Why Is Incest Wrong?
Why is incest wrong? We know that inbreeding increases the chances of harmful genetic mutations, and most people cite the harmful genetic consequences of inbreeding as the reason why incest is wrong. That answer isn’t acceptable, however, and here’s why:
It implies that incest is acceptable if pregnancy will not result from the incestuous activity.
So, in that line of thinking, incest would be fine if the consenting participants use birth control, for example.
The taboo against incest, however, does not derive from fear of inbreeding. The taboo against incest derives from an understanding of the purpose of sex itself.
I have a theory—stronger than a theory, really; more like an abiding conviction—that ongoing sexual sin retards emotional maturity. Why?
God’s blessing to humanity in Genesis 1 is to be fruitful and multiply. That blessing requires that humanity move forward and mature; parents have children who then take the parents’ place and raise their own children, and so it goes. To be a husband and a father or a wife and a mother forces a person to grow up and mature. But, sexual sin is the refusal to accept those responsibilities, which is why I believe sexual sin retards emotional maturity.
Imagine a 48 year-old playboy—maybe he’s been married previously and maybe he even has kids from a previous relationship, but he doesn’t live as a husband or a father: he lives as a 48 year-old playboy, a serial monogamist. He’s with this woman for a while, and then with that woman for a while, etc. What he doesn’t do is take on the responsibilities that come with marriage and fatherhood, responsibilities that tie one down and restrict freedom; or, to put it another way, the responsibilities that make one grow up.
How does this relate to incest?
Adulthood is about leaving one’s father and mother and making one’s own way in the world. The entire human project depends on this pattern: parents raise children who then move forward on their own and become parents themselves. Incest, however, is a turning inward. Rather than moving out into the world, incest is a refusal to leave home, so to speak. It is a sexual narcissism, a seeking of the same.
The stories of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the incest of Lot’s daughters are nobody’s favorite Bible stories. But, I think it it important that we understand why the Bible is giving us these stories; Genesis 12-36 is about the education of the patriarchs (any by extension, us) as to what it will take to make family work, so that the covenant can be passed down to the next generation.
Today’s Scripture
[Every weekday I write a brief commentary on that day’s reading in the Munger Bible Reading Plan. Join us and read along!]