"Sodom and Gomorrah" is a story about living in a "bad neighborhood"

Broken window. Image source.

A few days ago I wrote Sodom, a little fanfic about the biblical story (in Genesis 19) where God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah. My purpose is to critique the story as it's presented in the bible and the way that Christians tell it.

The story goes like this: Sodom and Gomorrah were really evil cities. Really bad. Definitely really bad. So God planned to destroy these 2 cities, because they deserved it. Abraham's relative Lot lived in Sodom- the one righteous man in the whole evil city- so God sent 2 angels to get him and his family out of the city before it was destroyed. (On the way out, Lot's wife looked back, so she was turned into a pillar of salt, but at least Lot and his two daughters got out. Then they lived in a cave and the two daughters *somehow* got pregnant but the biblical writer is very sure that Lot was innocent. Uh yeah okay.)

So, I have this to say: Really? The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were so evil that everyone in the entire city deserved to die? Really? Everyone? Everyone? Weren't there at least, like, innocent babies or anything? Everyone?

Really? Seriously? God says, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous"- but who is doing this "outcrying"? Doesn't it seem like, realistically, some people in Sodom and Gomorrah are being cruel to some other people in Sodom and Gomorrah? How on earth could anyone think that just killing everyone would be the solution to that problem?

Some people in Sodom and Gomorrah are doing bad things- so where are the victims of these bad things? Wouldn't they also have to be in Sodom and Gomorrah, just for practical geographical reasons? (Or, I guess if you don't believe that, then you have to argue that "the sin of Sodom" was that they would go out to other places and attack people there??? And that, apparently, everyone in Sodom and Gomorrah supported these attacks? Seriously?)

And yes, I know the bible addresses this exact question in Genesis 18, where Abraham tells God it would be wrong to destroy Sodom if 50 righteous people live there, and God agrees. And Abraham negotiates it down to 10- God agrees not to destroy Sodom if there are 10 righteous people there, because it would be wrong to kill innocent people along with the evildoers. But, apparently there are not even 10 righteous people, so God destroys Sodom anyway. 

Yes, I know the bible says that, but I simply don't buy it. I just simply do not believe there could exist a city where literally everyone (except possibly 1-9 people?) is so evil they deserve to die. (Like, isn't that the kind of argument that people make when they commit genocide?) I just do not believe it- even though the bible says it- and I think the world would be a better place if everyone always rejected out of hand any claims that "this entire city/ this entire village/ this entire ethnic group needs to be killed."

No, here's the way it works in the real world: Powerful people hurt and oppress poor/marginalized people. Who all live in the same society. 

And God's justice looks like what Mary said in Luke 1:52-53, "He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty." (I refer to this as "the biblical definition of justice.") Stop those who are doing wrong, and help the victims. Create a better world, free of injustice.

Can you believe we really bought this "everyone in Sodom was evil and deserved to die" crap? Can you believe we really bought it when the bible said that killing everyone in the entire city was the right response?

(Probably the main issue is the difference between modern and ancient views of morality and sin. I am viewing it in very individual terms, but in the culture of the writers of the bible, sin was more of a collective thing. "Punishing children for the sins of their fathers" and all that- though do note that there are places in the bible that say no, you should not punish children for the sins of their fathers. My view on this is that, yes, it's true that there are sins that can affect a whole society, even people who are innocent of those sins. In practical terms, that is what happens, but I believe that is not what should happen.)

And, here's something even more ridiculous: We have conservative Christians trying to argue that the sin of Sodom was homosexuality. So... they want us to believe that everyone in the city was gay. Just think about that. The entire city. Was gay. The entire city. What about the women, were they all lesbians? How do people reproduce in Sodom? (Or maybe some are bisexual? Or straight allies?) This fan theory makes no sense.

And queer Christians have done a good job making the case that what we see in Genesis 19 is an attempted gang rape, which has nothing to do with the question of whether or not the bible/God/Christians can accept gay people. They point to Ezekiel 16:49, "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." Okay, sure, I'm with you so far, but I have one question: What city did these "poor and needy" live in? Yes, sure, that was "the sin of Sodom", but how on earth would it make sense to kill everyone in the city in order address it?

(I'm really not a fan of progressive/queer Christians arguing "no no, the sin of Sodom wasn't homosexuality, it was exploiting the poor" as if that would be a valid justification for destroying a whole city. No. There IS NO valid justification for destroying a whole city.)

Yes, I understand that it makes sense to say that certain places might be characterized by certain sins- but what that really means is that the powerful people in those places are committing those sins against the weak who also live there. It does NOT mean that everyone there is evil and deserves to die- like, what on earth? That's so absurd; how could anyone ever think that?

(Honestly, what probably actually happened was Sodom was destroyed by a natural disaster- which God had nothing to do with- and then the writer of Genesis wanted to come up with a reason to explain it, and to work in a morality lesson too.)

In Genesis 19, we see that there is a gang of rapists in Sodom. (The bible says it was "all the men from every part of the city of Sodom-- both young and old" but I don't buy that. #NotAllMen or whatever.) Don't you think that this was just a small subset of the population, and most of the residents of Sodom did not want to live in a city that had a powerful gang of rapists? And yet all the modern Christian interpretations of Genesis 19 would have us believe that these violent men were basically representative of all Sodomites.

