“Homosexuality is a sin!” Religious leaders cry, from their pillars of piety. They quote sentence upon sentence of biblical prose, to prove their argument. And we listen. We let them construct a concrete crucifix, to which we nail our critical thinking.
The Bible is a collection of stories written by several authors, over a span of many years. It is not a novel, and it certainly cannot be read like one. It is most accurately described as an anthology that tells a unified narrative. However, like any other book, it is best read as a whole, and with an understanding of its literary and historical context.
One of the most commonly used stories to condemn homosexuality, is the Story of Sodom from the book of Genesis. The story speaks of two angels, who travel to the town of Sodom. They are hungry, and without a place to stay for the night, and so they decide it would be best to sleep in the town square. At this point, they encounter a man named Lot, who strongly advises them against their plan, and welcomes them as guests into his home, instead.
Later that night, just before the two angels lay their heads down to sleep, Lot’s house was surrounded by a mob of the town’s men. They pounded on the door, and asked to see the travelers. “Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.”
It is important to note that “know” in this dialogue, expresses a desire to know them, intimately and violently, and has been understood to imply gang rape, in most interpretations.
In the book of Ezekiel, the sin of Sodom is written as, “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 needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them when I saw it.”. This shows that the true sin of Sodom, is its failure to aid those in need. The story in Genesis 19 seeks to condemn violence and is a parallel to the story in Judges 19 that takes place in Gibeah. Rape is the issue at the center of both these stories: the threatened rape of a man, and the actual rape of a woman in Judges 19, and the attempted rape of the two angels in Genesis 19.
The story of Sodom is one of violence, power and cruelty, and yet it is used as a tool to revile consenting adults, who simply want loving, monogamous relationships. The truth about biblical narratives is that their messages can sometimes be complex, but if you’re willing to ask questions, and look beyond the words on the page, you will find the answers that you seek.
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