I care. A couple of centuries of theologians, philosophers, historians, archaeologists, and, later, psychologists, cared.

Yes but my point is and has been that’s only PART of what it goes back to.

Naw, I’m gonna say my piece and take what comes because it needs to be said.

They have no desire to do an actual scociocultural interpretation of the bible; they just want to think BIBLE=BAD and leave it at that. Don’t even try.

I think using that lens is valid, too.

This interpretation is actually the most common by modern (liberal) biblical scholars. This is also a favourite passage of bigots used to justify their homophobic bs. The culture of the time can’t simply be ignored, and it shouldn’t be. So much of the hateful crap in the Bible looses it’s power when it’s evaluated in…

No - wrong again. The rape and murder of the woman was INCREDIBLY egregious. That was the ENTIRE point of the story. Thats why she was cut up and shown to all Israel so they could see the degeneracy of that town. Get a clue.

It’s depressing how many comments I see here that basically are, “I don’t understand and I don’t need to understand because I think it’s bad and that’s enough. And if you understand it, you must agree with it, so you’re bad, too!”

No it’s preferable to gay rape of angels.

but hey what the fuck is context for?

This isn’t about being gay. It actually more likely an issue of the man being a “guest” and therefore subject to the protection of his host. Issues relating to hospitality were highly complex and inextricably linked to family honour. In some cultures they still are. Either way it’s horrific but it’s not about…

The only people holding the Bible as the unalloyed “word of God” is the Evangelicals. Everybody else sees it as a book of stories, parables, a history, with some moral rules and prescriptions thrown in.

That’s actually an example of the Law of Hospitality. There are several stories in the Old Testament about people coming to do harm to guests and the hosts offering up a member of their own family in the guests’ place. The reinterpretation of that scene as being about homosexuality is a consequence of a (quasi-)modern…

- Many people here are more moral than George Washington or John F. Kennedy. That’s the nature of changing times and morality and understanding equality as something that has to be lived not merely said.