June 21, 2010: When we fail to speak up…
Posted on : Jun 21st, 2010 | By office | Category: Bread for the Journey
Not all the stories in Scripture about women are uplifting or empowering. Many are sad, some even horrifying. One such case is the story of Jephthah’s unnamed daughter. A story of blaming the victim, a story of a vulnerable person being sacrificed for so-called pious reasons, a story about a complacent community failing to act in the face of injustice. We find this unnamed girl’s story in Judges 11.
The story is, from the start, dark and tragic. Jephthah is the unfortunate product of his dad Gilead’s infidelity with a prostitute and as a result he cannot inherit any of his father’s property. To add injury to the injustice, his half-brothers drive him out. But Jephthah is a survivor and an accomplished warrior, so when the Israelites need someone to defend them and fight against the Ammonites, Jephthah is pressured into military service. He agrees on one condition: that if he is victorious, he will become the head of the Gilead Clan. If successful, he will rule as patriarch over his brothers who drove him out. Revenge can be sweet. In preparation for the battle Jephthah strikes a deal with God to ensure victory for him:
Jephthah made a vow to God, and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return victorious from the Ammonites, shall be God’s, to be offered up by me as a burnt offering.” So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them; and Yahweh gave them into his hand. He inflicted a massive defeat on them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty towns, and as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel. Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah; and there was his daughter coming out to meet him with timbrels and with dancing. She was his only child; he had no son or daughter except her. When he saw her, he tore his clothes, and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low; you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I cannot take back my vow.” She said to him, “My father, if you have opened your mouth to Yahweh, do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that Yahweh has given you vengeance against your enemies, the Ammonites.” And she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: Grant me two months, so that I may go and wander on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, my companions and I.” “Go,” he said and sent her away for two months. So she departed, she and her companions, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. At the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to the vow he had made. (Judges 11:30-39)
Yes, you read correctly, Jephthah burned his only daughter alive as a sacrifice to God. Since she was still a virgin and unmarried it’s highly possible that she was just 12 or 13 years of age. Girls were usually married off shortly after they reached puberty. This is probably one of the most horrifying stories of victimization in Scripture. And not only that, but also blaming the victim. Jephthah blames his daughter for putting him in the unbearable position of having to sacrifice her. Not once does he stop and consider the option that God may find this sacrifice totally unacceptable and horrid, and it seems neither does the community act responsibly. Oh, they do spend time with her comforting her, weeping with her, but not once do they ask, “Is this just?” They support her with their presence, but do not challenge her fate. Not even one person protests the appropriateness of Jephthah’s vow. What it was is a stupid, rash and self-serving vow of a faithful man who wants to be restored back into the community. This is not genuine piety!
It’s the story of one man’s radical devotion to God that leads to a girl (who has very little power in a patriarchal society) being slaughtered as a sacrifice. A girl who had no real choice but to submit to her father’s zealous and blind beliefs, even at the cost of her own life. After all, so reasons Jephthah, it was her impulsive actions that brought this tragedy upon them. It seems that blaming the victim to shift blame is a strategy as old as humanity itself. And that Jephthah could actually carry out his vow is chilling. How little value was placed on a woman’s life and personhood in this society? How little, if the community would take for granted that God would find such a sacrifice even remotely acceptable?
The community definitely did not think so when it came to the life of King Saul’s son Jonathan in 1 Samuel 14. After a battle with the Philistines we read that Saul made a rash oath, saying: Cursed be anyone who eats food before it is evening and I have been avenged on my enemies (I Samuel 14:24). Jonathan, Saul’s son did not know about the vow, and so he and the soldiers with him unwittingly ate honey from a honeycomb he discovered. When Saul finds out that soldiers have disobeyed his command he declares: Come here, all you leaders of the people; and let us find out how this sin has arisen today. For as God lives who saves Israel, even if it is in my son Jonathan, he shall surely die! When Saul finds out that Jonathon is in fact the guilty one, he declares that Jonathon must surely be punished with death. Well, not only did the people protest the appropriateness of Saul’s vow, but they also stood up for Jonathan, would not allow him to become a victim and saved his life.
I really don’t know what to make of the story of Jephthah’s young daughter; it seems to have no redeeming qualities. It’s about a self-serving faith that destroyed rather than saved. Maybe the only redeeming quality is that it can function as a warning to us: BEWARE! Maybe if we learn from this tragedy then Jephthah’s unnamed daughter’s death was not in vain.
To live in community is supposed to be beneficial – a safe environment where we support and take care of one another, where we’re supposed to protect the most vulnerable among us. Supposed to… I read an article by Roxanne MtJoy* last week which filled me with doubt as to whether we have learned anything from the story of Jephthah’s daughter. Roxanne shares with us the modern day horrifying story of Tina Anderson:
In 1997, 15-year-old Tina Anderson became pregnant after being raped repeatedly by an older man she knew from church. Shockingly, when her pastor found out, he forced her to apologize in front of the entire congregation in Concord, New Hampshire, and then promptly helped whisk her away to live in Colorado.
According to Tina, the first time she was raped by Ernest Willis, it was in the back seat of a car after he’d given her a driving lesson. She didn’t tell anyone because she was terrified that she’d be blamed. After being raped by Willis again, Tina became pregnant. Willis, ever the vile human-being, offered to drive her out-of-state for an abortion or to punch her in the stomach to cause a miscarriage. It was at this point that Tina confided in her mother, who in turn notified their pastor, Chuck Phelps.
As it turns out, she was right to fear being blamed. In a disgusting turn of events, Phelps told Tina she would have to go before the entire congregation to apologize for her sins. Excuse me? It seems that Phelps explained to Tina that while Willis “may have been 99 percent responsible,” she needs to confess to her “1 percent guilt in the situation.”
After Tina acquiesced in this humiliating act of victim-blaming, the church and her family shipped her off to live in Colorado against her wishes, where she was instructed to give the baby up for adoption. While Phelps did contact the police about Willis — you know, since he was 99% guilty and all — it became nearly impossible for them to do anything about it since Tina was now hidden away in Colorado.
This appalling story is finally seeing the light of day because Tina Anderson decided to come forward this year. Sadly, it wasn’t until this February that Tina truly realized that the assault on her was, in fact, zero percent her responsibility. That’s when she decided it was time to share her experience with others and to seek justice for what had happened to her as a teenager.
You might have noticed that I am using her real name, something highly unusual in rape cases because victims’ names are protected. This is because Tina wanted it this way. She wanted you to know exactly who she is and what was done to her; not only by Ernest Willis, but by those she entrusted to protect her.
We hear you Tina, and we will share your story, hoping that it will inspire others to speak up for and protect those who are the most vulnerable in their communities, to act compassionately and responsibly.
Kobie
* Roxann MtJoy is a freelance writer and case manager at a domestic violence shelter.
To read the full article, click on the link below:
Teenager Forced to Apologize to Her Church for Being Raped | Women’s Rights | Change.org
June 27th, 2010 at 12:15 am
I went back and read this chapter in Judges. To me 11:3 gives this some context “… A rabble had joined company with him, and went out with him on raids.”
To me implies two things:
a) He had his own fighting force.
b) He’s involved in some sort of violent crimes (probably robbing travelers).
The clan of Gilead not wanting to place their faith in God, instead turned to a strong man to place in charge of them (11:6), which is ultimately the sin that all of Israel later commits by choosing to have a king over them.
So to me the story in verses 30-39, while tragic serve to illustrate that Jephthah is a man of violence who does not respect life. Also the vow that he makes in v30 assumes that it will be a member of his household, and we are to assume this vow is a rejection of the Spirit of God in v29.