Sodom and Gomorrah and the gay lifestyle

THE EDITOR: Now that the din has died down over the recent judicial ruling over the country’s buggery laws, I wish to add some perspective on one of the vital issues separating proponents of gay rights from their principal antagonists – religious leaders.

The former feel justified in their lifestyle, arguing there is nothing perverse about it since the real sins for which Sodom and Gomorrah were judged were extreme inhospitality toward the two angels and attempted violent gang rape, not widespread debauchery as religionists believe.

In a May 25, 2011, Huffingtonpost blog, Rev Patrick S Cheng wrote, for example, “The true sin of the Sodomites as described in the Bible has nothing to do with same-sex acts per se. Rather, the ancient Sodomites were punished by God for far greater sins: for attempted gang rape, for mob violence, and for turning their backs on strangers and the needy who were in their midst. In other words, the real sin of Sodom was radical inhospitality.”

Does he have a point? According to the inspired scriptures, Sodom’s sins were manifold, including arrogance, opulence, and neglecting the poor (Ezekiel16:48-50). But these sins did not occasion His judgment. God’s judgment was for reasons of widespread perversity and immorality.

To emphasise this widespread nature of the perversity in the city, Genesis 19 records, “The men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house” in the attempted mob rape.

The city’s destruction however is nearly always spoken of in moral, not social, terms (that is, “inhospitality”). The Apostle Peter, for example, says that God delivered “righteous Lot ... who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)” (2 Peter 2:7-8).

“Righteous,” “wicked,” and “filthy conduct” seem more applicable to questions of morality than they do to social inhospitality.

Jude (7) more specifically writes that Sodom and Gomorrah, “giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.”

According to both writers moreover, divine judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah’s moral debauchery was meant to serve as an “example” to future generations like ours. Hence 2 Peter 2:6 further states that God turned them “into ashes ... making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly” – not live “inhospitably.”

It is for the gay individual to determine whether any comfort derived from the explanation supporting this lifestyle as appropriate is founded on fact.

KEITH JACKSON
, Chaguanas