The Big Big Whoredom Scares God

[vovat]

In the Old Testament, several metaphors are used to describe the relationship between God and Israel. One is the popular one of God as a parent, but another quite popular one is that of a marriage. Israel is the bride of God, so when the Israelites decide to worship other deities instead, they're playing the whore. After all, BAAL didn't lead them out of Egypt or help them win all those battles, did he? Actually, what I've seen suggests that the Baals weren't all that different from contemporary concepts of Yahweh, but I've also heard that people often cheat with people who remind them of their spouses. The Bible often blames women for leading men astray from the true faith, because apparently men can't resist doing anything a pretty girl wants them to do, including changing religions. The reason given for why marriages to foreigners are discouraged is that they're likely to lead the Jews into a-whoring after other gods, which is both sexist AND xenophobic at the same time. Still, I have to wonder how interfaith marriages work out, even today. If you can get it to work, more power to you, but is anyone really going to be comfortable thinking their chosen partner is going to Hell? I guess it depends on the religion, though, since not all of them regard themselves as the ONLY way.



Anyway, one Biblical figure suggested to have been lured into Baal worship by his wife is Ahab, described as the worst ruler of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. While his name is now more likely to be associated with whale-chasing, you almost certainly know the name of his wife, Jezebel. The name is now often applied as an epithet to promiscuous women, but I don't think there's any indication that Queen Jezebel was literally promiscuous. It was more a case of her being a whore for Baal. On the other hand, she IS one of the few Biblical characters specifically mentioned as wearing makeup. A lot of the hatred for Jezebel might well simply stem from her being a female who serves as the power behind the throne, first through her husband and later through her sons. She's not described as a very nice person anyway, though, not only ordering prophets of Yahweh executed, but also framing Naboth in order for Ahab to take possession of his vineyard. I have to wonder if the vineyard story is ever used to protest eminent domain laws, because it seems like it would serve the purpose quite well. Anyway, during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel's son Jehoram, Jehu launched a rebellion, and had Jezebel's eunuchs throw her out a window, after which she was eaten by wild dogs. The Bible sure is one gory book, isn't it?

Comments

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Well, it used to be considered an interfaith relationship to marry Catholic/Protestant, and personally I can't see what's so hard about it, but maybe that's because I grew up in such a household, and am technically in the same situation now. Except he's actually agnostic. I think it only becomes difficult if you can't agree on how to raise the children. In my extended family, the majority of marriages have been Catholic/Protestant, and I've always found it ironic that nearly all the Catholic/Catholic marriages ended in divorce (the one I can think of that didn't is a second marriage-- what does that mean?) (Oh, I thought of another. I forgot about it because they got married at the same time as us. I guess they still have time to get divorced, but i doubt it). (The Protestant/Protestant marriages are a couple divorces, a couple good ones). Apparently my family has luck with the Catholic/Protestant thing.

Now, we did have a Catholic/Jewish marriage in the family that disintegrated in less than a year, but religion had pretty much nothing to do with that. Unless you're anti-Semitic and therefore EQUATE her marrying-him-for-his-money with her being Jewish, which really isn't fair because I don't think she was even a practicing Jew.

But like I said, I think it depends HOW you practice whether it becomes problematic. Most of the "interfaith" (used loosely, because seriously, Catholic/Presbyterian is not like, say, Catholic/Hindu) couples in my family have had one person who is still practicing and the other person, well, used to go to Sunday school, so they're easy about letting things go. My most Catholic aunt though (she is SOOOO active in her church and all her kids went to Catholic school) is married to a guy who's quite a devoted Presbyterian, but I guess he's just fine with his kids being raised Catholic, although little good it did THEM in the marriage department-- the son was divorced twice (the first time was the Jewish one), the middle daughter divorced once after she got pregnant with another man's baby (her second marriage to that guy has gone all right, but I am still bitter because I liked her first husband better), the youngest daughter's marriage is still going strong, but HER first daughter was born three months before they got married, so yay, Catholic school! Anyway, I digress. What was I talking about? Okay, well, like I said, my with interfaith marriage is not as dramatic as it could be, but maybe that's the point. It's not always as dramatic as it could be.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

In many of these cases, it seems like the person with the stricter religion might cause more trouble for the relationship. I think Catholics typically believe Protestants will usually end up in Heaven, while Hindus generally don't believe in Hell at all. But yeah, it definitely varies depending on how someone looks at it, and I think it's probably not too difficult to rationalize such things.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Or, in the cases of my family members, it seemed to be the people that didn't follow their religion's rules in certain pertinent-to-marriage cases! I don't know too many strict my-way-my-way-ONLY types to compare....

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

I guess whomever did that illustration of Jezebel's death forgot that the dogs were supposed to be wild...

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they look pretty tame. Then again, it can be hard to tell the difference from a still image.