It's a story about stereotypes. God buys into the stereotypes too- killing the entire city just because a small and powerful group of men is terrorizing the streets. God kills them and their victims. God sees no difference.

It's a story about living in a "bad neighborhood." Places with higher rates of poverty and crime- do you think anyone says "yes, I want to live in a place like that"? People want to feel safe. People want to give their children the best life they can. But society sees people living in a "bad neighborhood" and thinks everyone there is dangerous. And a lot of this has to do with racism- white people assuming that anywhere with a large black population is automatically a "bad neighborhood." White people thinking that all the black people in the "bad neighborhood" are dangerous- just like God did when he looked at Sodom- when in reality, most people are just trying to live their lives, and they don't want to be in a "bad neighborhood" either.

The people of Sodom- they knew they were in a "bad neighborhood." Maybe they asked themselves "should we leave or stay?" Maybe they didn't have the resources to leave. Maybe they didn't have any place to go. Maybe the risks of leaving seemed to be greater than the risks of staying- look what happened to Lot's family.

It's a story about making the choice between leaving and staying. It reminds me of the videos about Afghans being evacuated on planes when the US military withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. I imagine there was so much fear and uncertainty, weighing the risks of leaving and staying.

It's a story about refugees, like Lot's family. And about people who stayed, rather than take on all the risks that come with being a refugee. In Genesis 19:16, Lot hesitates, and the two angels literally grab all 4 of them by the hands to bring them out of Sodom. I have always heard pastors say it was bad that Lot hesitated; it showed that he loved the sinful lifestyle of Sodom. It was bad and wrong of him to not be willing to leave immediately. But... really? Imagine it. Imagine having to leave behind your home and flee. That's not a decision anyone can take lightly.

It reminds me of my own situation in China at the beginning of the pandemic, when the US government was recommending that all US citizens leave China. I didn't. I stayed. There was a lot of discussion in the WeChat groups for international moms- do we leave or stay? Should we leave now, in case all flights are cancelled in the future? And for those of us married to Chinese men, China counts our children as Chinese citizens and does not recognize their foreign citizenship (they do *have* foreign citizenship, but China doesn't *recognize* it), so there was a lot of worry that if, say, the US government sent planes to evacuate US citizens, my son would not be allowed to evacuate. There actually was a situation where something like this happened to a British family trying to get on one of the evacuation flights out of Wuhan. We were all asking, "should we leave now on a normal commercial flight, so that we don't end up in that situation?" Fortunately things got better in China (and unfortunately things got much worse in the rest of the world) so I guess it was the right decision to stay.

So maybe I know about the uncertainty, trying to predict the future of the place that you're in, trying to decide if the danger is big enough that you should uproot your whole life and flee.

The story of Sodom also reminds me of Muslims who flee terrorism in their home countries. They come to another country looking for safety, and people treat them as if they're the ones who are dangerous, just because they are Muslim and the terrorists they are fleeing are also Muslim. Worldwide, the majority of victims of Islamic terrorism are Muslims. But people in non-Muslim countries don't recognize that, just like God thought all Sodomites were bad.

Don't you think that also would have happened to residents of Sodom, if they had left? People would view them as violent and dangerous, because they heard that Sodom was a violent and dangerous place.

And it reminds me of the modern Christians who think this story has something to say about gay people. They see the violent rapists in the story, and they say that's what being gay is about, just like God saw those violent rapists and said they were representative of everyone in Sodom.

And the left-leaning people I see on Twitter, who want nothing to do with anyone from a "red state." When there's a natural disaster in a "red state", I see tweets saying "let's not help them, they voted not to help when other states had natural disasters." When "red-state" politicians vote for laws restricting people's rights, I see comments on Twitter like "ugh why don't they just secede and make their own theocracy and leave the rest of us alone?" When red states have bad policies for health care, for unemployment, for helping people in poverty, etc, people say "well that's their own fault for voting Republican." As if everyone who lives in a "red state" is bad and deserves to be punished for the sins of their Republican politicians. 

No, the reality is that those Republican policies affect the residents of "red states" first. The marginalized people who live in "red states" are the ones who suffer first. "They voted for them"- well no, in some places, laws make it so difficult for poor/black/marginalized people to vote. People on the left who want some kind of "easy answer" just want to reject entire states. But it's more complicated than that. 

The book "The New Jim Crow" (which I recommend) talked about the question of why some black people in high-crime areas would want more police, even though police unjustly brutalize and arrest black people. Actually, what they want is for police to come and put a stop to the violent crime. But what happens instead is that police treat everyone living there like they're probably criminals. So what do you do, if you worry about your children's safety, but instead of protecting your children, the police arrest your children for minor drug crimes? It reminds me of the people of Sodom, crying out to God for help, and the only solution God can come up with is to destroy the entire city. As if all of them are criminals.

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is about living in a bad place- and you know it's bad, you know it's not safe, but what are your options? And the truth is that it's a small group of powerful people who made it so bad and unsafe, but outsiders stereotype all of you together, as if it's your fault and you deserve to be punished. They don't see that the people who live there are the ones who suffer most for the sins of their leaders. They think you are all the same.

---

Related:

Sodom

The Bible Lied About Lot's Daughters 

Everyone Else's Nadab and Abihu Fanfics

"Life's Work" (read this book and become even more pro-choice) 

Yes, I Want Justice (A post about white evangelicals and #BlackLivesMatter)