这个问题在天主教那里不存在, 因为婚姻(作为圣礼)完全被划入教会管辖领域, 而教会不掌刀剑之权。新教把婚姻放在世俗领域，故侵犯婚约的行为与谋杀、亵渎一样被处以死刑（《红字》里那个例子并不是侵犯婚约，因为女主人公的丈夫被认为已死）。
要比较原教旨基督教（18世纪前的清教徒）与伊斯兰教在妇女权益上的区别，最好的参照例子是荣誉谋杀与打老婆是否合法（当然还有一夫多妻的问题）。
至于后来的原教旨基督教又把政府的权限作了重新定义，仅涉及打砸抢烧这类行为的惩罚，其具体演变过程我不清楚（亵渎罪的惩罚在新英格兰不断减轻；1729年美洲长老会总会作出决定，把威斯敏斯特信条中的相关条款给解释掉。但奸淫问题的材料我还没见过），理论依据可以看看为奴隶制辩护的美南长老会神学家的系统神学：
http://www.pbministries.org/R.%20L.%20Dabney/Systematic%20Theology/chapter47.htm
We discard the theocratic conception of civil government. The proper object of it is, in general, to secure to man his life, liberty, and property, i. e., his secular rights. Man’s intellectual and spiritual concerns belong to different jurisdictions; the parental and the ecclesiastical. The evidence is, that the parental, and the ecclesiastical departments of duty and right are separately recognized by Scripture and distinctly fenced off, as independent circles. (See also John 18:35,36; Luke 12:14; 2Cor.10:4; Matt.22:21). The powers of the civil magistrate then, are limited by righteousness, (not always by facts) to these general functions, regulating and adjudicating all secular rights, and protecting all members of civil society in their enjoyment of their several proper shares thereof. This general function implies a number of others; prominently, these three: taxation, punishment, including capital for capital crimes, and defensive war. For the first, (see Matt.22:21; Rom.13:6,7;) for the second, (see Gen.9:5,6; Num.35:33; Rom.13:1–5;) for the third, (Ex.17:9, and passim in Old Testament; Luke 3:14,15; Acts 10:1,2). The same thing follows from the power of capital punishment. Aggressive war is wholesale murder. The magistrate who is charged with the sword, to avenge and prevent domestic murder, is a fortiori charged to punish and prevent the foreign murderer.
