Okay, as I
said, we need to get more into the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. The traditional
interpretation of this story has focused on the wrong of homosexuality as the
main cause of Sodom’s destruction. Heck, we’ve even go so far as to immortalize
the city by calling sexual intercourse between two men (or any intercourse
using that area of the body) as sodomy. It’s forever part of our lexicon. But,
here’s the thing: The angels do not give any kind of response at hearing the
proposition from the men outside Lot’s house. If this was the reason, they
would have stepped up just after hearing it. Instead, they give no reaction
until after Lot’s offer of his
daughters and claim of protection for the travelers has been rejected by the
mob.
Moreover,
the story of Abraham in chapter 18 gives us the model for how people should
behave with regards to travelers and foreigners. This can’t be a coincidence
that we have a story that shows us the exact model behavior, and the very next
story violates that behavior. All of Lot’s actions show that he is trying to do
the right thing, as Abraham does, and repeatedly references this tradition both
to the angels (still in disguise) and the mob.
Now, does
that mean that homosexuality is okay to these people? I can’t say that. No one
can say one way or the other. It could be part of the mix, and people will
immediately jump to the (now) famous verse in Leviticus 20:13 “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have
committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon
them.”
That’s pretty cut
and dried. But, then again, all of the laws in Leviticus are pretty cut and
dried, and they elaborate things that lots of people do anyway. The fact is,
Leviticus goes kind of overboard on the rules, including things such as eating
from pigs (I’m guilty, I love good BBQ), which might have made sense at the
time given that pigs rolled in the muck and were prone to worms and other
parasites.
However, there are
plenty of odd ones governing things such as when you can eat fruit from trees
(19:23-25) and my favorite “nor shall you put on a garment made of two
different materials (19:19). Many of the rules of Leviticus are completely
nonsensical to modern readers. At the time, there were reasons for them as these
rules were written during the time of the Exodus, when over 400,000 slaves
struggled to become a nation governed by laws instead of collapsing into a
warring mob.
Is homosexuality
part of this story, yes. What are the exact feelings and message about
homosexuality in this? I have no freaking clue. The violation of hospitality is
by far the most prominent message in this. Next up on the list would be rape.
Rape is bad. This story is unequivocal to the point where “[Lot] beg[s] [the
crowd], [his] brothers, do not act so wickedly.” Lot gives no condemnation to
the idea of homosexuality itself,
In terms of
ranking, violating hospitality is at the top of this story. Rape is in there,
but distant and mostly included in the hospitality. Incest is the next big
no-no.
Yes, I said
incest. We’ll get there.
I said the Bible
was sexy; I didn’t say it wouldn’t make you say, “ew.”