A series of articles by Robert Buchanan, D.Min., on gay prejudice and
Christianity in order to challenge the church and help provide for the
spiritual needs of sexual minorities
Please bookmark this page and come back.
|
A series of articles by Robert Buchanan, D.Min., on gay prejudice and
Christianity in order to challenge the church and help provide for the
spiritual needs of sexual minorities
Please bookmark this page and come back.
|
|
|
Sacred Sodomites
“What about the
story of Sodom? That proves you can’t be gay and a Christian.” This is the
age-old challenge for gay men and women. The story from the Bible is held in
high regard by the three largest of the world’s religions, including
Christianity. It is often presented as proof that being gay is a moral evil.
However, the mistake that is commonly made is to think of the story as a
modern one, when it was written to ancient primitive people.
At the time of
Abraham and his nephew Lot the world was primarily agrarian. The religions of
the day were often related to fertility in order to seek the success of crops
and breeding of animals. There were various fertility gods, and their worship
nearly always included sexual practices. The ancient fertility temples had
benches throughout where one could worship by having sex with a prostitute.
The funds from this prostitution went to support the temple. Fertility gods
were both male and female and included both homosexual and heterosexual sex.
In Hebrew, the
language this part of the Bible was written in, the word for Sodom means
“sacred one” in masculine form. The name of the town indicates the commerce
of the community. This was a center of sacred worship of the fertility gods
that included sex with other men. Lot, a new Hebrew resident, had criticized
this practice. The townspeople didn’t take kindly to his judging them, and
became outraged when he received two angelic visitors.
We really can’t
know what these visitors would have looked like, but there was something about
them that indicated they were special. They were in male form, and perhaps
they had radiance about them, or were so unblemished that everyone took
notice. It wouldn’t take long for rumors to spread through a small town.
Soon, people started thinking that two gods were visiting Lot. (There is
literature from the period to indicate that strangers were often thought to be
visitations from a god.) The people of the town became jealous that Lot would
receive the blessing of the gods. A mob surrounded Lot’s house, and nearly
broke into riot. They wanted to worship the gods sexually and be blessed.
The next time
someone criticizes gay people by using this story. Be sure to let them know
that the story had nothing to do with loving or pleasurable sexual relations
between two people of the same sex. Instead, the town was condemned for
idolatry greed and violence. Loving acts are nowhere condemned in the Bible.
God accepts everyone equally and does not condemn us for the very diversity
God created.
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Robert Buchanan is a minister of the Ecumenical Catholic Church and a psychotherapist who lives with his partner of many years in Durham North Carolina. He is the author of Love, Honor & Respect: How to Confront Homosexual Bias in Christian Culture and serves as director of the Institute for Inclusive Christianity. a training program for ministers and clergy who do not discriminate against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, or because of financial, familial or social status. Additional resources for inclusive Christians can be found at our Resources page.
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