They were outsiders. It was easy to tell – the way they dressed, the way they acted. Strangers.

And the men of Sodom didn’t like it.

* * *

“After all, who knows what strangers might be up to, with all their outsider ideas, strange customs, and so forth. Who knows, they might even be criminals, fugitives, coming here to do us harm.

“We have to do something. We need to gather up the men and boys, and let these strangers know who is in charge around here, who has the power. And even if they stay at Lot’s house, that won’t matter, because Lot is an outsider himself. He’s lived here for a few years, but he isn’t from here, if you know what I mean.

“Yes, you’d best gather the men and boys together, so we can give these strangers a taste of what they might have thought about doing to our women and girls. That will show them what’s what, in a way they will never forget.”

* * *

I don’t know if that is what the men of Sodom might have thought when the two angels visited their town one night. It is clear from the story in Genesis 19 that when the strangers came into town, Lot offered them the protection of his home, insisting that they come with him even when the two strangers said that they would spend the night in the town square. With the hindsight that comes with knowing how the story unfolded, it is easy for me to believe that Lot knew enough about the town in which he was living to fear for the safety of the strangers who had entered the town.

Of course, we know that Lot’s worst fears came to pass, when the men of the town came to his house, and demanded that he turn over the strangers so they could be, in plain terms, gang raped by the men of the town.

The next verses of the story are perhaps the most disturbing of all, when Lot confronts the men, and says “My brothers, don’t do such an evil thing. I’ve got two daughters who are virgins. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them whatever you wish. But don’t do anything to these men because they are now under the protection of my roof.” (Genesis 19:7-8)

By this time, even the most insensitive reader will realize that on this night, thick with impending violence, there were no good options for Lot. And while offering his two daughters to protect the strangers is abhorrent to us, it says something about how important the obligations were when one offered hospitality.

Lot’s status as an outsider is confirmed in the next verse: “They said, ‘Get out of the way!’ And they continued, ‘Does this immigrant want to judge us? Now we will hurt you more than we will hurt them.” (Genesis 19:9)

Of course, the story ends “well.” The gang rape does not take place. Lot’s virgin daughters are unharmed. The strangers, who are actually angels, use their power to blind the men near the house, so that the immediate crisis is past.

In case my telling of this terrible story hasn’t made it clear, this is not a story about homosexuality, in any sense of the term. And to use this story to condemn homosexuality in any form, as we know it today, is to completely misread the story to justify our bigotry against LGBT persons.

In the rest of the Bible, Sodom is often used as a symbol of complete wickedness, and it is easy for us to project our (often anti-LGBT) biases into what we think the Bible is upset about.

But it isn’t about sex. It is about violence, injustice, cruelty. Ezekiel, one of the major prophets, says “This is the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were proud, had plenty to eat, and enjoyed peace and prosperity; but she didn’t help the poor and the needy.” (Ezekiel 16:49)

As I said in an earlier post, I wish it were possible to remove the Bible from the current discussions of homosexuality. Perhaps the story of Sodom is one of the most flagrant examples of misusing the Bible to justify bigotry. There is more to be said about the story, of course, but this should help to provide a framework for understanding it, and I’ll be happy to address any questions in the comments to this post.

“Wait,” some of you might be saying. “What about the other parts of the Bible in which it is clear that homosexuality is wrong? What about the NEW Testament, some of you might be saying. That’s where we will go next. More to come.

The State of Washington has a lot of empty space in the middle. I was driving through that empty space, going over Manastash Ridge between Yakima and Ellensburg, searching for a signal in the radio dead zone. (One reason I’m grateful for satellite radio.) I had set the scanner to search for a live station, and then forgot about it….because there just wasn’t anything there. After about twenty minutes of silence, I was startled to hear the word “Sodomites!” blasting from the receiver.

I had finally found a station. But of course, in that conservative part of the state, the station I found was a religious one, and the preacher was fulminating about homosexuality, and the sodomites who were about to take over the country. After managing to keep my pickup on the road, I decided to keep listening–after all, it was the only thing on. As the preacher continued, I began to grow bored, and since I was getting close to Ellensburg, I was about to search for another station when the preacher said something shocking.

Shocking, because he didn’t know what he had just said. The preacher was talking about how sodomy was taking over, and added, “And you know how it is. Once you get a taste of that gay sex, you’ll never go back to the regular kind.”

Pardon me? WHAT?

I realized that the preacher had just added his name to the list of people in churches I had served who, as soon as the subject of homosexuality came up, went immediately to 10 on their outrage scale. By that time, I had been a pastor for more than 25 years, and in that time, I had noticed a pattern:  the first people to violently object to discussing homosexuality in church were those with some well hidden homosexual yearnings. I later saw this mentioned in a publication for pastors about what happens when the subject comes up in the church. (Congregations Talking about Homosexuality: Dialogue on a Difficult Issue, Beth Ann Gaede, ed.)

All of this is by way of introducing the story which has given us the word “sodomy,” which has found its way into the law of a number of states, in which sodomy is illegal. The story in the Bible which provides us with the word “sodomy” is located in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, chapter 19. I’ll be saying more about this story in future posts, but consider this an overture to reading. If you’re interested, you might want to start a chapter earlier, with chapter 18.

More to come. Stay tuned.

