This guest post is from Regent Law 2L Faith Lyons and current Family Law student:
English Common Law established that it wasn’t legally possible for a man to rape his wife because marriage constituted permanent consent that could not be retracted.[1] This influenced U.S. law to adopt a marital exemption to rape until the 1970’s when legal attitudes towards spousal rape began to shift.[2] Today, spousal rape is a crime in every state; however, twelve states treat marital rape as a lesser offense, require physical force, or largely fail to prosecute.[3] Even with the removal of the marital exemption, spousal rape is a pertinent problem in today’s society with fourteen percent of married women reporting that they were raped by their spouse.[4] In fact, ten percent of all sexual assault cases reported by women involve a husband or ex-husband attacker.[5]
As Christians, what is our duty
regarding our spouses’ bodies? Paul the Apostle wrote a letter to the church at
Corinth, to confront them about their sexual immorality. He wrote, “Do you not
know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you
have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore,
honor God with your bodies.”[6] Paul
explains that our bodies are intended to be holy instruments for God’s special
usage, and charges us to honor them for this purpose. Similarly, our spouses’,
or future spouses’ bodies are bought by God and intended to be a temple for
Him. Moreover, the biblical foundation of marriage is mutual submission built
on a foundation of love and respect. Ephesians 5 compares the relationship
between Husband and Wife to that between Christ and the Church. Christ
willingly sacrificed Himself for the Church and laid down His life for her.
Marital rape is an abuse of our spouses’ bodily temple, and a selfish act that
destroys the marital foundation. Given Christ’s example of true love for the
Church, sexual violence has no place in a marriage.
[1] Lalenya Weintraub Siegel, The
Marital Rape Exemption: Evolution to Extinction, 43 Cleveland State L. Rev. 351, 353 (1995).
[2] Id. at 352.
[3] Marital Rape States 2023, World Population Review,
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/marital-rape-states (last
visited Mar. 16, 2023).
[4] Marital Rape, RAINN,
https://www.rainn.org/pdf-files-and-other-documents/Public-Policy/Issues/Marital_Rape.pdf
(last visited Mar. 16, 2023).
[5] Id.
[6]
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV).
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