by Steven Skelley
Religious fanatics and the right-wing politicians they have purchased have begun proclaiming the need to reinstate sodomy laws. They claim that if LGBTQ citizens are allowed the same basic civil rights as every other American citizen, God's wrath will surely descend upon us because of the acceptance of "sodomizers."
As ridiculous as that claim seems in itself, the story behind the term "sodomy" is even more ridiculous. Let us take a look.
The Old Testament section of the Bible that is so often quoted by religious fanatics contains a Jewish writing commonly called The Book of Genesis. One of the heroes of this section is a man named Lot.
Lot took his wife and daughters and moved to a city named Sodom. This is where the term sodomy will originate.
God is not happy that Lot has relocated to Sodom. Apparently God has a lot of time on his hands and worries about what suburb you move into. God is so unhappy with Lot's choice of neighborhoods that He sends two "angels" to Sodom to speak to Lot. In religious writings, angels usually have wings, or glow like the sun, or appear and disappear at will, or fly. Lot's angels walked into Sodom. Flying and teleporting can be sooooo tiresome, apparently.
Lot noticed that the angels had dirty feet from walking and invited them into his home to wash their feet. He also fed them a nice meal. Angels get awfully hungry when they walk instead of teleporting, after all.
Here's where the "sodomy" stuff really begins!
According to Genesis, "Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom —both young and old—surrounded the house. 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.'”
Lot certainly doesn't want his full bellied, dirty-footed angels involved in a gay orgy so he comes up with a "creative" solution. Lot says, "If you let my angel buddies alone, I'll let you rape my daughters!"
I am not joking.
Here is the script from Genesis, "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.” Also notice - Lot identifies his guests as MEN not angels.
Am I the only one who sees a problem with old Lot protecting his non-flying, supposed angel buds while offering up his virgin daughters for gang rape? He hardly sounds heroic to me. The story goes on to say that the angels attacked the would-be gang rapists and Lot and his family ran from Sodom. Unfortunately not everyone survived. Lot's wife had second thoughts about leaving their home - so God turned her into a giant pile of salt!
Really? God was cool with Lot offering up his virgin daughters to gang rape but turns Lot's wife into a tasty food seasoning just for glancing back at their home?
Is the ridiculousness beginning to sink in yet? Does this sound to you like a story made up by Lot to justify the disappearance of his wife and the incest with his daughters? (Yes, incest is entering the story very soon).
Back to Sodom - God is so mad that the two dirty-footed, walking, angel-men were threatened by gay, gang rapists that he sends "fire-rain" to destroy Sodom. That fire-rain can be a bitch. Happens all the time. Apparently, the offer of a father to have his virgin daughters gang raped is not something you send fire-rain down for. That - apparently - is cool with God.
Sodom is destroyed (allegedly) and the term sodomy is forever tied to those gay, would-be, angel-men rapists.
Believe it or not, things get even grosser. Lot's daughters get him drunk and take turns sleeping with him over and over again over a period of days until they get pregnant BY THEIR OWN FATHER!
So, Lot's story is that a) We had to move because the whole town was full of gay gang-rapists that wouldn't rape my virgin daughters even after I offered them to be raped freely b) God killed my wife and that means that I can't be blamed for her disappearance c) I impregnated BOTH of my virgin daughters but it was their fault for getting me drunk first.
Had Lot spewed this stupidity in ANY courtroom anywhere, the jury would find him guilty of murdering his wife and incest with his daughters in about two minutes.
For centuries, religious fanatics have used the term sodomy to describe sex between consenting adults of the same gender.
In many instances, they have been able to harass LGBTQ citizens by producing laws that make it illegal to have sex between two consenting adults. Republican presidential candidates and running mates have all called for these laws.
Some religious and political zealots have even called for the death penalty for law abiding American citizens who love people of the same gender.
Isn't it difficult to believe that people actually kill LGBTQ citizens over foolishness like a story about the dirty-footed, walking angel-men, a woman turned to salt, the father-approved offer to gang-rape his virgin daughters, and the incestuous father who impregnated his own daughters?
Isn't it ridiculous that what the religious fanatics get from this unbelievable story told by Lot is that the allegedly gay citizens of Sodom are the evil ones? Wow!!!!! Now you know the idiocy behind the term sodomy and sodomy laws.
Perhaps if we treated religious texts as windows into history instead of magic spell books we would find real truths. Perhaps these religious stories reveal both people who had spiritual victories as well as people who had spiritual failures. Perhaps Lot's story is one about how gullible patriarchal society can be to simply believe the story of a man whose wife disappeared mysteriously and who impregnated both of his own daughters. Perhaps it is also to show us the idiocy of bigotry toward LGBTQ people.
(Here are the actual Genesis Bible passages. Read it for yourself.)
Genesis 19
New International Version (NIV)
Sodom and Gomorrah
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.”
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.”
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.
12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry[a] his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city! ” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished. ”
16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,[b] please! 19 Your[c] servant has found favor in your[d] eyes, and you[e] have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.[f] )
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah —from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
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.
30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
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.
**Steven Skelley is a published author of several nonfiction works and the novella The Gargoyle Scrolls. He has been a newspaper columnist, travel writer, news writer, ordained minister, music director, creative arts director, theater reviewer and tennis instructor.
(Here are the actual Genesis Bible passages. Read it for yourself.)
Genesis 19
New International Version (NIV)
Sodom and Gomorrah
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.”
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.”
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.
12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.”
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry[a] his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city! ” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished. ”
16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the Lord was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, “Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!”
18 But Lot said to them, “No, my lords,[b] please! 19 Your[c] servant has found favor in your[d] eyes, and you[e] have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it—it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.”
21 He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.[f] )
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah —from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
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.
30 Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as is the custom all over the earth. 32 Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
33 That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and slept with him. He was not aware of it when she lay down or when she got up.
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.
**Steven Skelley is a published author of several nonfiction works and the novella The Gargoyle Scrolls. He has been a newspaper columnist, travel writer, news writer, ordained minister, music director, creative arts director, theater reviewer and tennis instructor.
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