Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”
-I Corinthians 6:15-16, NIV
Adultery is soul rape.
Our bodies become one with our spouses just as we are one with Christ in our spiritual marriage as Christians. In fact, it is the basic understanding of marriage the Apostle Paul cites here about that oneness at the end of verse 16.
So, this means forcing a third party upon your faithful spouse is a rape in the spiritual and soul sense. It is a forceful violation of the marriage’s oneness against the wishes of at least one party.
Now, I have recently been challenged that using “soul rape” to describe adultery cheapens “real rape” victims’ experiences.
My response to that sort of criticism is to simply state that I did not set these spiritual principles in place. It is without question adultery is a violation of the faithful party in more than simply a broken promise sort of way.
People break promises all the time. Such broken promises do not regularly traumatize victims to the point of drastic weight loss, vomiting, and hyper-vigilance. Something more is happening when it comes to adultery than a promise being broken.
The Scripture–as I read them–make it clear adultery is a violation of the soul of the faithful spouse.
This is an unwilling experience for the faithful spouse. “Rape” seems to be the appropriate term for such a violation on the spiritual level.
So, I do not see this as cheapening real rape victims’ experiences any more than calling emotional abuse, abuse cheapens physical abuse victims’ experiences.
Both are forms of abuse even if they are both different in their respective ways perpetrators harm their victims.
