"But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house;"(Genesis 19:4)
When people engage in fighting the cultural wars of human sexuality and bring the bible into the war, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is often cited.
The story makes it appear that what has brought the wrath of God down upon those cities was gay sex. We certainly have created the English word sodomy from it, and all the laws that were once written and in some places still on the books, had this instance in mind.
There's a problem however in my opinion of such a narrow focus. The first problem is that the story never says what the wickedness is. This last threat to Lot is actually pointing to gang rape, which no matter what the gender of the perpetrators and the victims are, most of us would say that is a huge problem. I would also point out that Lot's solution is just as heinous, have at it with my daughters.
Interestingly the book of Ezekiel we are told what the sin of sodom was, and it wasn't gay sex. ""Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."(Ezekiel 16:49) Nothing about sex there.
The people of Sodom severely violated the manners of their day towards guests. And apparently it went deeper than that. In our time we'd do a lot better to focus on our attitudes toward the poor and needy in our midst and a lot less time on who is sleeping with whom.
Blessings,
Ed
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