When many Christians, especially the literati, hear the words, "You shall not commit adultery," they probably think of the heroine's indiscretion in The Scarlet Letter. To be sure, their impulse is correct because Hester Prynne's sin is the quintessential example of this transgression. But how would those same Christians respond to the following query: Which is the more telling sin, the fact that Prynne committed adultery, or that she later justified it by saying to her lover, "What we did had a consecration of its own"? Our response to such a question reveals not only how, but how well we understand the nature of adultery and appreciate the pervasiveness of its various facades and twisted rebellion.
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Issue: "Sex in the Christian Life" Nov./Dec. 2001 Vol. 10 No. 6 Page number(s): 28-31
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