What was the sin of Sodom?

Unknown's avatar

Published by Scotties Playtime

I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com

16 thoughts on “What was the sin of Sodom?”

    1. Hi. Mdavis. It is a shame how we dehumanize and torture the people incarcerated in the US. Our system is draconian and regressive. It is entirely punitive instead of rehabilitative. It leads to the worst outcomes and higher recidivism. Hugs

      Like

      Reply

    1. Hi Suze. The problem with the bible is the way it is written, translated from languages over and over that the original meanings are lost. It gives room for people to read into the book anything they want it to say. This is what happens I am told if you want it to say something you already believe. I have heard three different meanings for the “clobber” passages. Everything from it was to prevent men from the Roman practice of having sex with young boys in temples as a form of worship to the idea that it was about the status of the men involved as the passive or receiving partner was though to be less than a man or like a woman. I have also heard what you said, it was about not raping male slaves. But despite what the original was written for to use it for bigotry in the current age is the same as saying we should all live as they did in the first few centuries. Because that book, that god only seemed to know what was known by men of that time, which is far less than what we know today. Hugs

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. I read the arqamaic during seminary…and it was all about slavery and the slaves significant losses of Human rights…those that were “deemed by G-D” to be unalienable…yep, even for slaves. It has morphed again and again from faulty translations between languages without equiveillances. It’s the main reason (all these faulty translations) that I completely lost any faith in any religion at all.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        1. Hi Suze. You prove you don’t have to have faith to be a good person doing things to help others. Thanks for the information you shared. I so admire people that can learn new languages. I don’t have that ability. I was in Germany for over three years and couldn’t learn more than a few phrases and words. I have to give the German people I met credit. I would have friends come out of a store or something and be pissed at the workers for not helping them, not talk English to them. I would go into a small shop or restaurant to order in what little German I knew and lots of pointing. The people would listen as I slaughtered their language. Then reply to me in English asking what I would like. I had German friends and asked them about it. They told me it was because I was not arrogant and would try to speak their language and not just demand they speak mine. They felt respected. I have carried that lesson with me all my life. Hugs

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

          1. exactly! George spoke German fluently as he was raised in Germany during his young elementary years…his mom spoke Swedish and English and his dad sppoke English and French…..I took the crazy languages in school…aramaic, latin, greek…..tried Spanish but slaughtered it. When we went to Guatemala, I tried to speak the language, and people were very kind about it…they tried to help me and spoke their broken English to me to make it easier for me. The same occurred in Israel……the Arabs were amazed I tried, and helped enormously. I wish the Jews had been as open to my attempts. Instead I got a lor of flack from the few I tried to communicate with and was told by one to “just go back home if I couldn’t speak properly”. I immediately asked if they were American originally……George laughed about it, I figured they MUST be from here as they were so damned rude. Turns out they were born Israeli…as a people they seem to be ruder than other groups. Sad commentary but it was what I experienced over there.

            Liked by 1 person

            Reply

  3. A great deal of the Old Testament has been lost in translation..
    And the intolerant wing do either wilfully or out of sheer ignorance overlook the fact that we are either reading a poetical allegory, and this video is spot-on.
    By the way you can spend many an hour reading academic discussions or essays on the meaning of Hebrew words and the context in which they were used. (and truth be known have your head spinning at the wonder of other cultures)
    By another way……Sodom and Gomorrah…they may have been one of ‘The Five Cities’ around the region which was hit by a very severe earthquake. But actually two cities identified as ‘Sodom and ‘Gomorrah’……Nope no evidence. Again the video is spot on.👍

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Hi Roger. Thanks for the information. The small amount of biblical knowledge I gained at the church boarding school was limited. They dealt mostly with them trying to impress on us the moral duty we had sexually and our duty to the church doctrines such as not eating meat. So detailed understanding I lack. But the idea of the bible being infallible and everything in there is to be taken literally makes no sense when we can clearly see things written that are wrong or mistakes. I do enjoy the precepts of Jesus and the way he was taught to us as a caring good person who helped others. I took those parts to heart all my life because it was so different from the people who raised me or in the same home were taught to act. The only time to help others in their view depended on the gain you got from it. They lived by the idea of due it to others before they could do it to you. They did not keep friends long. That maybe why I love listening to the Rev. Ed Trevors. Hugs

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Hi Scottie
        Like every other work written, some will ignore or wilfully distort the true messages to suit their own prejudices, misguided ideas or fears.
        You are actually picking up on the true message which is to your credit several times over.
        Bless you & Ron

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        1. Hi Roger. That message is reenforced by my communications with people like you, Ali, and Randy, along with the other believers here who show the love of the Jesus to everyone here including me as they offer their opinions on each story or in Ali / Randy’s case the stories they post. Hugs

          Liked by 1 person

          Reply

  4. Hi Scottie; I’ve had a few thoughts on this post since I read it, saw the comments. I considered my education both through my home church and my college courses. I think I mirror a lot of what is already said — so, I won’t add to that. But, I think it is important to remember that as a document that has survived widespread use – and abuse – the meanings that people get from the Bible are very dependent upon their values. What jumped out at me watching this video is the unabashed Confirmation Bias the presenter exhibited.

