this case. [sardonicism] You'll find that the majority of 'punishments' for being a rapist involved having to take lifetime responsibility for your victims 'welfare' by having to 'suffer' marriage to them. [/sardonicism]

It depends which book of the Bible you read. I think the idea with the rapist having to marry their victim is that no other man would marry or financially support her if she had lost her virginity that way so the alternative would be for her to beg on the streets. Again they had different social set up in their society compared to our own historically Christian Western society.

Stoning was only in the case of adulterous rape and even then, not in all circumstances and not always the rapist, also the victim. Hardly just behaviour and mandated by God, too.

They wouldn't stone the woman who was raped if she screamed loud enough to be heard in an urban area or if the rape took place in an area where no-one would be able to hear her. I suppose the idea was to ensure that the woman really was being raped and not just claiming that to avoid a stoning to death for adultery. Again you're projecting modern Western society on an ancient people. What you have there is a real history of a real people warts and all and their covenant with the the Jewish God, a very different kind of God to the ones worshiped by their pagan neighbors we're talking monotheism here, the real deal. And from within this people the Messiah and was raised. This is the way to approach these sacred texts even though some of it is certainly a little off putting.

So for you, the bible provides a context in which rape is okay? And the fate of the Midianite girls meets this rationale for justification? Rape is never okay.

They didn't think was rape by the standards of their culture just a way to organize how you treat the women you capture from neighbors as your war booty, as you do. I realize that their opinions of proper civilized conduct isn't the same as ours you will just have to bear that in mind when you read it.

For some women, death may well have been preferable to being kidnapped at sword-point, forced into a lifetime of indentured servitude and raped.

They had the option of leaving their captor and not being sold into slavery after a set period of time had passed. It's an improvement over being raped, beaten and left there in the burning remains of their village which was the custom of the time. They had to be treated with some respect and given some basic rights. It's a start anyway.

promised the Midianite girls to his soldiers as a reward for their fighting as if they were property, chattel or spoils and there's no adequate justification for that behaviour.

From their point of view they would wonder what else they were suppose to do with their spoils, again your projecting our society and cultural norms onto them. I'm sure they would be horrified by some of things we got up to and think of acceptable in modern times we're not all Saints by any means.

It was still the mechanism by which God allowed the propagation of Lot's line. Thus rape was once again mandated by God.

I don't think it says anything about God commanding the rape of Lot it's just the kind of thing they put in there. I'd take more notice of what they had to say about God and creation and the coming of the Messiah.