Trigger Warnings: Rape, gang rape, incest.
I’m very excited to start jumping into the Bible – the word of God is one place where I feel like certain things can be made obvious and clear for many people, and I hope I can shed some light on certain passages that have been used against homosexuality.
Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed
19 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. 2 “My lords,” he said, “please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning.”
“No,” they answered, “we will spend the night in the square.”
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. 5 They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
Genesis 19 New International Version (NIV)
Sodom and Gomorrah is often the first thing Christians will mention when talking about why the Bible is anti-homosexuality. I mean, the word “sodomy” even derives from this passage. But let’s really look at what happened in Sodom.
Two angels arrive in Sodom and Lot takes them in to protect them. A crowd of men then surround their house and demand that Lot bring the angels outside so they can have sex with them. This is a great sin and God punishes the city of Sodom accordingly.
If these angels had been women, would the sin not be the same thing? I believe it would be, because rape is wrong no matter who is being raped. A crowd of people asking and forcing themselves upon anyone is wrong and sinful.
I suggest re-reading this passage with the thought of the angels being women. Wouldn’t it still be wrong? Wouldn’t you still understand why God destroyed these cities?
27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
Genesis 19 New International Version (NIV)
This passage says absolutely nothing about two people of the same gender being in a consensual, mutually respecting relationship. The passage is very clearly stating that forming a mob and attempting to rape someone is a bad thing. What does this say about a gay relationship? Absolutely nothing.
To top if all off, there are more disturbing things in this passage than that. Lot, our protagonist, offers up his virgin daughters to the angry crowd. Also, later his daughters have sex with their father. But you don’t see people bringing up those passages because incest is understood as being a bad thing in this day and age.
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him 7 and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
Genesis 19 New International Version (NIV)
34 The next day the older daughter said to the younger, “Last night I slept with my father. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and sleep with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.” 35 So they got their father to drink wine that night also, and the younger daughter went in and slept with him. Again he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
36 So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father.
Genesis 19 New International Version (NIV)
When people pick and choose their Bible verses to bring harm to others is when we should be ashamed as Christians. The entire Bible needs to be analyzed from a perspective of love and history.
I believe these passages are telling a historical tale and obviously that it is not what you should follow for yourself. The Bible is not suggesting you should go have sex with your father or that you should offer up your virgin daughters to an angry mob of rapists. It’s stating what happened at that time as a historical volume of what occurred. This is made clear to me by how it’s delivered – with no suggestions that this is what should happen or what was right. It is merely stating what occurred in those matters. This is problematic for many reasons, but history is history, and there are a lot of awful things in it. Keep this in mind as we explore future passages.
Going back to what the men were doing in Sodom, the angels specifically take action against it, which is indicative of their actions being sinful:
9 “Get out of our way,” they replied. “This fellow came here as a foreigner, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them.” They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
Genesis 19 New International Version (NIV)
The angels turn the men blind. Because a mob of men wanting to have sex with anyone is sinful.
This one feels very straight forward to me. Do not form an angry mob and try to have sex with people who do not want to have sex with you. This is sinful and bad.
Angry mob rape parties = sin.
Even at other parts in the Bible, when they mention Sodom, it never calls out homosexuality as the sin in which God decided to destroy the city. In Ezekiel 16, Sodom is even called out for specific sins, none of those being homosexuality.
49 “‘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. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.
Ezekiel 16 New International Version (NIV)
40 As I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
Jeremiah 50 New International Version (NIV)
along with their neighboring towns,”
declares the Lord,
“so no one will live there;
no people will dwell in it.
Absolutely nowhere in this passage does it specify that the men-on-men aspect of this rape is the primary focus and specifically what was sinful. That is only an assumption put on by our homophobic culture. This passage flat out isn’t about homosexuality at all, no matter how much some churches wish to shoehorn it into that box.
