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	The Sinful Woman: the Untold Story By Virginia Jones The Garden of Roses March 7, 2010 http://web.me.com/virginiajones/Compsassionate_Gathering/The_Garden_of_Roses/Entries/2010/3/3_The_Sinful_Woman__The_Untold_Story.html A woman enters the house of Simon, the Pharisee, and washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and dries them with her hair while he dines. Her story is told in the Gospels of Luke (7:36-50). Simon remarks to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what sort of woman is touching him, that she is a sinner.” Jesus hears Simon and rebukes him with a parable about two debtors owing money to the creditor. The creditor forgives both debts. Jesus asks Simon which debtor is more grateful. Simon correctly understands that the debtor owing more money is more grateful. The parable is normally understood to illustrate the power of God’s forgiveness of sin. As a survivor of sexual abuse, I think there is an untold story in this Bible passage--the story of Jesus’ feeling special compassion for the losses and pain endured by abuse survivors. Many people assume that the sinful woman is a prostitute. Her sin of sex outside marriage makes her unclean and unfit to touch a man, especially a priestly man. Scientific studies show a strong correlation between childhood sexual abuse and prostitution. One study found that adults who are sexually abused as children are almost 28 times as likely to be arrested for prostitution as adults who were not abused. (1) Another qualitative study of female prostitutes found that 63% of participants reported being sexually molested as children. (2) When adults sexualize their relationships with children, the children often grow up learning that their greatest value to others is through sex. Sometimes the survivors already feels so degraded that progressing to deliberately prostituting themselves comes easily. If such a strong correlation between abuse and prostitution exists today, in a time of less stringent social condemnations of moral flaws, a case could be made that in the time of Jesus, a prostitute was even more likely to be an abuse survivor. Sexual morals were much more rigid in ancient Judea. Particularly in young children, it has been shown that sexual abuse can cause irreversible, biochemical and structural changes in those portions of the brain governing emotion, memory and the body’s reaction to stress. Medication, therapy and emotional support help abuse survivors to cope better with the trauma they have experienced. However, many survivors will never completely recover. Perhaps Jesus knew what the Pharisee and his own disciples did not know--that the sinful woman was a sexual abuse survivor, plagued by feelings of guilt and shame, and condemned by a society completely lacking in compassion for her plight. In our own era, many abuse survivors are unable to hold steady jobs up to their level of abilities so crippled are they by depression and low self esteem. Indeed, many women and men turn to prostitution because they find it difficult to earn a living in other ways. Why wouldn’t there have been such an interpretation written into the Gospel? Jesus was crucified and gone. His followers were products of their own culture and time. Two thousand years ago there were no psychiatrists, psychologists, or social workers working with and studying people who survived abuse. Understanding of long term consequences of childhood sexual abuse simply did not exist. That is why I think the “sinful woman” was a sex abuse survivor.
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