GayPride

What has Sodom got to do with homosexuality?

This video explains why Sodom has nothing to do with the debate about the Bible and homosexuality. Sodom is an account of attempted gang rape - and, like the similar account of a gang rape of a woman in Judges 19, it has nothing to do with committed, faithful, loving relationships of any kind.

Transcript

The sin of Sodom was homosexuality. You've heard this? It's wrong. Keep watching to find out why. Some people argue that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible shows that God condemns all homosexuality. Here's a quick recap of that story - it comes from Genesis 18 and 19.

The story of Sodom

Two angels are sent by God to the city of Sodom, known for its wickedness. Lot, Abraham's nephew, lives there. He welcomes the angels, and offers them hospitality, persuading them to stay for the night. They accept, and he lays on a lavish feast for them.

But word gets out, and all the men of the town surround the house, and demand that the visitors be brought out so that they can rape them (translations often translate the Hebrew literally - 'so that we may know them'- that-s just a euphemism for intercourse).

[Note - Scott Morschauser (amongst others) has argued against this interpretation, proposing that the sin of Sodom was abandonment of the rule of law, and that the men of Sodom wanted to ascertain the reason for the strangers coming to the city (and so nothing to do with sexual aggression). This approach remains a minority view amongst scholarship.

Morschauser, Scott. "'spitality' Hostiles and Hostages: On the Legal Background to Genesis 19.1-."Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 27, no. 4 (2003): 461-5.] Now, Lot tries to protect his visitors, even offering his own daughters in their place - that is problematic for other reasons - but the mob become enraged and they try to attack.

The angels blind the mob, and then drag Lot and his family away from the city, and God destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire. Lot's wife looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt. Only Lot and his daughters escape with their lives. It's a dramatic account, and Sodom becomes a by-word for an evil city. But what, in the Bible, is Sodom remembered for?

How does the Bible talk about Sodom?

Well, Isaiah compares the nation of Judah to Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that Judah needs to learn to do good; to seek justice, to rescue the oppressed, to defend the orphan, to plead for the widow. And elsewhere there is judgment upon Judah for being like Sodom - why? - because they are 'grinding the faces of the poor'.

Ezekiel says: This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and the needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it. Elsewhere, it's the fate of Sodom which is emphasised - watch out, or you'll end up worse than Sodom and Gomorrah!

So a range of accusations, centring around:
injustice,
oppressing the poor, and
doing abominable things.

Analysing the story

Let's go back to the account. At the heart of it is a grotesque evil - abominable. It's the attempted gang rape by an enraged mob. Is it same-sex? Yes. But rape isn't to do with sex or gender - it's to do with power and attempted control and humiliation.
In Britain, Jimmy Savile left a trail of both male and female survivors of his abuse. In Iraq, the Abu Ghraib prison became notorious for the assaults inflicted upon both female and male prisoners - assaults including rape. This was an attempted gang rape. What has that got to do with committed, loving relationships?

Parallels with Judges 19

But if you think the gender matters, there's a similar account in Judges 19. A man and his concubine enter a city and are offered hospitality. The men of the city come at night demanding that he be thrown out to them to be raped. The concubine is offered instead - and she is raped and killed. [For a harrowing exegesis of this episode, see in particular: Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror, new ed. (London: SCM Press, 2002), 45-66.]
Same-sex rape; heterosexual rape; rape is rape. It's about violence, and it has nothing to do with any kind of loving relationships.

Conclusion

In an earlier video, I argued that we need to consider whether, when the Bible talks about same-sex activities, these are similar to or different from committed, faithful, loving same-sex relationships. What happened in Sodom was a million miles away from any type of loving relationship, whether same-sex or not. Sodom has got nothing to offer in the debate about the Bible and homosexuality. This is part of a series of videos looking at the Bible and homosexuality. If that interests you, subscribe to the channel. And if you want to find out a bit more, you can go to the companion website, bibleandhomosexuality.org. The next passages that usually come up are the verses in Leviticus 18 & 20 - you can read more about them here.

[Source/Copyright Holder:http://www.bibleandhomosexuality.org/what-has-sodom-got-to-do-with-homosexuality/]