– Christine Roy Yoder

 

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is the first text that many people think about when we talk about homosexuality and the Bible. This is striking because the narrative is not, in fact, about homosexuality, and certainly not about private, consensual acts of same-sex love. Rather, Genesis 19 illustrates the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah as sexual violence against men and women, as brutality against persons the community ought to protect. Such behavior reveals a society that no longer observes “the way of the LORD” – namely, righteousness and justice (Gen 18:19) – and thus receives God’s judgment…

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