This is an especially interesting passage, considering how the Bible is used as justification why gays and lesbians should not be allowed to marry. Imagine our society if every woman who was not a virgin was stoned to death, in front of her parent’s home. Is that what the radical Christian right is meaning when they want to protect the sanctity of marriage? There is little alternative to the interpretation: a requirement for marriage is that the woman is a virgin, and the Bible offers the punishment for a man who falsely accuses his wife as well as punishment for the wife is isn’t a virgin.
Why isn’t the National Organization for Marriage on top of this? They could be handing out the stones if they are so intent on protecting marriage.
Deuteronomy 22:13-21 (New International Version)
Marriage Violations
13 If a man takes a wife and, after lying with her, dislikes her 14 and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,” 15 then the girl’s father and mother shall bring proof that she was a virgin to the town elders at the gate. 16 The girl’s father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. 17 Now he has slandered her and said, ‘I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.’ But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.” Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, 18 and the elders shall take the man and punish him. 19 They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver [a] and give them to the girl’s father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives.
20 If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl’s virginity can be found, 21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.