In a 2018 article for The Gospel Coalition, Paul Carter acknowledged that the accusation of rape “comes pretty close to the unforgivable sin in the minds of most reasonable people so I suppose the language needs to be defended,” but that, ultimately, based on the facts of the story and how David abused his power to coerce Bathsheba into a sexual encounter, rape is the only way to describe what he did.
“David was a rapist,” Carter said. “To cover up his rape he became a murderer.”
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Some have pointed out that the trouble with interpreting David’s actions as rape is perhaps owing to the fact that many Christians find the idea of the “man after God’s own heart” being a rapist to be deeply troubling.
“Perhaps more intriguing than determining David’s motives is our own determination to spare him from disrepute,” wrote Kyle Worley in a 2019 article for Christianity Today. “We don’t want David to be a rapist. We actually find it easier to stomach him being a murderer of a man than an abuser of a woman.”
“And, if the preponderance of sermons is any indication, Christians have historically been willing to slut-shame Bathsheba to keep any stink (beyond adultery) off of David. It’s nonsensical, particularly because in Scripture, Bathsheba is never accused, indicted, or even maligned in any way for what happened,” Worley continued.
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Nevertheless, Worley points out that when the biblical author referred to David as “a man after God’s own heart,” it was never meant to be a blanket endorsement of everything he did in his life.
“Scripture is full of broken people, and King David, for all his virtues, is a broken man,” Worley said. “So why has this particular story become such a contentious one for us? I’m convinced that we don’t want David to be a rapist because we don’t want to reckon with the sin of abusive power.”
This article was originally published on January 25, 2022.
