In exploring some old books on marriage and family, I came across a passage published in 1897 by a man who served as a professor at the University of Texas. He addressed the issue of adultery, which was a problem then and remains so.
“Most modern laws, and many moralists, teach that the guilt of the adultress is much worse than that of the adulterer. They argue that her sin tends to corrupt the blood of the family. This unjust discrimination is refuted by the question, Has not the adulterer been taking an equal chance of corrupting the blood of the family of someone else? Moses punished male and female alike. This was right. The modern claim is but an attempt to have the male’s superior might make his right. Another fact usually makes the male’s guilt greater, that he is often the first suggester, tempter and seducer.”
The quote shows that although times have changed, human nature has not. In what some call the “good old days” there were people trying to persecute the woman adultress and let the male adulterer off the hook, which the author spoke out against. Some of those same people and their descendants are still running around. In the 19th century, people used different term, but the pain of affairs was a pressing problem even 111 years ago.
Best Regards,
Jeffrey Murrah
