Biblical Reflections from Father Maletta

Homosexuality is one of those highly charged issues where a balanced approach is very difficult to find (See Cat 2357 & 2359). The passage we are dealing with, the story of Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah, is often used to condemn homosexuality. I do not want to get into that quagmire but offer some additional information that might help us better understand the story.

It has always struck me strange that the whole town of Sodom was populated by homosexuals. I may be sheltered but I have not met that many homosexuals in my lifetime let alone a whole town of them. How, in that time and culture would so many homosexuals gather? Furthermore, how could it be a homosexual town if there were boys among the men gathered outside Lot’s house? The presence of “young” implies procreation and that requires heterosexual intercourse. Were the men of Sodom bi-sexual? It is something that has always caused me to wonder. Without getting too gross here maybe understanding the historical context of male to male anal sex might be helpful.

Throughout history, including examples in our own time, when men want to humiliate another man they perform anal sex on him. Particularly, in the period of history that Lot’s story takes place in, when an army defeated an enemy (we will see too many examples of this as we read the Old Testament) they would rape, murder and enslave the women and children, but the ultimate sign of defeat and humiliation was the practice of the conquering army sodomizing the men of the defeated army.

The idea was to insult the men by treating them like women. So part and parcel of the practice of male-male anal sex was the notion that men should be "macho" and the women are inferior, pieces of property at the service of men. Ladies I know you do not like reading this, to be sure I am not endorsing this, it’s just an historical fact. Women were considered to be of the same value as livestock. Part of Salvation History is God teaching us the value and dignity of women unfortunately that lesson does not come in this story.

However, at this time and place in history, God was still at the beginning of forming a people and giving them the understanding that we have today – it makes you wonder what we have yet to learn from God.

Back then if you wanted to utterly humiliate your foe you would treat him like a woman. In fact, throughout Western history, a main reason for opposition to male-male sex was that it supposedly makes a man act like a woman. Saint John Chrysostom in the East and Saint Augustine in the West in the Fifth Century and Peter Cantor in the 12th, outspoken Christian opponents of homogenitality, both raised that argument. Saint Augustine wrote, "The Body of a man is as superior to that of a woman as the soul is to the body."

So there may have been a few true homosexuals around Lot’s home who found the travelers attractive but I think it more likely that any stranger was a potential foe who may be there to spy for a future invasion. Potential foes had to be put in their place so the men of the town wanted to make sure these visitors left humiliated – effeminized - as a sign to any others strangers who might be interested in scoping out their territory. To be sure their actions were evil but not necessarily motivated by homosexual lust. They were doing what seemed acceptable for their time and culture. Lot’s resistance is a counter sign. Lot’s objection to such practices represents God’s view. Lot rises above the common standard – both by welcoming the stranger and resisting the town’s desire to violate and humiliate his guests – thereby creating a standard closer to God’s heart.

Homosexuality is something that has, does and most likely will always grab our attention and stir deep feelings one way or the other. It is hard not to just focus on the fact that this story involves homosexual acts but the story is really more about how God calls us to hospitality and away from any practice that humiliates or belittles another.