Does the Bible Forbid Child Molestation?

Roy Moore with his favorite sculpture - the Ten Commandments.

In the wake of scandals such as Roy Moore's, many are left struggling to understand how religious leaders can participate in sexual abuse of children. It is the same question they have levied after the Catholic Church was unveiled as a bastion of abuse. I have seen this in my own life, unfortunately, in rabbis who commit child abuse.

How does this happen?

I have a thought about this. I suspect that reading the Bible actually helps these perpetrators live with themselves, rather than deter them from their actions.

Where in the Bible does it say that child molestation is forbidden? Nowhere.

In Biblical times, a man had every right to marry a girl at any age. Doesn't matter if she was fourteen, doesn't matter if she was five. And she had no say in the matter - it was up to her father. (This did not change with Rabbinic Judaism either.)

If he came upon the girl without her father's permission, his punishment was mild. He paid a fine to her dad and was expected to marry her (Deut. 22):

כח  כִּי-יִמְצָא אִישׁ, נַעֲרָ בְתוּלָה אֲשֶׁר לֹא-אֹרָשָׂה, וּתְפָשָׂהּ, וְשָׁכַב עִמָּהּ; וְנִמְצָאוּ.	28 If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, that is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
כט  וְנָתַן הָאִישׁ הַשֹּׁכֵב עִמָּהּ, לַאֲבִי הַנַּעֲרָ--חֲמִשִּׁים כָּסֶף; וְלוֹ-תִהְיֶה לְאִשָּׁה, תַּחַת אֲשֶׁר עִנָּהּ--לֹא-יוּכַל שַׁלְּחָהּ, כָּל-יָמָיו.	29 then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he hath raped her; he may not send her away all his days.

Many religious people believe that this is God's law. And therein lies the problem. If you get your absolute truth from a document written 2,000 years ago, your morals are going to need a bit of an update for the 21st century.

What's the answer to all of this? For me, the answer is to realize that the Bible is not infallible. It was a document written for a certain time. It is not the end-all be-all of morality. This is recognizable in many ways, which I have discussed here in several posts.

For many such a thought may make them feel uncomfortable. But there can be no middle ground here. Either you believe that child molestation is wrong, and the Bible is wrong - or you believe that the Bible is right, and child molestation is OK.

Which is it going to be?