Sunday 8 June 2008

Lot From Sodom, Our Moral Beacon


Lot from the Bible gets sloshed before getting it on with his daughtersWe all know the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorra – both cities perished in fire and brimstone for the sexual transgressions of their citizens, the abominable homosexuals, thereafter known as sodomites. (Gomorrans were not as lucky to have a sexual “perversion” to be named after them.)

But what became of the only righteous man saved from the horrible fate of his compatriots, Lot? What was the lot of the God-chosen man after his wife had been turned into a salt pillar for casting a glance back at her hometown as it was consumed by flames and a rain of smouldering rocks?

The man who was divinely saved as an example of pure life for generations to come went on to take shelter in a cave, get drunk and have sex with his daughters who later bore him children. That progeny lived on to become the patriarches of the Moabite and Ammonite peoples.


The Old Testament seems to give us next to no leeway between the options of heavenly punishable homosexuality and "divinely endorsed" incestual propagation. Modern Christian preachers decrying the former as the abomination in the eyes of God use the Sodom and Gomorra accident as a rock-solid proof for their views. However, they always remember to cunningly omit the end of the story, which would put their stance in a very dubious light.

The Bible is a great book full of folk wisdom and spiritual revelations. At the same time, you can find there justification for just about anything: appeal for universal brotherly love is put on the same shelf as pimping one’s own wife. Glorification of ruthless genocide is made in the same breath as most sublime expressions of humility and thankfulness. Whoever claims the Bible to be the ultimate base for moral judgement on all things should be prepared to have his own weapon turned at him.


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