You just might be surprised at how the Sodom and Gomorrah story many use to denigrate all LGBT people, is interpreted by Jewish scholars of the Torah and Talmud.
Let me break it down simply for you.
Let me break it down simply for you.
Four thousand (4000) years ago, when this whole Sodom story supposedly took place (Most bible scholars and archeologists see the account as a moral fable rather than actual history), hospitality was a common decency expected of all. Without human charity, death was a sure thing back then! In fact, it still is. We've just forgotten what the Hopi Indians still remember, that we are all interconnected.
But back to swords and sandals times....
Travel involved long days in harsh desert environments, battling wild animals and the elements. So, just like today's etiquette demands you cover your nose when you sneeze, if you were living back then, you would be expected to welcome travelling strangers, wash their smelly, toe-jammy, buniony feet; offer water, food and rest. Hospitality (from the same root we get hospital) was literally "saving a life". Even if your accommodation was as humble as a single tent, this human kindness was mandated, far less if you had rich accommodations like the people of Sodom.
But back to swords and sandals times....
Travel involved long days in harsh desert environments, battling wild animals and the elements. So, just like today's etiquette demands you cover your nose when you sneeze, if you were living back then, you would be expected to welcome travelling strangers, wash their smelly, toe-jammy, buniony feet; offer water, food and rest. Hospitality (from the same root we get hospital) was literally "saving a life". Even if your accommodation was as humble as a single tent, this human kindness was mandated, far less if you had rich accommodations like the people of Sodom.
According to Genesis and many other Hebrew texts, Sodom was located on the kind of sweet piece of real-estate tribal people would fight to the death to claim. So it erected a wall. Now for a city to be thriving like that meant its citizens were breeding like rabbits on bois bande. Why would I say this? Well back in those days, life-expectancy was really poor.
Era
|
Life Expectancy at Birth
(years) |
Upper Paleolithic
|
33
|
Neolithic
|
20
|
Bronze Age and Iron Age
|
26
|
Classical Greece
|
28
|
Classical Rome
|
20–30
|
Pre-Columbian North America
|
25–30
|
Medieval Islamic Caliphate
|
35+
|
Medieval Britain
|
30
|
Early Modern Britain
|
25–40
|
Early 20th Century
|
31
|
2010 world average
|
67.2
|
Encyclopedia Britannica
Iron-aged man lived in some bamcee dragging on the gravel harsh times! I'm talking, poor sanitation, lack of medical science to defend against pathogens, treat injuries, help difficult births and provide proper dental care (yes you can die from tooth infections). And to make matters worse, the superstitious, fearful, desperate primitives liked killing each other for really stupid reasons (dat eh change a bit). Believe it or not, people have been suffering worse fates, long before things like the Middle Passage and the Holocaust. How much worse? There are entire races of people just wiped right off the face of the earth! People back then didn't exactly follow any Geneva Convention on Human Rights when it came to raiding people's land, killing them off, raping their women and taking them as slaves. It was constant war, genocide, raiding and bloodshed. The only way to grow a large population in spite of those odds was to have lots and lots and lots of children. In third world societies, plagued by disease and death, high birth rates are also a norm.
So back to Sodom, if they were successful enough to become a walled city, it must have meant that everyone was breeding like The Duggars (and most likely polygamous too) and replenishing that population at a rate faster than people were dying off from natural and human causes. Plenty people meant lots of serfs to work the land and soldiers to protect the city from raiders and protect your trade route. If Sodom was as the Hebrew texts described- a prosperous walled city, it took a lot of heterosexual intercourse to make that happen!
Anti-gay bible abusers like to make people think that all the men in Sodom were gay but they are flat out deceiving you. After all, Genesis says that Lot's two daughters (who would later get their father drunk and make baby for he) were already betrothed to men of Sodom Genesis 19:14. Also, when the mob of men wanted to rape Lot's two angelic visitors, he offered them his daughters to rape instead. Why would he do that if the men were only interested in other men?
What people should be asking is:
What people should be asking is:
What did the Sodomites want to do to those two angels?
C'mon! I know you don't believe they were intending to make sweet, romantic love all night long to the lilting sway of a lute. A mob of men demanding sex from just two men usually spells one thing- gang rape. They were going to brutally violate those angels. When Lot got in the way, they threatened him and said, "We will do WORSE to you than what we were going to do to them." Genesis 19:9 Now for that to be a real treat, it means whatever they had in mind for those two angelic beings wasn't prompted from love or even lust (sexual attraction).
Rape is an act of violence requiring dehumanization of the person. What gets a rapist off is the power they have to dominate and humiliate their victim.
Rape is an act of violence requiring dehumanization of the person. What gets a rapist off is the power they have to dominate and humiliate their victim.
Now I ask you, is the story of Sodom and Gommorah a story about this:
or this?
Use your brain. Then search your heart. Still unsure?
