Liberating Word

TODAY'S Liberating Word || Subscribe Today! || HOME
Send to Friend || Contact Rev. Piazza || Archives

Week Four, Day Four

So Lot escapes just as sulfur and fire rain down upon the city of Sodom. In a footnote to the story, Lot’s wife disobeys the order of the angels and looks back at the city and is promptly turned into a pillar of salt. Also, Lot’s sons-in-law thought he was kidding when he tried to get them to leave, and, apparently, they stayed behind.

Then they story takes one last perverted twist. After their escape, Lot and his daughters hide in a cave. That night, his daughters decided to get him drunk and seduce him. Both women get pregnant and give birth to sons. One boy is cited as the ancestor of the Moabites, the other as the forefather of the Ammonites. (Genesis 19:34-38)

It seems that Genesis 19 has a lot of stories about sex. Funny, isn’t it, how this chapter has been used. I don’t think I’ve every heard a single sermon on Lot offering his daughters to be raped or the fact that both of them had children that he fathered. Sodom became synonymous for how God hates homosexuals.

We have spent a good bit of time on this chapter because it is important for us to learn to read the Bible for ourselves and to challenge what we have always been told. Simply discarding it will not lead our cause forward. However, if we decide not to be ignorant about what the Bible REALLY says, we can push back against those who would believe what fundamentalist preachers TOLD them the Bible says. Clearly, in this chapter, the moral issues center mostly on heterosexual behavior. In fact, the Bible has just a passage or two about same-gender behavior but hundreds of passages about heterosexual misbehavior.

As the African proverb goes, “So long as the hunter tells the story the lion will continue to be defeated.” We must learn to tell the WHOLE story.

Blessings,

Michael
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

TODAY'S Liberating Word || Subscribe Today! || HOME
Send to Friend || Contact Rev. Piazza || Archives

Hope begins with you.  Here are ways to support Hope for Peace & Justice today!

> Visit the H4PJ Action Center
> Join the Equality Coalition
> Donate to H4PJ Today
> Tell a Friend
> Subscribe to eNews