Homophobic attacks on language abound in our culture. The use of the words sodomy, sodomite, and sodomize in news stories falls into the same category as the use of demeaning slang expressions based on race, gender, and religion. Recent news accounts of the brutal beating
Part of a series of essays on the Bible and homosexuality. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah Genesis 19 describes how two angels visited Sodom and were welcomed into Lot’s house. The men of the city gathered around the house and demanded that Lot send
Part of a series of essays on the Bible and homosexuality. Condemnation of the Sodomites Jude 7 refers to the people of Sodom as “giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh.” Strange flesh has been variously translated as perverted sensuality, unnatural lust,
Through my long associations with various churches of different denominations, I have heard many things regarding homosexuality. Most of it was negative and the rest was, at best, indifferent. For many years I held to that indifferent attitude. I have come to know many people
Most people seem to “know” that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God because of homosexuality. Well, I haven’t been able to find the phrase, “homosexuality” anywhere in Genesis or Judges or anywhere else in the Bible refering to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Though several Bible texts deal with the sin of Sodom, only one text actually attributes a sexual sin to the destroyed city. That text is Jude 7. the fact that it took this long for a Bible writer to actually condemn Sodom for sexual reasons
Editor’s note: For more on this and the other “clobber passages” commonly used to justify scripture-based condemnation of homosexuality, you may also enjoy our essay series “The Bible and Homosexuality.” The supposed ‘Sin of Sodom’ The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is the biblical story