    One of the things I keep stumbling over is the desperate need some have to declare homosexuality a sin, and especially in this light, diminish the sin of being inhospitable. IF someone is gay, that is perhaps a choice in what they do but not in what they are attracted towards. Not doing something gay does not change anything about being gay except the outward manifestation. If we are to believe that God created us in His Image, then being gay is not a sin. At best, someone could argue that doing something gay could be, but that then becomes a real reach. Others have said that homosexuality is a curse laid upon a man by the devil, but to say that Satan overwrote God’s creation would then mean that he is greater than God?? Oh, then they will use the story of Job that God allows the devil to curse men so that they can prove themselves blameless – and that becomes a circular argument. I think you see my point.

    What bothers me as well is the way the video detractor kept saying things like: This is false, no one believes this, no evidence for this – yet the concept that the story of Sodom is about homosexuality is so engrained into our understandings that it is used as a definition. It is this type of evidential indifference that marks the reason those who study, research, think, etc., are continually overcome in public argument to the people like Drumpf. Careful consideration is not loud and sexy and bombastic, and those who seek truth dismiss fools like drumpf because they are concerned with the facts and truth and the drumpfs of the world are concerned with justifying their bias.

    Hugs,

    randy

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Hi Randy. Wow I almost missed your comment. That would have been so tragic. Because you are spot on. The haters like to say being gay is a choice, but they claim being straight is a normal way they are born so not a choice. When you ask them to then choose to be gay for a year they freak out hiding behind it is a sin or what ever. They never acknowledge that what they feel can’t be changed and what people born with same sex attraction can’t be changed either. So then the haters moved to “Well you simply have to be celibate, never have sex, never feel the intimate touch of another of your attraction to”. But when you ask them to do the same thing they scream no. They simply don’t want gay people to be themselves or be in the public square, to be in the media.

      As you said if you believe that god is supreme (I encourage everyone to watch the Netflix show Lucifer as I love the interaction between angel brothers and especially when they introduced god into the show. I won’t spoil it for anyone but … redemption is for everyone.) With no one being on his level of power or authority, then how could anyone change his design? Plus the idea of god making each of us perfect is destroyed by glasses and the appendix.

      To your last point I agree that the most common reason for the story pushed by most churches is that homosexuality was the sin that was being punished. But as he says that got started out of bigotry and not accepting that people could have different attractions from the majority. But you have to understand he is a scholar … he is a PhD as I understand and he studies the bible as his job. Not like a preacher for insights of what sermon to give but as an academic who is interested in the history and depth of the writings. He thinks he is a teacher of the common person. But when he says things like “no one believes that …” he is talking about other scholars. He is trying to explain things to his every day person audience but uses the talks he has with other biblical scholars when he makes statements like that.

      Hugs and loves brother. I wonder if you could do a post on your interpretation of being gay and suffering under a religious judgment over it.

      Oh and yesterday at 7:30 am Ron and I went to get the chipboard decking for the new small bathroom. Chipboard is better because it is more water damage resistant than plywood. So Ron was outside with the van totally open taking the sheets out and cutting them to fit. He came in that evening and forgot the windows in the van were down. And yes it stormed hard all night. The van was flooded. You can guess the rest. But the efforts to dry it out with the huge shop fan we have is stopped because it keeps raining on and off so we can’t lower the windows to let this huge fan blow into the van. He did use his wet / dry shop vac to suck up as much water as he could. Hugs

      Like

      Reply

      1. Hi Scottie; I think you missed my point in regards to the “no one believes that…”. I was saying that there is a bias of evidential indifference among many that his argument, while absolutely valid, is overcome by the those people who are not swayed by evidence, logic, morals or ethics. You hear them in the continued belief that the drumpf loss in 2020 was due to theft, despite the fact that there is no evidence to support that. People who argue with facts and reason, evidence and rational discourse are being overcome by those who argue louder with hate, tradition, and whatever inability they have of taking on new information. Worse is the preacher and politician who talk down to the very lowest common denominator and drag the discourse into the oblivion of ignorance.

        Oh, and…. Ron’s going to start throwing hammers. Good luck!

        Hugs;

        randy

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        1. Hi Brother. Yes I did misunderstand. Sadly there are always people that want to run on emotion rather than reason. Sadly there will be people who will use people like that and play on their emotions to lead them into ever more hateful behaviors, beliefs, and actions. That creates the situation we have with hate preachers and their hate church followers who do the despicable screaming / yelling / and ignorant actions that harm others. I am thinking of the former Phelps church. As to the hammers, oh he was storming worse than the pounding rain, thunder, and lightening. Hugs

          Like

          Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.