I could tell that these two nice young men were completely surprised by most of my answers, but the one that really made them pause was about Sodom and Gomorrah. “Don’t you believe that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was homosexuality?” they asked. No – first, as earlier stated, the word homosexual didn’t exist yet. Second, I believe it was evil that “all the men” in town wanted to rape the angels, but sodomy is not the same as a loving relationship between two people. Third, Isaiah 1 tells us that the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was their total refusal to live justly. The answer, he wrote, was to “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” Fourth, when Jesus spoke of S & G, He never mentioned sex or rape. They were aghast, so I made it worse. I asked them why God did not punish Lot for offering his two virgin daughters to be raped instead of the angels? Why didn’t God condemn Lot having sex with his daughters following the destruction of the cities, when they thought all humanity was dead and gone? Maybe they hadn’t gotten that far in Genesis. And by the way, the story is also anti-immigrant. Read about it in Genesis 19.
The strength of fundamentalism is that its adherents are well trained; they are taught certain Scripture passages to make their arguments, and they go from one to another with dizzying speed. They are also presenting their elevator speech to people who are, generally, biblically illiterate. Most Christians have not read the Bible, which makes them unable to speak about it when challenged. This isn’t their fault – our Sunday schools, while often led by amazing, loving people, tend to fall a little short on the Bible. We learn the stories, but we don’t really study it much. Those of us who do can’t be everywhere, trying to correct the lies and half-truths being spewed out in attempts to convince us of the evils of homosexuality and abortion – which also, by the way, isn’t in the Bible.
The weakness of fundamentalism is that it can be easily countered with knowledge. They might not agree with you or listen to your counterarguments, but they can’t deny what is written in the 66 books they claim to have read. The first secretary I had at Calvary was rabidly fundamentalist, and her head would figuratively spin when I would show her what was actually written in her Bible. Yes – you have to use their Bibles; they believe ours are liberal forgeries created by the anti-Christ organization called the National Council of Churches. (I’m not making this up). Again – it is a waste of time to get upset with them or be angry – they are just telling you what they have learned. What matters is that we know what we believe and can back it up. Good luck – stay sane – and practice loving kindness. And don’t let the haters win.
Prayer – Holy God, help us to love those we disagree with. And help us to stand up for those who are hurt by people claiming to be defending You. Amen.
Today’s art is by Pam Herrick.