I love when idiots on teh intarwebz drag out that old chestnut about Sodom as proof of god's hatred of homosexuality.

Internet Whackyjob: Remember Sodom and Gomorrha? It was completely destroyed because God cannot stand this sin. Please read a KJV of the bible.

My response:

I have read the KJV Bible. Here's what it (very explicitly) has to say about your god's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah:

Ezekiel 16:49 "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."

Sodom was torched for being rude and inattentive to the poor (hmm, sounds familiar). No mention of homosexuality there. There's actually no implication of homosexuality in the verses you mentioned, either. Yes, I understand that your holy book sometimes uses "to know" in place of "to penetrate in a sexual manner," but in this case, it makes much more sense if you refrain from turning everything into a sexual reference.

Here's how it reads if you don't make a penis joke out of it:

Two strange guys show up in a village city and sequester themselves in the house of a particular person. This being the Bronze Age, people are understandably wary about this. Might be spies from a neighboring tribe, here to case the joint in anticipation of a raid! "Bring them out unto us, that we may know them," they say, meaning "who are these strangers that you've brought in here to spy on us? Inquiring minds want to know!"

Lot's response? He offers up his *virgin daughters* to the crowd and suggests that they gang-rape the poor girls (not exactly Father of the Year material, but he's not done yet). The crowd, security-minded (albeit a bit rude) citizens that they are, are not mollified. Of course, Lot deflowers his daughters himself later in the narrative (*now* he's Father of the Year), something your god doesn't seem to have a problem with.

Now, let's look at this from your perspective:

Sodom was torched because your god apparently couldn't find 10 non-homosexuals residing therein. Interesting, considering that homosexuals make up *at best* 10% of the population. People in those days rarely traveled more than 10 miles from their homes *in their entire lives*, yet your version of events would have required practically every homosexual for hundreds of miles to make the trip to the ol' Gayborhood, Sodom and Gomorrah - because since they were all gay, it's not very likely that they had a self-sustaining population, right? The only way they could maintain it would have been to promote immigration. "Hay HAY hay! Come on down to SODOM and be a SODOMITE! Every day is a gay holiday! Everyone just FLAAAAMES! Well, except for this one guy who might suggest that you gang-rape his daughters, but we don't talk to him."

Yeah, your scenario doesn't seem very likely. Or even plausible.

You need to get over this sex obsession of yours. I understand that your holy book is chock full of people having sex with all manner of inappropriate partners, human or otherwise (with and without your god's consent), but seriously, you need to let it go.

-pb