Anti-gay Evangelicals Admit
The Sodom Story Is NOT
About Homosexuality

The Sodom story was never about homosexuality.



The Sodom story has been used to attack gays and lesbians for hundreds of years but now, it is time for all Christians to admit the truth. After centuries of false teaching about what happened in S@dom 3800 years ago, prominent anti-gay evangelical scholars are finally willing to admit the truth in writing. The story of God's judgment on Biblical S@dom has nothing to do with modern gays and lesbians. Their honesty is refreshing.

Despite the facts in the video, some Christians still teach that the S@dom story is about homosexuality. Isn't it time for everyone to admit that Genesis 19 is not about consensual gay relationships? Secular history and many statements in the Bible provide us with facts which flatly contradict the homosexuality interpretation.

For 1800 years after the events in S@dom, Jewish prophets in the Bible and Jewish authors outside the Bible, understood that the issue was Inhospitality, not homosexuality.

S@dom is mentioned 48 times in the Bible and never in those 48 passages is homosexuality given as the cause of God's judgment. Isn't that interesting? Have you given that astonishing fact the weight it deserves in your thinking about this Bible story?

Lot and his daughters
flee the destruction of S@dom.

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Dr. Richard Hayes,
of Duke Divinity School,

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is a well-known evangelical author. He wrote The Moral Vision Of The New Testament, in which he defends the anti-gay viewpoint. Yet in spite of the fact that he regards all gay relationships as sinful, Dr. Hayes admits that:

the Sodom story “is actually irrelevant to the topic." [of homosexuality].

According to Dr. Hayes, the attempted gang rape in Genesis 19 shows the depravity of the Canaanite people who lived in the cities of the plain but:

"there is nothing in the passage pertinent to a judgment about the morality of consensual homosexual intercourse."

(From Dr. Richard Hayes, in an article entitled, “Awaiting the Redemption of Our Bodies”).

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Dr. Robert Gagnon,
of Pittsburg Theological Seminary

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and perhaps the most prominent anti-gay author today, admits the same thing in The Bible And Homosexual Practice.

Although he too believes all gay relationships are sinful, on page 71 of his book, Dr. Gagnon tells us,

The Sodom story in Genesis 19 is usually viewed by modern Christians, as the classic Bible story about homosexuality.

"However, to the extent that the story does not deal directly with consensual homosexual relationships, it is not an “ideal” text to guide contemporary Christian sexual ethics.”

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Dr. Mark Allan Powell, of Trinity Lutheran Seminary, Columbus, OH,

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expresses a similar view. Writing on page 23 of the book, Faithful Conversation - Christian Perspectives On Homosexuality, Dr. Powell says concerning the rape stories in Genesis 19 and Judges 19:

"Such stories reflect a mindset that regards the rape of men by other men as abhorrent, but with regard to current questions concerning homosexuality, these texts have little to offer.

The stories speak only of the sin of homosexual rape and say nothing at all about consensual relations between persons of the same sex."

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Dr. William Brownlee,
of Claremont Graduate University, Claremont CA

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Dr. Brownlee, 1917-1983, an internationally renowned expert on the Hebrew language and the Dead Sea Scrolls said about the S@dom story:

"The oppression of the stranger is the basic element of Genesis 19:1-9 [and] ‘sodomy’ in Genesis is basically oppression of the weak and helpless."

- Dr. William Brownlee, Professor of Religion at the Claremont Graduate School and Professor of Old Testament at the School of Theology, Claremont, California.

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Bob Davies, Former Executive Director of Exodus International.

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"Pro-gay theologians are correct in saying that this passage [Genesis 19] does not provide a strong argument [for] prohibiting all homosexual acts."

- Bob Davies, conservative evangelical and national Executive Director of Exodus International, the largest Ex-Gay group in the world, in his book Coming Out Of Homosexuality, published in 1993.

It is remarkable that one of the most theologically conservative national leaders of the largest Ex-Gay group on earth openly admits that the S@dom story does not provide a strong argument for prohibiting all homosexual acts.

Yet in spite of agreeing with gay Christians on the fundamental teaching of Genesis 19, Davies still tells gays and lesbians that all homosexual partnerships are sinful.

Thank you Drs. Hayes, Gagnon, Powell and Brownlee and thank you Bob Davies of Exodus International! This Testimony From Respected, Theologically Conservative, Antigay Evangelical Scholars Is Astounding And Quite Welcome!

When leading, conservative, anti-gay evangelicals admit in writing, that the S@dom story is not about homosexuality, that is a huge step forward!

Consider the following. Leading conservative, anti-gay evangelicals admit that the S@dom story is not about:

1. consensual homosexual intercourse, and

2. consensual homosexual relationships,

That lends support to our Bible believing, gay Christian position on S@dom.

Gay Friendly Heterosexual
Scholars Agree That Sodom
Is NOT About Homosexuality.

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Dr. Chris Heard, Assistant Professor of Religion, Pepperdine University.

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“The “sin of Sodom” per Genesis 19 has to do with using sexual cruelty and violence to oppress and demean outsiders. It has nothing to do with homosexuality in the modern sense of sexual desire oriented toward members of one’s own biological sex, and certainly has nothing to say about the appropriateness or inappropriateness of loving, committed, sexual relationships between members of the same biological sex.”

Read the whole article by Dr. Chris Heard, in his blog, Higgaion.

That's what gay Christians
have been saying for years.

Gay Christian 101 - Spiritual Self-Defense For Gay Christians points out similar information from ancient Jewish prophets in the Bible and from extra-Biblical Jewish writers and ancient Christian preachers, concerning all of the "clobber passages."

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Lot and his daughters flee God’s judgment on S@dom.

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Surprising Facts About Sodom

Did you know that in the Bible:

1. Genesis 19 never mentions homosexuals in S@dom.

2. Genesis 19 never mentions a homosexual act being committed in S@dom.

3. Scripture never mentions a same sex relationship in S@dom.

4. Scripture never tells us that the inhabitants of S@dom were homosexuals.

5. Scripture never tells us that God destroyed S@dom because of homosexuality.

6. Sodomite, in scripture, never refers to homosexuals. Every time sodomite is used in scripture, it refers to cult, shrine, temple prostitutes who worshiped the Canaanite fertility goddess.

As you explore the following helpful Links, you will discover that the Bible never mentions homosexuals when it tells the story of Lot in Genesis 19.

That is one strong and logical reason the ancient Jews, for almost 1800 years after the destruction of S@dom, did NOT link the S@dom story to Homosexuality.

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The mountains above Biblical Sodom after a thunderstorm.

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1. The Babylonian Talmud views lack of Hospitality as the sin of in S@dom.

2. Hospitality Means Loving Strangers.

3. History And Scripture Clearly Identify The Sin in Genesis 19.

4. In The Bible, sodomites were shrine prostitutes, not homosexuals.

5. Shrine prostitutes are nothing like modern homosexuals.

What is grace? A helpful explanation.

Can you explain how to be saved?

From Sodom, return to Gay Christian 101 Home Page.

Our powerful new, 390 page book is like a college course: Gay Christian 101 - Spiritual Self-Defense For Gay Christians.

Additional resources to continue
your study of the Sodom story.

Interesting ”Epistle” Article by Bruce Gerig.

Another Interesting “Epistle” Article by Bruce Gerig.

An interesting article from the Interfaith Working Group.

This page updated November 1, 2011