The God Box by Alex Sanchez Page B

desk chair, staring at my cherished Bible. How could anyone take a story about mob violence, attempted gang rape, a God who doesn't know what's going on, sin that isn't specified, a woman being nuked to salt, and daughter-father incest, and use that story to condemn homosexuality?85And yet, hadn't I been taught for years to read the story that way?I recalled Manuel's photo of his boyfriend and him at prom, wearing tuxes and smiles. How was that anything like the story of Sodom?In Sunday school on various occasions my teachers had explained that we needed to view certain practices accepted in the Bible, such as polygamy and slavery, in their historical-cultural context. But then didn't everything in the Bible need to be viewed in context, including attitudes toward homosexuality?To be sure that I wasn't making a mistake, I decided to search my concordance for every other Biblical reference to Sodom I could find.In Isaiah i and 3, the prophet implied that Sodom was destroyed for a bunch of evildoings and a failure to do good; seek justice, correct oppression ... But there was no reference even hinting at homosexuality.The book of Jeremiah compared the prophets of Jerusalem to the Sodomites: I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns from his wickedness; all of them have become like Sodom to me, and its inhabitants like Gomor'rah. Again, no link to homosexuality.Ezekiel stated, Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them, when I saw it. Once again, no mention of homosexuality.In Zephaniah, I found this passage: Moab shall become like Sodom, and the Ammonites like Gomor'rah, a land possessed by nettles and salt pits, and a waste for ever. . . This shall be their lot in return for their pride, because they scoffed and boasted against the people of the LORD of hosts. But weren't the Moabites and Ammonites the86descendents of Lot and his daughters, who had been spared for supposedly being righteous?In Judges 19, a story almost identical to Genesis 19 occurs, about a city named Gibeah, in which a Levite and his concubine are given hospitality by an old man. The men of Gibeah gather, demanding, "Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him." Instead, the old man hands over the concubine, who is raped so savagely that she dies. That grisly story reminded me of Manuel's question: If the angels in the Sodom story had been female (like the concubine), would heterosexuality be condemned? Not likely. Was that why I never heard anyone cite the Gibeah story?Finally, even in Matthew 10, when Jesus himself sent out his disciples to do God's work, he alluded to Sodom, not in terms of homosexuality, but in terms of inhospitality: "If any one will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomor'rah than for that town."No reference to sex, but a clear warning against failing to welcome God's messengers.If homosexuality truly was the sin of Sodom, then why did no other book in the Bible mention anything about homosexuality or even homosexual rape in relation to the Sodom story? Instead, each additional reference created a clearer image of the Sodomites as prideful, unjust, unwelcoming, and inhospitable to strangers, to the point of violence.So, was the story of Sodom really about God's wrath over homosexuality?I closed my Bible, exhausted and yet also unexpectedly calmed. Verses of Scripture that had frightened me for years suddenly seemed far less intimidating. After all, I'd never threatened87or abused strangers--or anyone. Even if I didn't like somebody, I tried to be nice. And I had