--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "wgm4u" <anitaoaks4u@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote: > > > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "wgm4u" <anitaoaks4u@> wrote: > > > > > > Coward! Surely you have heard that if you don't learn the > > > lessons of the past you are doomed to repeat them, well > > > surely you've heard of *Sodom and Gomorrah* right? > > > > You mean, that they were destroyed because their residents > > were arrogant and overfed and led comfortable lives but > > didn't help the poor (Ezek. 6:49)? > > In Christian and Islamic traditions, Sodom and Gomorrah have > become synonymous with impenitent sin, and their fall with a > proverbial manifestation of God's wrath.[2][Jude 1:7] Sodom > and Gomorrah have also been used as metaphors for vice and > homosexuality viewed as a deviation. The story has therefore > given rise to words in several languages, including the > English word sodomy, used in so-called sodomy laws to describe > a sexual "crime against nature" consisting of anal sex, either > homosexual or heterosexual.[3]
You need to read the rest of this Wikipedia page, BillyG: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodom_and_Gomorrah (You also need to learn to cite your sources, BTW.) Not incidentally, Jesus appeared to think the sin of Sodom was its inhospitality to strangers. Before he sends off his disciples to proclaim the good news, he tells them (Luke 8-12): "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is offered to you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.' But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, `Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.' "I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town." In the first place, it is far from a slam-dunk that Sodom was destroyed for homosexuality. In the second place, the anal sex in question was not consensual between the members of a loving couple. The men of Sodom threatened Lot's visitors with rape. Rape is always a sin, regardless of the gender of the people involved. In the third place, there's no indication in the Bible story that the men of Sodom were homosexual. Throughout history, anal rape has been committed by heterosexual men against other men as a means of humiliation, subjection, and punishment. It takes place in prisons all the time to this very day. It isn't about sex, it's about violence and dominance. It's very far from the loving sexual relations between homosexuals. (Or heterosexuals, for that matter, among whom anal sex is a common practice.) Bottom line, you've done a very poor, very ignorant job of making your case against homosexuality. You don't come off as a virtuous religious person; you come off as a bigot.
