Whatever Happened to Sodom?

There are some less-than-subtle preachers telling us that God hates homosexuals so much that he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah to give us a permanent example of what God does to societies that accept homosexuality.

Hmm, let’s examine this.

The story of Sodom in Genesis 19 really begins in the previous chapter when three angels (one of them the angel of the Lord) strolls by Abraham’s tent.  Abraham stops them and begs them to hang out with him for some leftover bread and water.  Instead, Abraham arranges an elaborate feast that takes all afternoon with a BBQ.

Here we have a story about a saint of God who offered great hospitality to some homeless folks who were wandering by.

At the end of this story, God tells Abraham that there was an outcry against Sodom and God was going there to check it out.  So he sends his two angels on to do just that.

Now we are in chapter 19.  The angels arrive in the city and Lot, Abraham’s nephew quickly meets them. He offers them some food and a place to stay, just like Abraham.  The angels say, “We think we’ll sleep out under the stars in the  middle of town.”  Lot replies, “Um, no.   You REALLY NEED to stay in my house tonight.”

Even so, all the men of town come over and demand to have sex with the new kids in town.  Why is this?  Because they want to hang out with new playthings?  No, it is because they are punishing any newcomers who think they might want to stay in their town.  The report that God had heard is that any homeless wanderer or immigrant is raped in this town.

And possibly killed.  In Judges 19, another town performed this same practice.  The object of their rape, the man, threw his concubine to them and they all raped her instead and in the morning she was dead.  The sin of Sodom is not homosexuality: it is the rape, abuse and attempted murder of the immigrants and homeless.

This makes sense of other passages that speak about Sodom, like Ezekiel 16:49—“Behold, this is the sin of Sodom: She and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy, thus they were haughty and committed abominations.”  The abominations was abuse of the poor.

So the next time a preacher points at LGBTQ as the problem in our society, you can tell them that Sodom was destroyed for abusing immigrants and if we are really going to purify our society, we need to start by joyfully, generously welcoming immigrants who wander by our front door, like Abraham.