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So, Why Is Incest Wrong?
AlbertMohler.com ^ | December 15, 2010 | Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

Posted on 12/15/2010 9:45:01 AM PST by wmfights

There are certain questions now pressed upon us that previous generations would never believe could be asked. One of these is thrust upon us by events in New York City, where a well-known Ivy League professor has been arrested for the crime of incest. What makes the question urgent is not so much the arrest, but the controversy surrounding it.

David Epstein is a professor of political science at Columbia University, where his wife also teaches. He previously taught on the faculties of Harvard and Stanford. Last week, he was arraigned before a judge in Manhattan, charged with a single count of felony incest. According to authorities, Professor Epstein was for several years involved in a sexual relationship with his adult daughter, now age 24.

Though the story was ignored by much of the mainstream media, it quickly found its way into the cultural conversation. William Saletan of Slate.com, who remains one of today’s most relevant writers working on the issues of bioethics and human nature, jumped on the story with a very interesting essay that openly asked the question many others were more quietly asking: “If homosexuality is OK, why is incest wrong?”

After reviewing the various legal arguments used to justify criminalizing incest, Saletan comes to the conclusion that genetics cannot be the fundamental basis, since incestuous sex could be non-reproductive. Similarly, the basic issue cannot be consent, since no one is arguing in this case that the sex was non-consensual.

He gets the liberal response just about right: “At this point, liberals tend to throw up their hands. If both parties are consenting adults and the genetic rationale is bogus, why should the law get involved? Incest may seem icky, but that’s what people said about homosexuality, too. It’s all private conduct.”

Saletan comes to the conclusion that the basic reason for the wrongfulness of incest is damage to the family unit. As an Ohio court ruled, “A sexual relationship between a parent and child or a stepparent and stepchild is especially destructive to the family unit.”

Now, remember that Saletan raised the issue of the morality of incest as related to the question of homosexuality. He argues that the family-damage argument against incest does not apply to homosexuality. In his words: “When a young man falls in love with another man, no family is destroyed.”

Saletan’s argument is easy to follow, and if you accept his fundamental premise, it can even make sense. But his fundamental premise assumes that there is no damage to a particular family unit if a homosexual relationship exists. That argument can be made only by ignoring the impact upon a family of origin. Beyond this, it limits the family-damage argument to an individual family, when the argument must be more broadly applied to the family as an institution.

This article is a very interesting window into the sexual confusions that lie at the heart of our age. To his credit, Saletan gets the conservative argument basically right:

The conservative view is that all sexual deviance—homosexuality, polyamory, adultery, bestiality, incest—violates the natural order. Families depend on moral structure: Mom, Dad, kids. When you confound that structure—when Dad sleeps with a man, Dad sleeps with another woman, or Mom sleeps with Grandpa—the family falls apart. Kids need clear roles and relationships. Without this, they get disoriented. Mess with the family, and you mess up the kids.

That’s a pretty fair summary. Of course, the Christian argument goes much deeper than the merely conservative argument, affirming the fact that, with exacting precision, God has spoken to the sinfulness of such behaviors — specifically condemning both homosexuality and incest. In other words, Christians move the question from mere wrongfulness to sinfulness and place all issues of sin within the biblical account of sin and redemption.

It is extremely revealing that, for many of our fellow citizens, incest may merely “seem icky.” And yet, all around us are folks who, with a straight face, deny the inevitability of this slippery slope.


TOPICS: Charismatic Christian; Evangelical Christian; General Discusssion
KEYWORDS: deviancy; fornication; homosexualagenda; homosexuality; incest; liberalism; marriage; moralabsolutes; polygamy; sexualliberalism
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After reviewing the various legal arguments used to justify criminalizing incest, Saletan comes to the conclusion that genetics cannot be the fundamental basis, since incestuous sex could be non-reproductive. Similarly, the basic issue cannot be consent, since no one is arguing in this case that the sex was non-consensual.

He gets the liberal response just about right: “At this point, liberals tend to throw up their hands. If both parties are consenting adults and the genetic rationale is bogus, why should the law get involved? Incest may seem icky, but that’s what people said about homosexuality, too. It’s all private conduct.”


