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[vc_row el_class=”olive-branch-bg-r”][vc_column][vc_column_text]You may have heard rumors about a story in the Bible concerning two towns called Sodom and Gomorrah. Those rumors claim that the story gives religious justification for being against our LGBTQ siblings.<\/p>\n
I want to be very clear: those rumors are false. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah<\/a> has nothing to do with homosexuality as we know it. That story is really about a form of actual human violence – gang rape.<\/p>\n Two angels came to Sodom. They had nowhere to stay and so a man named Lot invited them into his house. Lot did the right thing \u2013 he showed these strangers hospitality. He gave them a feast and they all ate together. Lot is a model in the story for how to love your neighbor, including the stranger, as yourself.<\/p>\n But the men of Sodom saw the angels and demanded that Lot open his door so that they could \u201cknow\u201d the two angelic men.<\/p>\n Every middle schooler is aware that to \u201cknow\u201d in the biblical sense is to have sex with someone. But what happens in the Sodom story is *not* homosexuality. It is not about two men in an intimate, committed same-sex relationship based on love.<\/p>\n Sodom and Gomorrah is about one thing: rape.<\/p>\n Rape is a sexual perversion that is a violent abuse of power. The men of Sodom had a wicked desire to humiliate these strangers by raping them, thus showing these strangers that the men of Sodom were the boss of their town.<\/p>\n The sin of Sodom was not about homosexuality. The sin of Sodom was that the men refused to show hospitality to strangers. Instead of loving the strangers as themselves, they engaged in gang rape.<\/p>\n The prophet Ezekiel wrote about the sin of Sodom and her daughter Gomorrah. Interestingly, Ezekiel never mentions anything about sex \u2013 homosexuality as an orientation wasn\u2019t even on Ezekiel\u2019s radar when discussing the sin of Sodom.<\/p>\n Ezekiel wrote that Sodom \u201cand her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen\u201d (16:49-50)<\/p>\n The warning of Sodom and Gomorrah has nothing to do with homosexuality. This story never mentions two men living in a committed same-sex relationship. It\u2019s about the men of those towns refusing to show hospitality to strangers and refusing to meet the needs of the poor and the marginalized.<\/p>\n Indeed, the story of Sodom is also a warning. It tells us that when we unite violently against vulnerable people we are going against the will of God.<\/p>\n Today, our LGBTQ siblings are vulnerable. After all, 28 states in the US<\/a> do not have explicit laws that protect our LGBTQ siblings from discrimination when it comes to employment, housing, and public accommodations. If they are anyone in the Sodom and Gomorrah story, they are the angels in our midst.<\/p>\n When Christians misuse this story as yet another way to unite against our LGBTQ siblings, we become the Sodomites who refuse to show hospitality.<\/p>\n Christians who misuse this story by making it against our LGBTQ siblings need to repent. Otherwise, Christianity will deservedly go the way of Sodom and Gomorrah. But if that happens, it won’t be because of God’s violence. It will be because of our own violence.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_section el_class=”post-quote”][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1566306295282{background-image: url(https:\/\/ravenfoundation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/0c0caab3a0b06f49d1f4e4069f7acecc-e1562958862845.jpg?id=19638) !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation=”none” el_class=”quote”]<\/p>\n The only thing that has the potential to soften hearts is divine compassion.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space height=”16px”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_column_text]The problem in the Sodom and Gomorrah story is human violence, but I think God\u2019s violence is also problematic.<\/p>\n One could argue that God\u2019s violence against Sodom and Gomorra was completely justified. After all, those cultures created many victims, so many that the story says that God heard a great \u201coutcry against Sodom and Gomorrah\u201d from their victims. Wouldn\u2019t God be justified in destroying such oppressive cultures?<\/p>\n The problem with that justification is that it makes God into the biggest bully of all. As we saw in the first part of the series on Noah and the flood<\/a>, the[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/2″][vc_empty_space height=”16px”][vc_single_image image=”20375″ img_size=”full” alignment=”right”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]character of God in this story only knows how to solve the problem of violence with more violence. But divine violence never actually solves the problem of human violence. Sure, Sodom and Gomorrah are gone forever, but other nations in the Bible and in our present day, are just as violently oppressive towards those who are vulnerable. God\u2019s violence didn\u2019t solve the problem of violence. In fact, it merely reinforces the false idea that violence is an appropriate way to solve our problems.