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Adultery? Thou shalt not die,
Die for adultery!
No, the wren goes to't,
And the small gilded fly
Does lecher in my sight,
Let copulation thrive.
- Shakespeare
Adultery...that word always conjures up scenes of illicit romance, stolen moments, hot steamy nights of unbridled passion as lovers are locked in the throes of salacious, sweaty, steamy sex that has no parallel and for which only the writers of romance novels can compare. They do say that stolen forbidden fruit always tastes sweeter.
What they also said is 'What sweet nanny goat going to run him belly.' What they didn't say though, is that there's a penalty to be paid for stealing, because stealing is a crime in every jurisdiction, even stealing love. Even more, what they didn't say is that the penalty for that crime is to burn in the throes of anguish as you spend eternity in hell.
But, where is hell anyway? It was Shakespeare who penned, 'Hell is empty, and all you devils are here.' In other words, all the evil is right up here and there is no one in hell. Well, if you want to believe that and take that chance, it's up to you, but if you believe otherwise and heed the warnings against committing adultery, then you may be better served.
Even the Bible rails against adultery, and gives more than ample warnings about it. "Your adulterous and lustful neighbours, your shameless prostitution, I have seen your detestable ways on the hills and in the fields. Woe to you Jerusalem, how will you be unclean?" - Jeremiah 13:27
Mighty strong words there regarding adultery, which may just sum up the severity of the act, as it gives ample warning to those indulging. Adultery leads to hell and we'll explore that scenario right after these responses to 'Love or lose at love'.
Hi Tony,
On reading your article I kept waiting for you to write about those who love and win, those who love for decades and decades, and those who love for all their lives. Why only write about those who love and suffer the anguish of lost love?
Laura
Hi Tony,
As someone who has experienced unrequited crush in my young school days, I totally subscribe to the axiom, 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' I also believe that parting can be such sweet sorrow. Most people don't make a decision to fall or not fall in love, they have no choice, it just happens and is totally out of their control. Then there is the sporting analogy of leaving the starting blocks to get to the finish line. You may come in last, but at least you tried. That's how love and losing works, sometimes.
Craig
Because of the pandemic, we haven't been to church in a while, but I dare say I've been to church more now than ever before, courtesy of online services. Yes, every Sunday, wifey cranks up the Wi-Fi and tunes in to the service from Swallowfield Chapel. Pastor David Henry is a gifted orator and his sermon a few weeks ago was stirring and thought-provoking. It was about adultery, a topic that I'm sure many of you can relate to, either by commission, indulgence, rebuking, or thought.
I always knew that adultery was a sin and that there's a price to pay. What I didn't know was that the price was so high, the penalty so severe, the consequences so dire, the punishment so harsh. All fah a likkle sex pon the sly? Well, Pastor Henry said that the consequence for adultery was to burn in hell for eternity.
If that's so, I guess half of Jamaica is destined for the fiery pits of Hades, for we are indeed an adulterous nation. 'Down, down to hell, and say I sent thee hither,' said Shakespeare's King Henry even as Johnny cash sang:
Love is a burning thing
And it makes a fiery ring
Bound by wild desire
I fell into a ring of fire
I fell into a burning ring of fire
I went down down down and the flames went higher
And it burns burns burns, the ring of fire
The ring of fire.
Adultery is a consensual sexual relationship or encounter between someone who's married and a person who they're not married to (who may or may not be married to someone else). In other words, it can be between two people who are both married to other people, or between a married person and an unmarried person.
Sounds complicated? Not really. If you're married and have sex with someone else, you've committed adultery and are going to hell, simple as that. That's scary enough, for many of you reading this are starting to sweat right now. Well, take out the towel, for Pastor Henry takes it up a notch, cranks it up, tun it up, for he stated that even if you didn't actually have sex with the person but solicited sexual thoughts about them, then you have committed adultery.
So, if you're married and even have the slightest sexual thoughts about another woman or man, that's adultery, and the consequence is hell.
In olden times women who committed adultery had a scarlet letter A sewn on their clothes for all the world to see. In some jurisdictions they were stoned, and even a few years ago a member of a royal family in the Middle East, a princess, was beheaded because she committed adultery.
But even with all those dire consequences and penalties that are affixed to adultery, people still indulge, for not even the fear of public stoning, death, or burning in hell will deter those who wish to indulge in pleasures of the flesh. Why? Because it feels so good.
"Hell be damned, I can't help it, I have to step out from time to time."
Many songs have endorsed this:
If loving you is wrong, I don't wanna be right
Me and Mrs Jones
Yes, Mr Peters
Part time lover and others.
Adultery is by no means new, and there are numerous cases of people, great and small, who have committed that sin in the Bible. There was the woman who was about to be stoned to death, until Jesus rebuked the crowd and said, "Who is without sin, cast the first stone."
Then there was mighty King David, God's chosen, who, despite having countless wives, still committed adultery with Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite, whom he sent to the battlefront hoping that he'd be killed there. Not only did David commit adultery, he also impregnated the man's wife.
But the Bible don't ramp when it come to adultery, for it also states, "If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death." The Bible also says, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband, commits adultery."
Lord have mercy, I told you that more than half of Jamaica is destined for hell, based on the consequences of adultery. Even if you just have a fleeting thought about someone else you're guilty of adultery, so it's best not to even look at another woman.
Pastor Henry suggests that a man should not even be alone with another woman who isn't his wife. It starts with the eyes, and men being visual creatures will conjure up all sorts of sexual thoughts just by looking. It's a sequence, eye to brain, to groin, to hell.
Some countries still adhere to that principle, and a woman is not allowed to be in the company of any man alone, unless chaperoned. But, how do we contain our thoughts? It's been said by scientists that the average man has hundreds of sexual thoughts every day and married men have those thoughts too.
Those sexual thoughts aren't always related to the wives but towards other women who may simply cross his vision. In fact, some married men hardly have sexual thoughts about their wives any more and vice versa, so they seek pleasure elsewhere. Not necessarily through sexual relations with other people but through visual sexual stimulus.
They ogle, look, leer, peek, peer at other women on the street, at the office, school, church, via pornography, go-go clubs, strip clubs, magazines and whatever excites them. Have they committed adultery, and destined for hell? They say that the law is specific, and the Bible is specific too. One of the 10 Commandments states, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." It's non-negotiable.
Adultery has always been a part of the human mosaic, and hell is perceived to be a terrible place. Couldn't there be some latitude, some leeway, some leniency given? After all, circumstances alter cases.
"Gullty with explanation, your honour."
If that's not possible, I tell you, based on the parameters of adultery, where even a fleeting lascivious thought makes you guilty, we're all in a spot of bother as far as hell is concerned.
More time.
seido1yard@gmail.com
Footnote: Speaking of adultery, parson, church, and hell, what is the reason behind all these pastors being involved with young girls? One recent case has this pastor arrested for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl on a church compound. To compound matters, the police have also arrested the girl's mother and the pastor's wife for attempting to pervert the course of justice. Apparently they tried to coerce the young girl to change her original story and say that the rape didn't happen, but she broke down and confessed the truth to the police. The other case involves this other pastor who was arrested for having sex with a 13-year-old girl and getting her pregnant. Her grandmother is also charged for concealing the incident. What is wrong with these pastors?