The New Sodom

So Janna and I were talking today about the meaning of two bible stories, in which the men of the town ask permission to rape a newcomer. The first one, of course is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, in Genesis 19. The second, lesser known, but even more difficult reading is Judges 19. Now, both of these passages have the same setup. There are strangers in town, in the Sodom and Gomorrah story, these strangers are clearly angels, especially since this comes on the heels of the Genesis 18 story of the visit of the Angels to Abraham and Sarah. These strangers are going to have to stay in the public square, but a local, knowing the propensities of the other locals, demands they stay in his house. Of course, in the Sodom and Gomorrah story, this is Lot.
Well, then the local men come, and demand to rape the strangers. Now, anyone who thinks this story is referring to consensual homosexual sex is not reading the same Bible I am. There is no possibility of consent or desire for it. These stories are all about the utter mistreatment of total strangers by a group of materialistic citizens. This point is hammered home, in the fact that in both stories the kindly old man offers up his virgin daughter(s) to the crowd. In the Judges story, the visiting priest offers up his unfaithful concubine, who by definition is his own private sexual slave. In both of these stories, we see that the "property" of the hosts (because in this era women were considered property of their owners, fathers or husbands) is considered to be a fair offering to the angry mob.
The point is not that these men are homosexuals, but that they are inhospitable. One of the greatest sins of the ancient world was a lack of hospitality. It is clear in Genesis 18 that Abraham's warm reception of the angels is part of the reason he is so richly blessed by God. This is the interpretation of the writer of Hebrews, in chapter 13, verse 1-3.
In fact, for the Greeks, this issue was of such import, that Zeus, the chief god, was known as Zeus Xenios, or the the protector of hospitality. The story of Baucis and Philemon parallels these stories in many ways, and, as a moral, suggests that the lowest among us could be gods or spiritual beings testing our hospitality. (This was why Paul and Barnabas were treated as Zeus and Hermes in Lystra in Acts 14.) This is also good Christian doctrine, taught by Jesus himself in Matthew 25.
Well, the townspeople in these stories end up in very different circumstances. In the Genesis story, the angels act as a deus ex machina and carry Lot's family safely through the crowd. The "Sodomites" are destroyed by fire and brimstone, which I read in the book Ancient Mysteries, some researchers have decent evidence may have been an actual meteor shower.
However, in the Judges story, the concubine is handed over to the mob, only to be raped to death, and then have her body chopped into 12 bits by her former priestly master in his grief, and sent to all the tribes of Israel. The point of the book of Judges is summed up in it's final verse, "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit."
Based on these stories and that verse, I believe that the economic conservatives are the true sodomites of today's society, and not those who have made a lifetime commitment to love and cherish another human being. This may seem somewhat of a jump, but consider it for a second. What was the sin of the Sodomites? Surely Jewish ritual law condemned homosexual sex, just as it condemned eating calamari in the same terms. However, these Sodomites were not Jews, so they did not have a covenant with Yahweh, and therefore, were not obligated to the terms of this contract. It was their treatment of the weakest members of and the rampant materialism in their society that brought judgement upon them. Don't take my word for it, this is what Jesus says in Luke 17, "“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all." Notice, no mention of homosexuality.
The Sodomites were destroyed as a group, because none of their people had the courage to stand up against the abuse of the weakest members of an ancient city, the non-native resident. Today, in our world, the equivalent would be, the homeless, the illegal immigrant, the Arab population, etc... There is so much talk in the Bible about how it is completely inacceptable to hoard or be too desirous of wealth. This is exactly what the Bush administration wants to do. It wants to allow people to "keep" more of "their" money. It also wants to reduce our public commitment as a society to the weaker members of our society.
Well, I saw Armageddon, and apparently, the next time a potentially destructive extraterrestrial object comes our way, Bruce Willis has found a way to destroy it and to achieve tax "reform" for the oil industry. However, I would suggest that what happened to Babel is a more applicable fate. We will become so convinced of our God-like wisdom, that our divisions will keep us from accomplishing our shared goals.
Or possibly it is the ending of the second story that is the most likely for us. Let's say that the concubine is Social Security. Let's say that those who would bow to market forces are the townspeople. After these types have ravaged the concubine, her master will chop her into little lifeless, bloody bits. These folks will justify their actions on the basis of freedom. I could make the same analogy to the environment, the people of Iraq, our nation's school system, et cetera ad nauseam. They would suggest that free markets always find the best solutions, and in "those days [America] had no [federal government]; everyone did as he saw fit."