Ezekiel 16: 49, says that the sin of Sodom was greed, pride, fullness of bread and a wicked refusal to help the poor. Whether this was just a fable or not, the obvious moral lesson the majority of Hebrews have derived from the tale of Sodom is not "homosexuality is evil". We know this because according to the gospels, when neighboring villages were rude and inhospitable to Jesus and his disciples he immediately referenced Sodom in Matthew 10:11-15. Sodom was not what you would call a real friendly place. Like most gated communities, it did not take too kindly to outsiders (more on that below). Much like the first black person to move into an all-white neighborhood, Lot was a foreigner in their city and he did not have the right to bring strangers into the city without permission.
Most Christians do not realize the extent of Sodom's xenophobia and sadism because they are missing pieces of the puzzle which can be found in Jewish books that go into more detail. The Book Of Jasher was one of the books the Roman Catholic Church did not deem fit to put into the bible. We know it was a respected book for Hebrews as it is referred to in glowing terms in the bible books of Joshua and Samuel. According to the account there, the people of Sodom did not just refuse to help the poor they preyed on them for sport.
Most Christians do not realize the extent of Sodom's xenophobia and sadism because they are missing pieces of the puzzle which can be found in Jewish books that go into more detail. The Book Of Jasher was one of the books the Roman Catholic Church did not deem fit to put into the bible. We know it was a respected book for Hebrews as it is referred to in glowing terms in the bible books of Joshua and Samuel. According to the account there, the people of Sodom did not just refuse to help the poor they preyed on them for sport.
And when a poor man came to their land they would give him silver and gold, and cause a proclamation in the whole city not to give him a morsel of bread to eat, and if the stranger should remain there some days, and die from hunger, not having been able to obtain a morsel of bread, then at his death all the people of the city would come and take their silver and gold which they had given to him.
9 And those that could recognize the silver or gold which they had given him took it back, and at his death they also stripped him of his garments, and they would fight about them, and he that prevailed over his neighbor took them.
10 They would after that carry him and bury him under some of the shrubs in the deserts; so they did all the days to any one that came to them and died in their land.- The Book Of Jasher 19:8-
___________________________
"Wicked - with their money,' as it is written, And thine eye be wicked against thy poor brother...
Our Rabbis taught: The men of Sodom waxed haughty only on account of the good which the Holy One, blessed be He, had lavished upon them."
"What is written concerning them [the men of Sodom]... They said: Since there cometh forth bread out of [our] earth, and it hath the dust of gold, why should we suffer wayfarers, who come to us only to deplete our wealth. Come, let us abolish the practice of travelling in our land..."
"Now, they had beds upon which travelers slept. If he [the traveler] was too long, they shortened him [by lopping off his feet]; if too short, they stretched him out..."
"A certain maiden gave some bread to a poor man, [hiding it] in a pitcher. On the matter becoming known, they (the men of Sodom) daubed her with honey and placed her on the parapet of the wall, and the bees came and consumed her. Thus it is written, And the Lord said, The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah, because it is great.” - The Babylonian Talmud
Now tell me, is it right for people to be using this story about an attempted gang rape by xenophobic, selfish and sadistic psychopaths, to condemn and threaten the 15 year old who comes out as LGBT, or the lesbian couple down the street, or your "obvious" male co-worker?
Do you know what it does to the collective psyche of a people to be compared to rapists, even to the extent of of being named after them? Is that how you would like to be treated by others? Have black people forgotten that is how they were once treated with the bible as justification? Go remind yourself and read Genesis 9:25-27, Exodus 21:20-21, Leviticus 25:44-45, 1 Timothy 6:1-5, 1 Peter 2:18-29. Have women forgotten what it was liked being blamed for the "sin of Eve" and having that as justification for their subjugation? Go remind yourself and read: Genesis 3:12-16, Exodus 21:7-8, Leviticus 15: 19-33, Leviticus 27: 3-7, Deuteronomy 24: 1-4, 1Corinithians 14:34-35, 1Timothy 2:14-15, 2 Timothy 3:6-7.
The irony is, the real lesson of this story is completely lost on most people. You know who are the real Sodomites today? They are the sociopathic and psychopathic bullies and sadists who revel in violence and brutality.
They are the selfish, inhospitable people who though having abundance to share with the poor refuse to do so and instead want more for themselves.
They are the pimps and pastors preying on the weak and needy. They are the IMF and greedy corporations raping third world countries. They are the politicians who want to enable them to do whatever they want as long as they get a cut.
Guess what? They are all pleased as punch you're not pointing at them and yelling, "Sodomite!" They are laughing at your sorry ass as you point fingers at people like Baynard Rustin, Audre Lorde, Harvey Milk, Godfrey Sealy and David Kato instead. They are happy you're not truly examining who are the real people bringing war, poverty, pollution, injustice and desperation into your country.