As I write this, many of us are making Thanksgiving plans. We might be getting ready to see members of our extended family who are…well…difficult. Picture the scene at tables around the country of extended families with grandparents, aunts and uncles and the rest joining in thanksgiving prayer, and then…

And then, looking up across the table at the grandson who came out of the closet on national coming out day in October. Or the niece who has just started testosterone injections as he continues his journey into the body and self which match who he really is. And everyone around the table knows about the college age daughter who couldn’t make it for dinner because she’s spending the holiday with her same sex partner’s family.

From there on, I can imagine the conversation becoming difficult. And part of that difficulty might have to do with the Bible.

If you read my last post, you’ll remember that it mentioned two of the “poison verses” in the book of Leviticus, in which, it seems, homosexuality is condemned as abhorrent to God. Of course, taken in context, the verses have little or nothing to do with same sex attraction as we understand it today, and those who claim it does are merely cherry picking to justify their bigotry.

With this in mind, it might seem that the best way to respond when Uncle Harold or Grandma Sophie quote Leviticus is to say that the whole Bible is ridiculous, and we should dump it into the trash heap of history. Or if not the whole Bible, at least books like Leviticus.

That, of course, might work to stop or at least derail the conversation. “So, how about those Astros winning the Series?” If we’re lucky, we might avoid the topic, until next time.

I think we can try something else. And it begins with a look at some of the good parts of Leviticus. (Yes, there are good parts.) Consider the following, which is sandwiched in the chapter between the two poison verses:

“When you harvest your land’s produce, you must not harvest all the way to the edge of your field; and don’t gather up every remaining bit of your harvest. Also do not pick your vineyard clean or gather up all the grapes that have fallen there. Leave these items for the poor and the immigrant; I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:9-10)

This tells us that when we harvest earth’s bounty, it is important to make sure that the poor and the immigrants also benefit. A much more appropriate part of the Bible to bring up than the poison verses. Can you imagine what would happen if our national policymakers took these verses as seriously as they do the two poison verses about homosexuality?

A little farther in the same chapter: “You must not oppress your neighbors or rob them. Do not withhold a laborer’s pay overnight. You must not insult a deaf person or put some obstacle in front of a blind person that would cause them to trip… You must not act unjustly in a legal case. Do not show favoritism to the poor or deference to the great; you must judge your fellow Israelites fairly. Do not go around slandering your people. Do not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed; I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:13-16) And, of course, the well known “you must love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18)

At the end of my last post, I suggested that we ask our homophobic, Leviticus-quoting friends how they single out two verses of the book, and ignore the rest. And it suggests a way to talk to Uncle Harold on Thanksgiving.

Perhaps there is a way to talk to Uncle Harold that doesn’t dismiss the book he believes is the center of his faith. Maybe there is a way to talk to Bible believing Christians which doesn’t end the conversation, but invites them to consider the ways in which we do make choices about which parts of the Bible we embrace, and which parts we overlook. That might not convince anyone to change their mind about homosexuality–but maybe it could help to make it more difficult to use Bible verses as weapons.

I wish it were possible to remove the Bible from all discussions about homosexuality, since it is nearly always used in harmful and misleading ways. But the Christian scriptures have been so deeply imbedded in our cultural DNA that many people in the US simply won’t let it go, and will go on using the Bible to condemn those with non binary sexuality unless we provide a better way.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned.

Let’s Look at Leviticus

Exciting, huh? I know that for most people, the mere mention of a book like Leviticus brings on either a bored yawn, or an amused smile, wondering what odd piece of trivia will be introduced. That is true unless, of course, the subject is homosexuality, and the speaker is quoting Leviticus to prove that God abhors homosexuality. Then, of course, the speaker is in dead earnest. So bear with me as we take a first, quick look at this ancient text.

Two verses from Leviticus are often produced to prove God’s disapproval of LGBT folks. Leviticus 18:22 tells us, “You must not have sexual intercourse with a man as you would with a woman: it is a detestable practice.” The other verse goes even further: “If a man has sexual interourse with a man as he would with a woman, the two of them have done something detestable. They must be executed; their blood is on their own heads.” (Lev. 20:13)

Ouch! Sounds like there is no way around these verses.

Unless, of course, you put them in context.

So, what is the context of these poisonous statements? I will be exploring this more in future posts, but for the first one, I would point out that these verses come from a time in the history of Israel in which it was attempting to distinguish itself from adjoining tribes, with their different gods, and to set Israel apart as a special tribe, uniquely in God’s favor. If you look back at the beginning of chapter 18, you read this: “The Lord said to Moses, speak to the Israelites and say to them: I am the Lord your God. You must not do things like they are done in the land of Egypt, where you used to live. And you must not do things like they are done in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You must not follow the practices of those places.” (Lev 18:1-3)

Why does this matter? Because those “other nations” often believed in a connection between the fertility of the land and human fertility, or sex. And at times, sexual acts were incorporated into the rituals of planting and harvest in the hope that demonstrations of human fertility would help to insure the fertility of the soil.

The lack of sexual fertility rites was only one way in which the people of Israel were to be distinguished from other tribes. Other ways they were to be distinct from their neighbors included: not crossbreeding cattle; not planting a field with two kinds of seed; not wearing clothes made from two kinds of material; not participating in fortune telling; not cutting off the hair on their foreheads; not clipping the ends of their beards; not having tattoos; and more.

Obviously, there is more to be said about this, but for the moment, you might want to ask your Leviticus-quoting friends how they single out the two verses that seem to condemn gay sex and ignore the rest.  More to come on this topic, but that’s enough for now.