Is Incest A sin?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Starwynd
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Starwynd

Guest
I’m asking because this article got me curious:

women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article4332635.ece

In which a woman states:
I had sex with my brother but I don’t feel guilty
A woman slept with her sibling for years and has good memories. Not many people understand their relationship, she says
Click to expand...
But they did end up getting married.

So is incest a sin? I know of two instances in the Bible in which it wouldn’t be, that is Adam and Eve’s children would have to commit incest in order to be fruitful and multiply, and the story of Lot when his two daughters got him drunk to have sex with him because they thought they were the only man and women on earth.

But otherwise, is it a sin?
 
Starwynd said:
But they did end up getting married.

So is incest a sin? I know of two instances in the Bible in which it wouldn’t be, that is Adam and Eve’s children would have to commit incest in order to be fruitful and multiply, and the story of Lot when his two daughters got him drunk to have sex with him because they thought they were the only man and women on earth.

But otherwise, is it a sin?
Click to expand...
Yes.

**CCC 2388 **
"Incest designates intimate relations between relatives or in-laws within a degree that prohibits marriage between them … Incest corrupts family relationships and marks a regression toward animality. "

The bottom line is that sex outside of marriage is sinful. Incest is sex outside of marriage, thus, it is sinful.

The article you posted notes that the “writer” & her brother were not & are not married. (The article states that her brother married, but married another person. She described envious feelings towards the girl he did marry.)

Additionally, it notes that she is having a sexual relationship with a man that she met 3 month ago, & she implies that they are not married either ("…I think this is going to be a lasting relationship.")

… which is sinful as well as it was with her brother.

Chris
 
Starwynd said:
I’m asking because this article got me curious:

women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article4332635.ece

In which a woman states:

But they did end up getting married.

So is incest a sin? I know of two instances in the Bible in which it wouldn’t be, that is Adam and Eve’s children would have to commit incest in order to be fruitful and multiply, and the story of Lot when his two daughters got him drunk to have sex with him because they thought they were the only man and women on earth.

But otherwise, is it a sin?
Click to expand...
You are correct that incest in the collateral line-- siblings, cousins, etc-- is not instrinsically wrong. In the early world, it was necessary.

Sin has marred this original state of innocence and God’s plan for sexuality, and therefore family relationship now need additional protections against disordered sexuality. Therefore, the Church establishes boundaries within which one may not marry-- but in some cases will give a dispensation on a case-by-case basis.

The *collateral *line is different from the direct line-- parents/children/grandparents-- which is always intrinsically disordered and never allowed by divine law.

The parent/child relationship is a fundamental relationship that mirrors the Trinity, and is inviolate.
 
Starwynd said:
I’m asking because this article got me curious:

women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article4332635.ece

In which a woman states:

But they did end up getting married.

So is incest a sin? I know of two instances in the Bible in which it wouldn’t be, that is Adam and Eve’s children would have to commit incest in order to be fruitful and multiply, and the story of Lot when his two daughters got him drunk to have sex with him because they thought they were the only man and women on earth.

But otherwise, is it a sin?
Click to expand...
Actually Lot and his daughters weren’t the only people on earth - far from it. It’s not like Sodom and Gomorrah were the only towns, after all. It may’ve been to do with keeping the bloodline pure and not mingling with neighbouring pagan peoples, though.

And there’s another - Sarah really was Abraham’s half-sister.

However, Leviticus clearly outlaws incest, so from that point on it was viewed as both no longer necessary and as taboo.
 
Like most everything God says is sinful, there are practical reasons why it shouldn’t be done. Sinful things are not merely corrosive to the soul, they tend to be destructive to us in the physical here and now.
 
Put it this way.

(1) It can cause serious problems if you produce babies because defective genes that are commonly shared in a family can become even more defective in children when both parents pass them on.

(2) It can upset the brother/sister or parent/child relationship in ways in which the standard roles expected by society can become very confused. This can severely damage one or more of those involved for life. Just because incest doesn’t hurt one person doesn’t mean it won’t scar another for life, if not now, then possibly at a later date. Sometimes this damage can be so severe it can be passed on to several generations.

It’s so much simpler just to follow the intended pattern. I see the bible as basically a book of sense written by someone more advanced.

Re your question about sin, my definition of sin is anything that has the potential to become destructive to either yourself or to others. I believe humans were designed in the hopes that we would evolve past that.

Everyone, including the worst rebel, would secretly love to live in a better and more peaceful world. We actually do get the world we create, whether we admit it or not.
 
Yes, incest is sinful as is shown by the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Catechism of the Catholic Church said:
2388 *Incest *designates intimate relations between relatives or in-laws within a degree that prohibits marriage between them.181 St. Paul stigmatizes this especially grave offense: "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you . . . for a man is living with his father’s wife. . . . In the name of the Lord Jesus . . . you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh. . . . "182 Incest corrupts family relationships and marks a regression toward animality.

2389 Connected to incest is any sexual abuse perpetrated by adults on children or adolescents entrusted to their care. The offense is compounded by the scandalous harm done to the physical and moral integrity of the young, who will remain scarred by it all their lives; and the violation of responsibility for their upbringing.

181 Cf. Lev 18:7-20.
182 1 Cor 5:1, 4-5.
Click to expand...
 
As a side ntoe, the Church determines, through the power of binding and loosing given to Her by Christ, what relationships count as illicit incest and what relationships are acceptable. As I understand canon law, you CAN marry your second cousin (common great-grandparents but not common grandparents), but you can not marry your first cousin (common grandparents). You can, however, marry your first cousin with a dispensation from the local bishop (some cultures value marriages between cousins). You may NEVER marry a sibling.
 
With all due respect to all of you, Incest, brothers having sex with sisters, is this a sin? Really…

Is this something that we really have to argue?
 
"If a man takes his sister, a daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother, and sees her nakedness, and she sees his nakedness, it is a shameful thing, and they shall be cut off in the sight of the children of their people; he has uncovered his sister’s nakedness, he shall bear his iniquity.
  • Leviticus 20:17
Understand that the use of the word nakedness was a euphemism for having marital relations not just getting a peak at a naked body.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top