All I’m asking for is a little consistency
As I’m extremely late to the party on this (blame equal parts back-to-work meh and lack of non-mobile broadband), I’m sure someone’s planted this sitter in the back of the net already, but isn’t the public stoning of Iris Robinson and her lover(s) by the elders of the DUP long overdue?
I mean if members of the DUP can claim that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and that homosexuality is an abomination based on the inerrant word of God as contained in the Bible, then surely, as that same God takes a dim view of adultery, they’ve got to follow through or risk a good old fashioned smiting.
The infinitely loving Jehovah was pretty unambiguous about it:
If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.
Leviticus 20:10
In fact, in Ezekiel (always a reliable go-to guy for the righteous wrath and furious vengeance), there’s a passage that seems directly relevant to the case at hand:
32 ” ‘You adulterous wife! You prefer strangers to your own husband! 33 Every prostitute receives a fee, but you give gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. 34 So in your prostitution you are the opposite of others; no one runs after you for your favors. You are the very opposite, for you give payment and none is given to you.
” ‘Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the LORD! 36 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because you poured out your wealth [g] and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s blood, 37 therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see all your nakedness. 38 I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring upon you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger. 39 Then I will hand you over to your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you naked and bare. 40 They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords. 41 They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers. 42 Then my wrath against you will subside and my jealous anger will turn away from you; I will be calm and no longer angry.
Ezekiel 16:32-42
To be honest if that were my god and I really, really believed he was real and the bible was his instruction manual – I’d need acute psychiatric help if I’d done what Mrs Robinson had done.
Of course – apologists for la Robinson can always cite the Gospel of John, where Jesus does a bit of a retcon on his dad’s inerrant word:
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
John 8:7
Not that that particular bit of advice from her lord and saviour ever stopped Iris (who clearly wasn’t up to stone-casting standards) from casting stones at gays and other groups she regarded as abominations.
But at this stage is anyone surprised to find a conservative evangelical Christian acting like a Pharisee?
