crime in the middle ages

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Scott

Puritan Board Graduate
I am listening to a college lecture series on the high middle ages. The professor made the point that male homosexual conduct in the middle ages was punished by death. Female homosexual conduct was not even a crime. Odd.
 
today, if two beautiful women kiss, men are hooping, and cheering. If two men kiss, gross.

not that that contributes anything, but I think it is indicative of us finding one act not as bad as the other.
 
Actually, I do not think it was a death penalty in the Old Testament either . . only male homosexuality.

You might want to double check though.
 
There is a chapter in The Bible and Birth Control by Charles Provan which deals with the difference in punishments accorded to male and female homosexual behavior and he argues that the reasons males were given the death penalty according to the Mosaic judicial code and females were not is because while such conduct by males and female is an abomination, only males spill seed and therefore violate the sixth commandment prohibition against taking/preventing life which merits the death penalty.

[Edited on 1-20-2006 by VirginiaHuguenot]
 
Originally posted by trevorjohnson
Andrew:

"Spilling seed" is not a violation of the 6th commandment. Every lawful act of intercourse, otherwise, would be mass genocide of 200 million swimmers!

I think the author's point (and others holding that position) is the intention behind the act, not whether all the swimmers reach their destination.
 
Originally posted by trevorjohnson
Andrew:

"Spilling seed" is not a violation of the 6th commandment. Every lawful act of intercourse, otherwise, would be mass genocide of 200 million swimmers!

Provan's argument is that "male homosexuals [in contrast to female homosexuals for whom no death penalty is prescribed] are worthy of death because they emit semen outside the proper receptical contrary to nature as created by God. Thus they negate the purpose for which semen was created and 'poured out' by God (Job 10:10): procreation. Birth control does the very same thing, and so is likewise under the curse of God." (p. 19)

Hence, the sin of Onan was a "sodomitic sin" (see Martin Luther's comments on Gen. 38.8-10).
 
Originally posted by trevorjohnson
Can a husband/wife romp for mere pleasure - or does one always have to have a hope of a child in mind to make their act lawful? Otherwise, it is the spilling of seed without a desire for children. Or if we say, we are not really desiring children, but are open to the Lord's will - isn't this a sinful indifference to the Lord's command to get out their and make babies to fill the earth?

For health reasons (i.e. small mother and fragile cervix or tired uterus and other women-stuff involving women-parts) can we "space" pregnancies in order to give mommy time to recover for another round? Or is this impeding upon God's will?

This is not sarcasm - but real questions.

Rather than continue to discuss birth control here, which I only referenced in explaining why there exists a difference in civil punishments for male and female homosexual behavior, I would refer you to the threads on birth control, where this question has been asked and answered many times.
 
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