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”48px”][vc_column_text]Throughout the Hebrew Bible there is a tension between a God who justifies violence against our enemies and a God who invites us to love our enemies through nonviolence. For example, one of the great enemies of Israel was a nation called Aram. Aram had a mighty general named Naaman<\/a>, who terrorized the people of Israel through war and kidnapping their children.<\/p>\n But Naaman had leprosy. He tried all kinds of ways to heal his skin disease, but had no luck. One day, a girl he kidnaped from Israel to be his wife\u2019s servant told him about the prophet Elisha, who could cure his disease.<\/p>\n Naaman traveled to Israel to find Elisha and pleaded for him to heal this great enemy of Israel. Elisha could have said, \u201cYou Arameans have terrorized us for long enough! You constantly make plans to harm us. And now I will call for God to do to you what was done to Sodom and Gomorrah!\u201d<\/p>\n But instead of divine violence, Elisha showed divine compassion to his enemy. He gave Naaman instructions to wash his body in the river Jordan and his skin would be healed.<\/p>\n Naaman followed Elisha\u2019s instructions and was healed. In response, Naaman said, \u201cNow I know that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n Throughout the Bible, we discover that divine violence never works. It only hardens hearts against God and God\u2019s people. The only thing that has the potential to soften hearts is divine compassion.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space height=”48px”][vc_column_text]Jesus traveled with his disciples through many towns that refused to welcome strangers, just like Sodom and Gomorrah. They once entered a town in Samaria<\/a>, but the people of the town refused to accept Jesus and his disciples. Jesus had two options at this point. He could act like the God portrayed in the Sodom and Gomorrah story, or like the God of Elisha in the Naaman story.<\/p>\n Two of Jesus\u2019 disciples, named James and John, suggested the Sodom and Gomorrah option. They said to Jesus, \u201cLord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?\u201d Can you blame James and John? After all, they had scriptural justification for this idea.<\/p>\n But Jesus didn\u2019t follow the god portrayed in the Sodom and Gomorrah story. Rather, he followed the God of Elisha. Instead of rebuking the town of Samaria with fire and brimstone from heaven, Jesus rebuked his disciples for thinking that violence was ever a good idea. Instead of causing violence against the town, Jesus merely moved on to another village.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_section][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1566393555121{background-color: #f6ebdf !important;}” el_class=”optin”][vc_column][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”][\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”48px”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”2\/3″][vc_single_image image=”20373″ img_size=”full” alignment=”right”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_column_text]Throughout the Bible we find a tension between divine violence and nonviolence. Many Christians want to reject the Old Testament because it portrays God as violent. I don\u2019t want to reject the Old Testament because the Old Testament tells the truth about human violence. We always justify our violence in the name of some \u201chigher good\u201d \u2013 whether that good is God or peace or justice. Divine violence, whether it\u2019s portrayed in the Old Testament or the New Testament, is a projection of our own violence onto God.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_empty_space height=”16px”][vc_column_text]But the Old Testament, through stories like Naaman and Hosea\u2019s demand<\/a> that God desires steadfast love and not sacrifice, starts the process of teasing out the reality of human violence from the non-reality of divine violence. Ultimately, we find the non-reality of God\u2019s violence in the Jewish Jesus, who lives out Elisha\u2019s example of enemy love throughout his life, death, and resurrection. Jesus rebukes our demands for violence. He encourages us to seek justice not through violence, but through nonviolent acts guided by love.<\/p>\n So here are the main takeaways about God and violence when it comes to stories like Sodom and Gomorrah:<\/p>\nDivine Violence?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Is there an Alternative to Violence? <\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jesus and the Disciples \u2013 the Call to Nonviolence<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Violence Is Not Divine, It is Human<\/strong><\/h3>\n