“The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave…” ~ Genesis 18:20
With the gay marriage question before
the Supreme Court, the media (social, news, or otherwise) outlets of our
culture have seen an explosion of activity and strong opinion in both
directions. At the core of this issue is the notion of homosexuality
itself, and such always seems to draw minds to the story of God’s
judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis. God determined to rain his
judgment and wrath upon the culture of those cities because of the
greatness of their sin. A hint of this sin is seen in Genesis 19 when
two angels in the appearance of men go into Sodom and Lot welcomes them
into his house, only to have men from the city surround the house and
demand to forcibly have sexual relations with them (or in other words…to
rape them).
The term sodomy itself shows the
history of our religious culture’s connection of the events in Genesis
with homosexual activity. Yet a simple reading of the Genesis account
shows that this wasn’t merely an issue of prevailing homosexuality
itself. Rather the perverseness of the men’s actions goes to something
much deeper—an active abuse of others for the sake of self pleasure.
Furthermore, Ezekiel 16:46-50 shows how the greatness of their sin came
in the totality of their unrighteousness and not because of a single
issue—they were also prideful and prosperous yet neglected the poor and
needy. God says, “They were haughty and did an abomination before me.
So I removed them, when I saw it.” Continue at Mike Bergman
