The second file in this popular series involves the long-misunderstood "Sin of Sodom." This is in response to people who have made correlations between the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and homosexuality. As you will see, the subject is quite open to debate. This is one of the areas where the Bible, the supposedly literal word of God, contradicts itself. All Biblical quotes, unless otherwise noted, are from the "New American Bible" translation. WHAT IS "THE SIN OF SODOM?" The common conception, and I feel a misconception, is that the "Sin of Sodom" was homosexuality. Most people making this claim base it upon the scene between Lot and the Men of Sodom in Genesis 19:5. At no point before this is a sin or list of transgressions offered as a case against the city, only that God says "their sin is so grave." [Gen 19:20] Only one translation I've seen, the "Good News Bible," (Today's English Version) actually uses the word "sex" in the quote. Most other translations have the Men of Sodom demanding "relations" or "intimacies" with the travellers Lot is shielding. The Hebrew word translated in all versions can be used both for sex and for conversation. It can be argued that the Men of Sodom wanted to talk with the men, not necessarily to have sex. The final decision to destroy the city, along with Lot's warning to evacuate comes when the Men slap Lot, denouncing him as a foreigner. [Gen 19:9-13] Some people have argued that this inhospitability is the sin that sealed Sodom's fate. Considering the conditions of Caanan, this could easily be understood. The majority of Caanan (today Israel and Jordan) is desert. If a man refused hospitality to a traveller-- sending him on without shelter, food, or water -- he might be condemning the stranger to death. (This fact of the desert is also the main reason hospitality is considered as one of the pillars of Islam.) A case can easily be made that the inhospitality of the Men of Sodom had placed upon their heads the blood of several innocent travellers. There are at least three different locations in the Old Testament where the Sin of Sodom is described, and together they make a damning case that the "Sin of Sodom" is NOT homosexuality. One of these is in the Book of Isaiah. In the first section of this book, commonly called "The Book Of Judgement," God delivers an indictment of Israel and Judah, including a section addressed to Sodom and Gomorrah: "Hear the word of the Lord, princes of Sodom! Listen to the instruction of our God, people of Gomorrah! ... learn to do good. Make justice your aim; redress the wronged." [Is 1:10, 17] Nothing in the injucntion, including the section not quoted above, makes note of homosexuality, even through inference. The specific reference to "make justice your aim" would imply that the sin of Sodom is civil injustice. And since homosexuality is at worst a "victimless crime," there are no wronged to be redressed. It would take quite a vivid imagination to attatch this specif- ied sin to homosexuality. The next reference is from the Prophet Ezekiel, who again compares the judgement of Israel and Judah to Sodom. Again, he does not specify a crime: "And look at the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were proud, sated with food, complacent in their prosperity, and they gave no help to the poor and needy." [Ez 16:49] This prophecy of Ezekiel's would tend to support the before-mentioned theory of inhospitality, and also concurs with Isaiah's claim of civil injustice. Even though Ezekiel later mentions "abominations," mistreating those in need is one of the many things listed in the Mosaic law as "abomin- ations." There is still no evidence that the Sin of Sodom is homosexuality. In fact, the case is building up for injustice. Sodom and Gomorrah also get a brief reference from the Prophet Jeremiah, who compares Judah again to Sodom and Gomorrah: "But among Jerusalem's prophets I saw deeds still more shocking: Adultery, living in lies, siding with the wicked, so that no one turns from evil; To me they are all like Sodom, its citizens like Gomorrah." [Jer 23:14] Quite a few crimes are listed above, but homosexuality is not among them, nor is anything that could even be construed as it. The "siding with the wicked"reference would tend to support theory that civil injustice is the sin that led to the destruction of the twin cities. And since adultury and lying are listed as "abominations" in Exodus, there's a good chance that they are the "abominations" mentioned by Ezekiel. "Sodomy" and the perception of Sodom being destroyed for homosexuality is of quite a recent origin; the Biblical evidence would tend to dispute the commonly-held perception. While the Levitical injunctions cannot be disproven, many of them are so ridiculous in modern context and are generally ignored. The time has finally come to reconsider the designation of homosexuality as a sin.