This is the second in a series of videos that challenges the assumption that the Bible condemns gay and lesbian relationships.   Notes from the lectures can be found under the video clips.  

1. Sodom

1. Has nothing to do with gay relationships

2. It is a story of gang rape - men raping men - in order to emasculate them, humiliate them, turn them into women (which was a bad thing)   In the worldview of the time, being a man was much better than being a woman, and the way you destroyed a man was to make him into a woman.

3. Later Biblical authors referred to the sin of Sodom as not caring for the poor or being inhospitable (hospitality was a very important cultural value.)  

4. Modern interpreters came to the story with an anti-gay worldview, they interpreted the story as if the sin was gay sex.  Even coined the term “sodomy” based on this story.

5. Clearly this is an example of the worldview of the interpreter determining the meaning of the passage.