False Sexual Accusations: Remember Potiphar’s Wife!

Joseph, the highly principled Old Testament patriarch, was faithful in the pit, the prison, the palace. After being sold by his jealous brothers into slavery from a deep, muddy pit, he was taken to Egypt and was sold to Pharaoh’s Captain of the Guard. Joseph was given total control over all his master’s property and business, and Genesis records that he was a “goodly person and well favored.” The attractiveness of Joseph was celebrated over all the East and the Persian poets competed with each other in descriptions of his comeliness. 

 

However, young Joseph was sexually assaulted by Zuleekha his master’s wife who tried to seduce him repeatedly. Women have always been capable of that. Moses reported this story and told how Joseph fled from the woman leaving his coat in her hands. Joseph lost his coat but not his chastity or character. He refused the seductions because of his gratitude for his master trusting everything into his hand and his concern that God knows everything, and that wrong is always punished - if not here, then for sure, hereafter.

 

Well, we all know about a woman scorned and she falsely reported to her husband that Joseph tried to rape her. She had tried in vain to make him a fornicator, then she sought to characterize him as such to her husband. In that, she succeeded. No doubt, she felt repelled, reproved, and resentful by his virtue. She accused him to his peers who no doubt resented Joseph’s high esteem from his master. Not everyone who has a spotless conscience can keep a spotless name if a conniving woman is determined to smear him. It is no new thing for the best of men to be falsely accused of the worst of crimes by those who themselves are the worst of criminals.

 

Joseph, although totally innocent, was sent to prison for many years; but after a difficult time he became the number two man in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh!

 

No doubt, a few of the women accusers of sexual abuse at this time are among the worst of characters seeking to bring down innocent men in high places. A lesson for the ages going back to the ancient Hebrews: not all men are predators and some women will lie for various reasons. The reason may be for revenge, resentment, or revenue.

 

In this time of hyper-sensitivity toward sex, I suggest we first be thankful for the wave of awareness of the problem, but not jump off the precipice. Some interesting concepts have been revealed during this time. I am shocked that so many powerful men are so stupid. They have a deadly case of arrogance to think they can grope, molest, and sexually assault a woman and never be exposed. It is amazing that such stupid men can be successful - at anything. They deserve to be ridiculed, rejected, and ruined because of their studidity if not because of their depravity.

 

Such actions prove the maxim that power corrupts, and the more powerful the man, the more likely the corruption that results.

 

And for men to film their genitals or send nude pictures to women or to film a sexual experience has to be irresponsible, incomprehensible, and insane. For a few illicit moments of gratification, these powerful men lost everything - reputations, jobs, families, incomes, etc. They finally learn the high cost of low living. What fools men are who have not learned self-control and the difference between right and wrong with the overwhelming desire to do what is right.

 

It has been almost universal that men seem to lose their memory when sexual accusations are made. “I have no recollections of that.” Or, “I don’t remember it happening that way.” Almost all the offenders reply, “I thought it was consensual.” Only fools or their family members pretend to believe such nonsense in most cases.

 

Then I am shocked that women profess they did not know how to react to men who glare, grab, and grope them. But of course, they do. Women know instinctively how to protect their honor: screaming, shouting, slapping, spitting, slugging, and stabbing with a finger, pencil, or hat pin. If a woman does not resist, I will not believe her without a film of the event.

 

Now, we are standing on a dangerous precipice where even telling a woman she looks good is sexual harassment! Has the world gone crazy? England is now considering making it a hate crime to whistle at a woman! Now, the infamous wolf whistle is not gentlemanly but it is hardly a hate crime. In fact, some women have found it complimentary! Does an act become a crime depending on how a woman reacts? If so, we are on a slippery slope into a deep pit.

 

We are warned that it is sexual harassment to tell a woman that she really looks good! Well, let me confess to the world that I am guilty! Recently my wife and I had our hair cut at a shop owned by a friend of more than 20 years. Her daughter had lost a lot of weight and I promptly told her that she “really looked great.” I even called her “bones” or “skinny” to highlight the fact that she was doing so well. I also told her that she would no doubt live an additional 10 years for the weight loss. So, what’s wrong with encouraging a young woman in her weight loss program? A sane person says, “Nothing.” Fools scream, “Sexual harassment.”

 

There is a whirlwind of anger blowing across America, but it is a wind that blows out the light of reason and common sense.

 

We know that there is a wrong way to do a right thing, but never a right way to do a wrong thing. We may be doing the wrong thing while we think we are doing the right thing as we declare men guilty when, like Joseph, they have done nothing wrong.