TLDR; David sleeping with Bathsheba wasn't consensual

TLDR; David sleeping with Bathsheba wasn't consensual; she was likely raped.

2 Samuel 11 David and Bathsheba

One thing I’ve noticed about being on Twitter is that we, the Christian community, spend a lot of time talking about women. I try not to participate because sometimes it seems pretty silly. I mean, whether or not women can wear bikinis or leggings or yoga pants or if they were “designed to make sandwiches”…I’m just going to say it, they’re silly arguments. Some dude throwing a tweet out about “a Christian woman should never wear yoga pants” is a dude that’s not tuned into the real problems within his own church. At that point you’re rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic.

The one that came up this week though is the whether or not Bathsheba was raped. Without much study, I always took the narrative that “David fornicated.” But recently some people have taken that to the conclusion that “Bathsheba sinned.” In reading the text it doesn’t explicitly state that she was raped however, *he noticed her* and with power dynamics being what they are, she was likely in no position to refuse. Without a whole lot of explanation from the scriptures, I’m going to give Bathsheba the benefit of the doubt here. I won't say "David fornicated" anymore, I'll say "David raped Bathsheba."

NOTE: In researching Bathsheba specifically, I’d say a majority of the art (especially during the renaissance) depicts her totally nude. It’s subtle but it’s totally an “art imitates life” moment as it places you in David’s position to gaze on her. It’s like watching a Hunger Games movie; you’re seeing a narrative about the dystopian depths of entertainment that is kids killing kids while YOU yourself are watching kids killing kids for entertainment. I don’t know if that was the artists intent or if they really just wanted to draw a nude woman but I found it interesting never-the-less.

Sketchy sermons is generally rated PG-13 so don’t worry you’re not going to see much nudity here. 😅