Recently, I was made aware of a statement Keith Olbermann made on his TV show in support of gay marriage. I posted the video clip on my Facebook page and was soon answered by a friend who does not share my opinion. When I shared my belief that one's feelings about the morality of the issue should be completely separate from whether or not gay marriage was legal, he shared his fear that God would rain fire down from heaven if we ever legalize gay marriage, citing every evangelical's favorite anti-gay story: The Genesis 19 account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Over the past few weeks, I have been reading the book of Genesis, and as fate would have it, a recent morning found me perusing chapter 19. I was struck by something that now seems obvious:
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah has about as much to do with the gay marriage debate as a baseball glove has to do with gravy and biscuits. (Which is to say, nothing.)
When I read the story in The Message, I found the angels telling Lot that they were sent to destroy the city because "the outcries of victims here to God are deafening" (emphasis mine). This is a stark contrast to the way I always heard the story growing up -- that God was so disgusted by "those men and their lifestyle" that they just had to be annihilated.
So maybe this is just The Message, right? Maybe ol' Eugene Peterson softened it a bit, watered down the message so it wouldn't be so offensive?
Nope.
The word rendered "outcry" is the Hebrew word tsaaq (or sa'aq). The connotation is a cry of pain, the wounded cry of an oppressed person or a victim. Even in the original language, God is moved to act by the cries of victims.
It's not hard to imagine what sort of victims we might be dealing with here. In the story, a group of men who lived in the city stormed Lot's house and demanded that he send out his guests so they could have their way with them (sexually).
The sexual orientation of the men is not the issue. The issue is that these men were rapists, that they preyed on the weak.
It wasn't homosexuality that set God off; it was injustice.
So what do we do with this story? Do we ignore it? Assume that, if we dismiss it as a warning against homosexuality, there's nothing left for us to learn from it?
I don't think so. I think the story is a warning, and one that we would do well to heed today. It's just not warning us of what most evangelicals think.
It's a warning that God takes it very seriously when we victimize. When we oppress. When we dehumanize. When we prey on those who are weaker. When we do those things by commission, or by omission.
It's a warning to the bankers and CEOs who have made fortunes off the pain and suffering of those who have lost their homes. It's a warning to the surface mine operators who rake in piles of money while poisoning the water supply of those who live nearby. It's a warning to those who turn a blind eye to the poor, who ignore the plight of those who are suffering.
It's a warning to me. It's a warning to you.
Take heed.
