I have a confession to make. Sodomy has been on my mind.
I have been thinking about the activist working hard to repeal archaic sodomy laws
around the country, the fundamentalists carrying placards at Disney World reading
“sodomites go home” and to top it off, I recently got a bible track in the mail promising
the fires of hell to all those who practice sodomy. The track in the mail was accompanied
by a note which read; “Use this for your column, FAGGOT.” So I thought I would,
...Thank You.
In fact thanks to ALL of you, who have taken the time to respond to this column.
I appreciate the feedback and I hope we can open up the discussion about what is
important to us spiritually and what feeds our souls. Thank you, even to whomever
sent that awful little interpretation of Genesis 19. You have given me an opportunity
to think. And...hmm... I couldn’t disagree with you more!
In fact I am enraged and saddened, when I see and hear people using the Bible to
inflict pain and instill fear in others. It is a rather pathetic practice. Equally
displeasing to me however, is the hurling of scriptural passages in a war of words
between opposing camps who clearly posses divergent assumptions about the Bible and
how we should live our lives. So, I am not going to go there. In fact, long ago
I learned never to argue with a fundamentalist. Besides, there are far more interesting
things to say about the issue than to waste energy refuting a bible track.
For those of us who come from Bible based religious traditions, there are certainly
many passages in scripture to challenge us. If we hope to mature spiritually we have
to come to some level of peace, not only with the Bible, but also with the spiritual
tradition of our youth. Only then can we freely move on to discover for ourselves
what a mature spiritual life can be. Many of us are in fact doing just that. We
are coming to greater peace with our religious traditions, returning to church, and
taking our inner life more seriously. I see in my own tradition (Roman Catholic)
that things are changing for the better. There are hundreds of gay people who regularly
worship at The Jesuit Urban Center, and numerous other churches around the city.
We are finding healing and growth for ourselves, but we are also offering healing
and growth back to the church which is deeply suffering from centuries of separating
spirituality and sexuality. These signs are encouraging. Yet there are still many
within my tradition, who like the character who mailed the bible track, prefer to
use religion to inflict pain and instill fear.
Which brings us back to the sin of Sodom, from which my dear pen pal seems interested
in saving me. After some reading and a little research, I want to tell my gay readers
that the sin of Sodom has little or nothing to do with sexual orientation. There
are several sources you can consult if you are interested, but it is widely agreed
upon by scripture scholars that the sin described in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah
is not one about homosexuality. I consulted the work of James Nelson, in a book
titled Sexuality and the Sacred, Sources for Theological Reflection who wrote, “The
clearest biblical definition of this sin is not found in the Genesis story but rather
in the prophet Ezekiel: ‘This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters
had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.’
[Ezek. 16:49] That, my friends is sodomy-it is social injustice, inhospitality to
the stranger.”
So thanks to Dr. Nelson, I can rest comfortably assured of the misguided efforts
of my new pen pal, and we homosexuals need not worry so much about people’s judgments
of our sexual orientation and activities. However, let’s make sure WE in the gay
community don’t forget those less fortunate than ourselves, and we do remember to
act justly, love tenderly and treat one another with hospitality, lest we start acting
like those sign carrying people at Disney ... Sodomites.