Chapter 7 - CONCLUSION: DETOXIFYING SODOM AND GOMORRAH

Summary

While my goal has been to create a resource in the struggle against homophobia, I have not set out to write a history of homophobia or of the acceptance or otherwise of homoeroticism in either Christianity or Judaism. I have attempted to destabilize one of the mythological foundations of religiously based homophobia. To that end I have demonstrated that the invention of the myth of Sodom and Gomorrah as a site of divine genocide in response to homoeroticism has been primarily a Christian enterprise. I have done so, in part, through retrieving the rich world of Jewish readings of the story with their focus on hospitality and the abuse of the poor and outsider. Bringing this textual world into conversation with the early Christian readings puts the latter in a new light. Much that is odd about these early Christian readings, from a homophobic perspective, makes better sense if they are understood as sharing the Jewish understanding of the story, not the later homophobic understanding. Early Christian references to Sodom and its sins should not be automatically understood as homo-phobically inspired unless clearly indicated in the text. I maintain that it is up to those who want to argue a homophobic intent from such references to prove such claims and not to rely on the strength of later homophobic traditions. Furthermore, I argue that it is not enough to use only Christian materials to prove a homophobic intent and so discount Jewish (and other) traditions.