(WARNING: I talk about rape in this posting. There is no explicit language but it may be upsetting to younger readers)

The first passage in the Bible that comes up in the discussion of homosexuality is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah found in Genesis 18 and 19.

In the story two angels come into the city of Sodom. The men of the city gather outside the home where strangers are staying. The mob apparently wants to gang rape them. The angels rescue Lot, the one man who helped them, and destroy Sodom and its neighbor Gomorrah.

Biblical literalists hold that this is a historical story. Critical scholars are skeptical of this. They point to the obviously symbolic named of the cities (Sodom = ‘burnt’ and Gomorrah = ‘ruined heap’) as evidence that this is more parable than history.

In either case, it is clear that this story is meant to illustrate a moral truth. The question is, ‘what moral truth?’

A common approach for Christian interpreters has been to assume that a mob wanting to rape two men must be made up of homosexuals. This has led to the idea that homosexuality must be the sin that brought God’s wrath on the city in the first place. That in turn has led to the creation of the English words ‘sodomy’ and ‘sodomite’, which are sometimes used as synonyms for ‘homosexual intercourse’ and ‘homosexual.’

There are two main problems with this interpretation.

The first is that the scripture never says any of this, and is even vague about the intentions of the mob. Some modern translations, like the New International Version (NIV) do away with the vagueness and translate, “…Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.” A more literal rendering is found in the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), “…Bring them out to us, so that we may know them.” (NRSV) The Hebrew word yada (“know”) is often used as a euphemism for sexual contact. The Message version (MSG) captures the story’s use of innuendo, “…Bring them out so we can have our sport with them!” The implication is rape, but we are left to fill in the blanks ourselves.

As for the reason the angels are sent to Sodom in the first place, we are only told that the people of the city were terrible sinners. No specifics are given, nor are there any to be found in most other passages. Genesis 13:13, Genesis 18:16, Isaiah 1:9-10, Isaiah 3:9, Jeremiah 23:14, all mention the wickedness of Sodom, but only in a general way.

Jude 1:7 says that the sin of Sodom was sexual in nature but again, the charge is non-specific: “Sodom and Gomorrah, which went to sexual rack and ruin along with the surrounding cities that acted just like them, are another example. Burning and burning and never burning up, they serve still as a stock warning.” (MSG)

Ezekiel 16:49-50 gets specific about the judgment, but says that the problem is one of social justice: “…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.” (MSG)

There are clearly some problems with the city of Sodom and its neighbors. They are living in a way that is offensive to God, perpetrates economic injustice, and lends itself to sexual immorality. If an interpreter is convinced that homosexuality causes all of these problems he or she may assume that it is the root problem. However, they would be adding something into the story that isn’t really there, and that is a dangerous course.

The second problem with assuming that the men in the mob are homosexuals is that it doesn’t fit with what we know about rape and sex. Rape, and especially gang rape, is a crime of power. It is a way of humiliating another person and asserting dominance over him or her. There are modern gang rapes of men by men. Those that occur in prisons, in street gang conflicts, or in military conflicts are probably the best known. The vast majority of the men who participate in these crimes are heterosexuals. Their participation has to do with showing off for their peers, not with any sexual desire for the victim. The act of rape in these situations is a form of bullying taken to the extreme and given a sexual aspect. The same dynamic can be seen in the ancient near east where defeated soldiers were often raped by the victorious army. It was a way of symbolically stripping enemies of their ‘manhood.’

Something nearly identical to the story of Sodom occurs in Judges 19. In that story a Levite and his concubine seek shelter in a city of the Benjaminite tribe of Israel. That night, the men of the city come and demand the stranger be given to them. Like Lot, the host in this story tries to appease the mob by giving them his virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine. Like the men of Sodom, the Benjaminites reject the offer. Then the Levite takes matters into his own hands. He shoves his concubine out the door. The men of the city brutally rape and kill her, but they do not bother the Levite any longer.

The sexuality of the men is not the issue here. They are simply a vicious mob out looking for victims. Whether their victim is male or female ultimately makes very little difference. The same is certainly true in the story of Sodom as well. There is something brutally ugly that is condemned in both these stories, but it is not homosexuality. The rape of a man by men or of a woman by men is repulsive for exactly the same reasons, because it is rape.

This attitude towards the strangers in both stories is where the passages of Jude and Ezekiel come together. Ezekiel says that the problem is a lack of social justice. Jude says the problem is a dehumanized sexuality. The two go together, and are found side by side throughout history.

When there is a lack of justice, it becomes acceptable to treat people like things. Human beings become commodities, valued only for what they can do for others. It is easy to see this idea in effect in places where children are sold into sexual slavery. Rape, prostitution, pornography and even promiscuity all operate on similar logic, though some are more obviously harmful than others. They all treat another person as a means to gratification, not as a human being. They all cause the devaluation of human freedom and human life in the culture where they occur.

In the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the lesson is about how we treat strangers. Abraham welcomes his visitors and gives them his best. Lot takes them into his home and is willing to protect them, even at great personal cost. They look on the strangers and see people to be cherished and protected. The mob sees them only as potential victims.

Lot’s part in the story is the hardest thing for modern readers to accept. He is treating the strangers as people but treats his daughters as commodities. This is not acceptable by our standards, nor should it be. I won’t defend Lot except to say that he is doing better than just about anyone else in the story when it comes to human rights. Unfortunately, even he has a huge distance yet to go.

So, what is condemned in the story of Sodom? Rape is condemned. Failing to provide hospitality and protection to strangers is condemned. The attitude that some people can be viewed as less than human and that abuse can be justified is clearly condemned.

What a sad irony that a story that teaches this lesson is so often used to justify dehumanizing and mistreating gays. We have seriously missed the point.