Genesis is such a fun book to explore: it's never a dull adventure as it has all of the elements of good story tellers in every verse and chapter.Chapter 13 is quite interesting and I wish to explore it for political purposes. I wish to expose those crafty and devious fundamentalists who live in that far right wing of the GOP. I would hope that whoever debates the eventual GOP candidate, he or she will tell those fundamentalists to go to hell. Of course, it won't happen but it ought to because they are a clear and present danger to our democracy.
Chapter 13 is the story of Lot, Sodom/Gomorrah, incest, pedophilia, and degrading male sexual rape. Did I mention genocide? Fundamentalists love this chapter; they nearly gush with joy of telling their interpretation of the Lot story because, they think, it shames gays. What a joke.
Rather it tells the story of an angry god who annihilates every man, woman and child in a city regardless of their 'sin.' Group punishment psychiatrists would call it. Others,: genocide. God willed it, so it must be OK, spin the fundamentalists. 'God hates fags!' The signs of that crazed baptist families at military funerals.
Beyond the smear of homosexuality, fundamentalists rarely talk about the rest of Genesis 13. They don't mention Lot's invitation of pedophilia when he offers two strangers his two virgin daughters to romp with in the sack. Nor do they mention Lot's incestuous intercourse with his daughters, resulting in two children. 2Peter 2 says 'Lot is a righteous man surrounded by wickedness.' Oh really? The children made him 'do it?'
That wickedness, by the way, probably referred to stinginess, lack of compassion and inhospitality by the residents of Sodom who were isolates and did not want strangers in their village. No doubt, Sodomites also committed the sins of pride, hypocrisy, gossip, and a judgmental spirit. In those days, one of the best ways of insulting another man was to rape him. Apparently this was a custom practiced by some residents of the city. 'Strangers Beware!' must have been the warning that this practice enforced.
One wonders why Mrs. Lot was salted. No surprise that it was a woman. Did she 'look back' in compassion for the children of the city who, like the children in Hiroshima, were being vaporized? Or was the inference that she was a nosy woman who couldn't help her pitiful feminine characteristics?
All of the GOP candidates are presently pandering to the fundamentalist Christians in the basement of their party. The Democratic candidates ought to point out how dangerous that pander really is. No group of Constitution shredders, who would want to establish a theocracy in America, deserves to be culled by a candidate for president. Never.
