Clobbering back with the Clobber texts:
Taking the Bible Seriously - Are There Clobber Texts in the Bible?
Rev. Dr. Thomas Hanks

Part 1:  
From Sodom the place (Genesis 19), to Sodomy the sin (1000 A.D.)

B.  Test Case:  Genesis 19:1-25.  Sodom and Gomorrah
Bibliography - Genesis 19 (Sodom, sodomy, sodomite)

B. TEST CASE: GENESIS 19:1-25. SODOM AND GOMORRAH

    The Genesis story about God's fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is the "clobber text"
    that has been used most often and cruelly (especially since the 12th century, which produced
    an explosion of virulent anti-semitism and homophobia in Western Europe). Electronic
    "evangelists" may still be heard making hysterical pleas (for funds) to help them deliver the
    nation from the terrible menace of "sodomites/homosexuals." However, even traditionalists of
    the more academic type began to recognize 40 years ago that Genesis 19 provides no basis
    whatsoever for condemning "homosexuals." The sin of Sodom clearly was a cruel refusal of
    hospitality that culminated in the attempted gang rape of two angel visitors (Genesis 19:1;
    Gordon Wenham 1994:55). The rape attempt is first proposed euphemistically using the
    Hebrew word "to know" (Genesis 19:5), which undoubtedly in this context describes an act we
    would call "sexual" -- in this case rape, but of angels!

    When the prophet Nathan rebukes David for his "adultery" with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12), no
    reader interprets that as God's condemnation of "heterosexuality." Similarly, the Genesis story
    about hospitality refused and an attempted gang rape of two angels provides no basis
    whatsoever for any modern condemnation of "homosexuality." Rather, Genesis 19 presents
    God as one who liberates a sexual minority (two angels) from mob violence--rape and "angel
    bashing"! In Judges 19 we have a story remarkably similar to Genesis 19, but in this case the
    traveler seeking hospitality is a Levite, not an angel, and the men of the city not only deny him
    hospitality but rape his concubine until she dies. No one concludes from this horrendous story
    that God "condemns heterosexuality"--but some are so prejudiced that they attempt to find
    another divine "condemnation of homosexuality" in a story that culminates in heterosexual
    gang rape!

    What is obvious from a careful reading of Genesis 19 may be easily confirmed by looking up
    the 48 Bible references to Sodom: Sodom is condemned for violence and "oppression" (which
    included what we would call "rape"), refusal of hospitality, and failure to show solidarity with the
    weak and poor--but never for "homosexuality" nor any ancient equivalent. As William Brownlee
    says, commenting on Ezekiel 16:46: "'Sodomy' (so called) in Genesis is basically oppression
    of the weak and helpless; and the oppression of the stranger is the basic elemeent of Gen 19:
    1-9....(1986:248). Only in the inter-testamental apocryphal literature did Jewish writers begin
    to use the Sodom story to condemn some kinds of same-sex genital behavior common in
    Greco-Roman culture (James B. De Young 1991). Significantly, Jesus rejected the
    "homophobic, xenophobic" inter-pretation so popular with his fellow Jews and returned to the
    original meaning of the story as a warning against cruel refusal of hospitality (Matthew 10:15,
    Luke 10:12; see Jude 7 below).

    Despite the consensus among Biblical scholars that the Sodom story has nothing to do with
    "homosexuality," in many places "anti-sodomy" statutes are still common (23 of the 50 states
    in the USA, for instance). Advocates of "gay rights" might do well to begin a new campaign in
    support of such laws--but insist (in agreement with even many traditionalist scholars) that such
    statutes should be interpreted in their true Biblical sense as condemning only rape of angels.
    "Save Our Angels Please!" (SOAP) might well become the battle cry in a campaign to limit the
    application of such laws and laugh this cruel late-medieval superstition out of existence!  

    Augustine was the first church father to propose that the sin of Sodom was basically sexual
    (stupra en masculos; J. A. Loader 1990:136). The Bible itself never speaks of any sin known
    as "sodomy," because this term was first invented (on the analogy of "blasphemy") by a
    medieval monk, Peter Damiian in the 11th century (Jordan 1997) and has always had
    confused and contradictory definitions, which continue to the present. As Genesis 19 makes
    clear, God's angels can count on plenty of divine help against "angel-bashers" without any
    assistance from our silly medieval laws.
 

BIBLIOGRAPHY - Genesis 19 (Sodom, sodomy, sodomite)
    Brownlee, William H. (1986). Ezekiel 1-19. WBC 28. Dallas: Word.

    De Young, James B. (1991). "The Contributions of the Septuagint to Biblical Sanctions against
    Homosexuality", Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 34:2 (June:157-177).

    Doyle, Brian (1997). "The Sin of Sodom: yada', yada', yada'", Society of Biblical Literature.

    Edwards, George R. (1984). Gay/Lesbian Liberation: A Biblical Perspective. New York: Pilgrim
    (pp.24-69).

    Fields, Weston W. (1996). Sodom and Gomorrah: History and Motif in Biblical Narrative.
    Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press. (Sin = inhospitality expressed in homosexual rape.)

    Horner, Tom (1978). Jonathan Loved David: Homosexuality in Biblical Times. Philadelphia:
    Westminster (pp. 47-70).

    Jordan, Mark D. (1997). The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology. Chicago: The
    University of Chicago.

    Loader, J.A. (1990). A Tale of Two Cities: Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament, early
    Jewish and early Christian Traditions. Kampen: Kok.

    McNeill, John J. (1988). The Church and the Homosexual. Boston: Beacon Press (pp. 42-50).

    Scroggs, Robin (1983). The New Testament and Homosexuality. Philadelphia: Fortress.

    Westerman, Claus (1974/84). Genesis: A Commentary. 3 volumes. Minneapolis: Augsberg
    (see II:294-315).

    Wenham, Gordon (1994). Genesis 16-50. WBC. Dallas: Word.
 
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