Getting Sodom
Straight...
The Biblical story of Sodom is not the story of a town that happened to be
100% gay, men and boys, for this is a ludicrous assumption. This would have to
be the conclusion if God, vowing to save it for ten righteous men, did not. It
would also mean that "righteous" meant heterosexual, while unrighteous meant
homosexual and, well, I doubt that alone qualifies men to be righteous.
The story that unfolds in Genesis 19 is a hospitality story and not a story
based on homosexuality. Sodom's problems as remembered by Ezekiel were that the
people were prideful, had too much food, too much time, neglected the poor, were
haughty and committed abominations (Ez. 16:49-50). Not ANY mention of mass
homosexuality. Abominations can be just about anything not in tune with the law
and in this case was a reference to idol worship. Another common Israelite trait
all through their history. Why would papa Lot offer his virgin daughter's to a
crowd of homosexuals, in place of his guests? What interest would homosexuals
have in virgin women? ZERO, unless the girls were being offered as an appeasing
virgin sacrifice ("for they have not known a man.") This would qualify as an
abomination to be sure, and also idolatry. Human sacrifice was still an option
it appears with Abram and Lot.
Another factor is that in that culture the protection of guests under one's
roof to a male host was a matter of honor. This is why Lot scrambled to come up
with a solution to the problem. In Lot's mind, it was about Lot's reputation and
honor. Not an uncommon modern theme in Middle Eastern men to this day. Strangers
were not taken kindly to in small clannish towns. They could be spies and were
always suspect.
The way to put a stranger in his place was to humiliate them sexually, and
send the warning that they had best have no ill intentions in the town. In that
culture, the most horrific way to humiliate a stranger and have power over him
was to mistreat him as one might mistreat a woman. Symbolic or literal rape. The
rape would not be a homosexual act, it would be a warning and a putting of
strange man in his place as a warning. "In our town, you are just like any other
woman, property to be used as needed and disposed of if necessary" It may only
have been a threat to humiliate and control as the original request was for them
to come out "that we might know them".
There are two schools of thought on "know them". One is sexual and one is to
simply interrogate and get to know. Few ever question Lot's evil counteroffer.
But it does show that Lot was a product of his culture and personal ego
protection. Eastern hospitality issues were at stake here and not homosexuality.
EVERY sermon I ever heard on the topic stops short of explaining Lot's egregious
behavior as a father. I doubt this ever really literally happened, but if it
did, Lot would be no hero of mine. I seriously doubt he had much of a
relationship with the girls after this stunt, not to mention Mrs. Lot! Perhaps
she did not so much look back to Sodom as refused to look ahead at him leaving
town!
I have always found it amusing to inform fundamentalist males who literally
believe that "women come from men and not men from women" as Paul ignorantly
noted, that the human fetus starts out female. While the genetics to be male or
female is there, the initial stages of conception put the fetus clearly in the
female camp. Torture the Taliban with this fact! It is only after the fetus is
bathed in the chemistry of testosterone after the fourth to sixth week does it
literally start it trip toward maleness. Without that chemical miracle and it
can be interrupted by many factors, including stress in the mother at the time,
and the male born can be highly feminized in both thinking and body. We all know
men who act very feminine who in fact are not homosexual but are oft accused of
it. This would reflect such a deficiency in the womb. It's a big topic
medically, environmentally and socially and I do not mean to address them in any
detail. The information is out there.
I know many gay men and women (I am not gay), and there is not one that I
could see being anything but who they are. I have asked each one when they knew
their leanings sexually were toward their own sex and it is ALWAYS between 8 and
12 years old. They then, (I live in Fundamentalist Land), spend the next twenty
years having it prayed out, Bibled out, preached out and counseled out with
massive doses of fear, shame and guilt. At about age 30, they tend to finally
give up and admit, "I seem to be what I am." And accept themselves even if
others don't. One gay friend and their partner of 20 years recently met a
pregnant teen who was going to abort her child and long story short, they paid
for the birth, attended it and adopted the little girl as their own. At the
infant baptism ceremony she was taken to by the one of the partners, a member
"outed" them to the new Pastor (the old one was more don't ask don't tell), and
the next day the Pastor gave them a video to reform them. They were not not
interested in reform. To a gay person becoming heterosexual on command would be
the same as a heterosexual becoming gay on command. The next day they were
disfellowshipped from a life long church affiliation by the new pastor. So, you
be the judge. A gay couple saves a nearly aborted child, raises her like a
princess and gets bounced from their church after 30 years. WWJD?
What's the point here? I think, leave people alone. No one can live the life
of another. Thought control and obedience to organizations and leadership, to
me, is suspect and not a path that serves the individual in the long run. In the
250 peak years of the Inquisition, the Catholic Church successfully murdered as
"witches" (you shall not suffer a witch to live), tens of thousands of women.
These were mostly midwives, herbalists, and some men who simply were not
interested in Catholic control and "truth". Like Lot, women were expendable to
the Church to preserve honor and the patriarchal, literalist, goddess smashing
politic.
I have always chuckled at Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Lord's Supper.
Everyone "knows" what they are looking at. 12 Men and One Jesus in the middle.
Ah... but look again. Sitting on the right hand of Jesus is a woman, looking
like a woman and in fact, probably being Mary, "the prostitute". Leonardo had
his own opinions about WWJD and who He might honor in a society that would not
agree. Perhaps we should be just as kind and respectful and not let the misuse
of scripture taint our view of real human beings.
Dennis C. Diehl
