As I was writing a previous post, I came across a passage in Hosea that really stood out to me:
“Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart. My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, and their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, and they have played the harlot against their God. They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is good.
Therefore your daughters commit harlotry, and your brides commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go apart with harlots, and offer sacrifices with a ritual harlot. Therefore people who do not understand will be trampled.” [Emphasis added.]
The book of Hosea functions basically as an object lesson
demonstrating how God feels about Israel.
Recall that God commanded Hosea to take a harlot as a wife. Hosea’s wife, Gomer, was unfaithful to
Hosea. After they got married, Gomer
bore Hosea a couple of children, then reverted back to harlotry, and eventually
ended up being enslaved, whereupon Hosea was commanded to buy her back. What God wanted to illustrate was that, in a
spiritual sense, Israel’s behavior towards God was identical to Gomer’s
behavior towards Hosea. Israel was being
promiscuously unfaithful towards God, which prompts God to levy the condemnation
quoted above.
What’s intriguing is that God says that he will not punish
the women of Israel for their harlotry because the men are acting as spiritual
harlots towards God. The men of Israel
had forsaken God and chased after idols, and offered those idols the best
sacrifices, leaving God either leftovers or nothing at all. God, then, decides to give the men of Israel a
fitting punishment: He won’t hold women
responsible to the natural consequences of their harlotry. As long as the men
of Israel cheat on God, God will enable the women of Israel to cheat on the men
of Israel.
By now, the parallels to 21st century America should be
obvious. One common lament in the
manosphere is that women go about riding the carousel, as the expression goes,
often without much in the way of impunity.*
Women don’t get ostracized for acting like sluts; those who try to shame
promiscuous women are often stopped in their tracks. Thanks to birth control, condoms, and modern
medicine, women face ridiculously health and pregnancy risks for sleeping
around with multiple partners. In the
event they do get pregnant, abortion is not only legal, but relatively
available. And even if abortion isn’t
possible, the state will provide women with plenty of financial support for
them and their bastard spawn. Quite frankly,
women face minimal negative consequences for slutting it up.
While it may be comforting to look for naturalist
explanations for why it is the case that women can slut it up without suffering
what should be the natural consequences, it is likely more beneficial to ask
whether there is a spiritual explanation why daughter aren’t being punished for
playing the harlot and why brides are not being punished for committing
adultery.
I would suggest that, as in the days of Hosea, the reason
why women are essentially getting away with being whores is due to men being
unfaithful to God. The modern American
man no longer worships Jehovah, but instead worships the idols of power, fame,
intellect, sports, wealth, and Woman.
Most modern American men couldn’t tell you why they believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the son of the living God, but they can tell you what team will
win the championship and why. They can
tell you why capitalism is the best system ever devised, and why the government
should be pro-business. They can tell
you what colleges are most prestigious, and what scholastic tests best indicate
scholastic abilities. They can tell what
specific behaviors should ensure success what with women. They can tell you all about why someone
became famous, and what you should do to become famous like them. They can tell you all about all sorts of
legislation and judicial rulings, and their implications for the country, and
they can tell you all about how to become politically active. They can give you more details than you would
ever need to know about anything except God.
Men have forsaken God and have pursued everything the world
has to offer. And that’s why women get
away with being whores.
* There are some long-term consequences, but that’s for
another post.