1 posted on 12/15/2010 9:45:05 AM PST by wmfights
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To: wmfights

since incestuous sex could be non-reproductive

Right, and if it turns out to be reproductive you just dig the baby out and flush it down the toilet.


2 posted on 12/15/2010 9:48:45 AM PST by DManA
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To: wmfights

Liberals will soon try to define this as marriage, too.


3 posted on 12/15/2010 9:49:04 AM PST by bolobaby
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To: wmfights

Your sins will find you out. Ask God. Go ahead.


4 posted on 12/15/2010 9:49:09 AM PST by RexBeach
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To: wmfights
So, Why Is Incest Wrong?

Because you can wind up with brain damaged offspring.


5 posted on 12/15/2010 9:49:44 AM PST by humblegunner (Blogger Overlord)
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To: wmfights

Oh brother ....


6 posted on 12/15/2010 9:50:44 AM PST by clamper1797 (Pray for Obama ... Psalms 109:8)
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To: wmfights

A few years ago, a book was written by a young woman who confessed to sleeping with her father. I wonder if this is the same young woman.


7 posted on 12/15/2010 9:51:45 AM PST by yellow rubber ducky (One day I realized I am living in Bizarro world.)
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To: wmfights
Saletan is an effing idiot. The problem with incest, be it hetero or disordered homo is simple. The parent raises the child and is in a position to teach his children that satisfying Daddy's needs is the prime directive in life from a young age.

Liberal assholes.

8 posted on 12/15/2010 9:52:17 AM PST by jwalsh07
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To: clamper1797

Oh brother ....

__________________________________

.... said the sister.


9 posted on 12/15/2010 9:53:36 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Yes, as a matter of fact, what you do in your bedroom IS my business.)
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To: wmfights

Comes to that, why have a separate crime for rape? Except for the the fact that a baby COULD be conceived (and so what by this logic) it’s really just assault and battery.


10 posted on 12/15/2010 9:53:53 AM PST by DManA
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To: wmfights

Personally, I believe a good number of homosexuals are victims of incest. I wish a study would be done on this.


11 posted on 12/15/2010 9:53:53 AM PST by Beowulf9
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To: wmfights

The moral compass spins in a circle like a magnetic compass at the North Pole, when following liberal ethics which deny the human soul, and consult the brain stem and genitals to determine how one should feel.


12 posted on 12/15/2010 9:54:03 AM PST by Retain Mike
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To: wmfights

I remember when all the folks who argued that incest, bestiality and poligamy was where the homo marriage thing was going were laughed off as paranoids.


13 posted on 12/15/2010 9:55:56 AM PST by jospehm20
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To: wmfights

Rush was talking about this yesterday.

I’m wondering when idiots like this professor will argue that’s its OK to have sex with his students. They are of legal age, right? Consenting adults and all that, right?


14 posted on 12/15/2010 9:55:56 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (Yes, as a matter of fact, what you do in your bedroom IS my business.)
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To: wmfights
The most appaling thing is that this guy will become a hero and a cause celebre to some.
15 posted on 12/15/2010 9:56:33 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Que me amat, amet et canem meum)
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To: wmfights

Obviously....

16 posted on 12/15/2010 9:56:33 AM PST by r9etb
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To: wmfights

“If homosexuality is OK, why is incest wrong?”

Homosexuality is OK?


17 posted on 12/15/2010 9:56:47 AM PST by Altura Ct.
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To: humblegunner

Uh Oh...


18 posted on 12/15/2010 9:57:09 AM PST by Vendome
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To: DManA
Right, and if it turns out to be reproductive you just...

call them European Royalty

19 posted on 12/15/2010 9:58:00 AM PST by Michael.SF. (Current count of friends/family who have abandoned Obama: 11)
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To: wmfights
As I wrote in a student paper way back when I was in grad school, the legitimization of incest and even recognition of incestuous marriages is the logical conclusion of arguments advanced in favor of gay marriage.
20 posted on 12/15/2010 9:59:23 AM PST by curiosity
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