The Baalam believers would toss babies into a bake oven in hopes their smoke would appease the gods. That’s those women. The laws of not intermarrying to keep a bloodline clean was more to keep such rituals at bay. Taking a woman home, was not for sexual slavery (hello all you people with too many electronic toys and speed dials for take-out food…)…see that purity word there and the virgins? A focused and pure lifestyle was being promulgated–not regulated: that is your own military (cretin)mind set.

Sadly there were historic Christians with Old testament tendencies and many who find it hard to seperate sin from sinner. That many use religion as an excuse for a good bun fight in the same way as some do with football matches is wrong and not what the New testament teaches.

The Old testament has things in it that I would not want my children to read. The new testament has Jesus being crucified, Stephen being stoned and Andrew tortured to death on a cross. Still I would not want the Bible sold underwraps like other pornographic or violent literature – although on second thoughts – such restrictions would probably make it more widely sort after & read! Such is the perversity of human nature.

The present controversy sparked off when some hypocrite newspapers (themselves publishing erotic contents daily) and conservative moralistic organizations (some related to the fundamentalist church) condemned the university’s student publication for the sex contents, intensified by the government tribunal’s classification of it as indecent, which will bring criminal consequence to the student editors. This aroused the anger of a sizable public and in particular some activists on the internet who initiated this campaign. Having read the ‘offensive’ contents of both, I think it is fair to say that some descriptions in the bible are indeed more explicit than those in the student publication.

The number of complaints against the bible has now exceeded 2,000 (while the student press has received about 200 complaints), but the TELA has declined to refer the bible to the tribunal for classification. The outcome may seem sensible but again it provokes criticisms of double standard. People are now lodging complains to the Ombudsman against the TELA’s inconsistent decisions.

They told the men of Benjamin who still needed wives, “Go and hide in the vineyards. When the women of Shiloh come out for their dances, rush out from the vineyards, and each of you can take one of them home to be your wife! And when their fathers and brothers come to us in protest, we will tell them, ‘Please be understanding. Let them have your daughters, for we didn’t find enough wives for them when we destroyed Jabesh-gilead. And you are not guilty of breaking the vow since you did not give your daughters in marriage to them.'” So the men of Benjamin did as they were told. They kidnapped the women who took part in the celebration and carried them off to the land of their own inheritance.

Numbers 31:7-18

Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people went to meet them outside the camp. But Moses was furious with all the military commanders who had returned from the battle. “Why have you let all the women live?” he demanded. “These are the very ones who followed Balaam’s advice and caused the people of Israel to rebel against the LORD at Mount Peor. They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the LORD’s people. Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.

Deuteronomy 20:10-14

As you approach a town to attack it, first offer its people terms for peace. If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor. But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town. When the LORD your God hands it over to you, kill every man in the town. But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the spoils of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.

and so on.

So the Bible is actually quite explicit on the notion that God’s chosen can rape at will.