Christian nationalist pastor Doug Wilson calls for the return of anti-sodomy laws.
The problem was that people haven’t been using Sodom and its fate as a proper guide to moral rectitude. What we need is a return to more-Biblical behavior in modern society.
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. “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.”
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. 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.”
Clearly not good.
Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, “No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing. 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.”
Much better. Pay attention to the moral priorities here; this is the proper way to act.
“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.
But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. 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.
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, 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.”
So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry 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.
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.”
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. 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!”
But Lot said to them, “No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you 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. 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.”
He said to him, “Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.” (That is why the town was called Zoar.)
By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.
Pay attention. This is a proper application of justice on moral grounds.
But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
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. 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. Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line through our father.”
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.
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.” 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.
So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The older daughter had a son, and she named him Moab; he is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger daughter also had a son, and she named him Ben-Ammi; he is the father of the Ammonites of today.
I love that bit of “don’t rape with the random people I just met; rape my virgin daughters instead”. Nobody reading the plain language could come away thinking this is a good guide to morality. They either haven’t read it, or they lack basic reading comprehension, or their morals are completely twisted.
It ties to Bronze Age practices where raping men was a way to humiliate them. Probably common practice with defeated captives in war.
The point of both the story in Genesis and Judges here is that you must treat visitors with respect. Absolutely critical message in a pre modern society. That’s why Paris kidnapping Helen was such a big deal - you don’t spit in the eyes of your host like that. Hospitality is critical.
The problem was that people haven’t been using Sodom and its fate as a proper guide to moral rectitude. What we need is a return to more-Biblical behavior in modern society.
Genesis 19:1–26
Clearly not good.
Much better. Pay attention to the moral priorities here; this is the proper way to act.
Pay attention. This is a proper application of justice on moral grounds.
As is right and proper.
Genesis 19:30–38:
Exactly.
I love that bit of “don’t rape with the random people I just met; rape my virgin daughters instead”. Nobody reading the plain language could come away thinking this is a good guide to morality. They either haven’t read it, or they lack basic reading comprehension, or their morals are completely twisted.
Last one.
The message of Sodom and Gomorrah is about hospitality.
It’s paralleled by a fucked up story later in Judges, where a man receives a visitor and similar is harangued by a crowd of people wanting to rape them. He instead offers up his concubine, who is raped to death. He mutilates her body and sends it all around Israel to shame them.
It ties to Bronze Age practices where raping men was a way to humiliate them. Probably common practice with defeated captives in war.
The point of both the story in Genesis and Judges here is that you must treat visitors with respect. Absolutely critical message in a pre modern society. That’s why Paris kidnapping Helen was such a big deal - you don’t spit in the eyes of your host like that. Hospitality is critical.
I think the problem is people basing their morality on religion in the first place tbh.
It’s real easy to interpret it to mean almost anything so while religion is ones guide, you are more vulnerable to manipulation.