Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!caip!elbereth!rutgers!husc6!harvard!spdcc!dyer From: dyer@spdcc.UUCP (Steve Dyer) Newsgroups: soc.motss Subject: Forwarded anonymous posting Message-ID: <426@spdcc.UUCP> Date: Sun, 12-Oct-86 16:06:17 EDT Article-I.D.: spdcc.426 Posted: Sun Oct 12 16:06:17 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 13-Oct-86 01:02:56 EDT Organization: S.P. Dyer Computer Consulting, Cambridge MA Lines: 91 Keywords: Bible, Sodom, rape WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! LOOK OUT! LOOK OUT! LOOK OUT! LOOK OUT! LOOK OUT! LOOK OUT! LOOK OUT! This article contains a tale of rape and a description of dismemberment. If such things upset you, stop reading *NOW*!! And, while you're at it, don't read your Bible, because this is where this tale of rape and dis- memberment comes from. Also, this article contains some pretty hefty sarcasm (in parentheses, just so you can ignore it if you want). Please do not take these comments seriously. I don't really think this way. Let me begin be repeating for you a passage that we've all heard at some time or another: ". . . before they (Lot and the angels) lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you and do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof." --Genesis 19:4-8 O.K. We've all seen this passage used by the fundamentalists as part of the great "the Bible condemns homosexuality" argument. I have included so much of the story here so that you may compare this it to the passage below. Before anyone accuses me of censorship, let me say that I started where I did and ended where I did because I wish to focus upon the men whose morals are in question. Immediately following the above passage, the men of the city are blinded by the angels, and they leave the story. This next Bible story involves a traveller (who is *not* an angel) who stops for rest on a long journey. He is invited into the home of an elderly gentleman. This nameless old man believes, like Lot, that *OFFERING* a woman for rape is less of a sin than permitting the rape of a man. "Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him. And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly. Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you; but unto this man do not so vile a thing. But the men would not hearken to him; so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her and abused her all the night until the morning; and when the day began to spring, they let her go. Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, til it was light. And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way; and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up and gat him unto his place. "And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel." --Judges 19:22-29 (This story is told to the judges so that they might decide what action is to be taken in the matter. This man, after all, was forced to mutilate his concubine, to waste a perfectly good female that wasn't even used up yet, so he was pretty upset about this matter. The judges said that it was a nasty thing for those guys to cause this man to cut his female up, so war was declared against the sons of Belial.) *NOTICE*--No one ever actually gets raped in the story of Sodom. The angels blinded the bad guys before they got a chance to rape anyone. Still, it *was* nice of Lot to make the offer, wasn't it? My question is this: Why don't the fundamentalists use this last story as a condemnation of homosexuality? It was, I believe, Jesus who said that the sin of Sodom was the sin of inhospitality. No one in the Bible, I believe, said that the sin of Sodom was homosexuality. Could it possibly be that the story of Sodom is a story of rape, not a story of homosexuality? Well, I think I've opened up several cans of worms on several fronts. I hope to hear lots of discussions stem from this one.