"Sodom, Sodomy, Sodomite, Sodomize"
Rembert Truluck. Update. May 11, 1999.
"Steps to Recovery from Bible Abuse"
http://www.truluck.com
Homophobic attacks on language abound in our culture. The use of the words sodomy,
sodomite, and sodomize in news stories falls into the same category as the use of
demeaning slang expressions based on race, gender, and religion.
Recent news accounts of the brutal beating and torture of a prisoner by police officers
in New York used the word "sodomize" to describe a broom handle being rammed
into the rectum of the victim to produce extensive internal injuries. I noticed that a few
of the radio and television reporters avoided using "sodomize" and used
"torture" instead.
If other more familiar racial slurs and slang expressions had been used, a great public
outcry would have happened. But since "sodomize" is now a common and accepted
distortion of language, nobody protested that I know of.
Sodomy, sodomite, and sodomize are words that never appear anywhere in the Bible. In
case you somehow have missed it, read the discussion of Sodom in my web site in the
section on "The Bible and Homosexuality" (URL given below).
The Dictionary Is Wrong.
The most recent Webster’s Dictionary (tenth edition, 1996) calls itself "The
Voice of Authority" and usually is. Look up the dictionary definitions of Sodom,
sodomist, sodomite, sodomize, sodomy. See for yourself how our homophobic culture has
distorted language by basing definitions on inaccurate Bible translations and twisted
interpretations of Genesis 19:5. The emphasis in the definition is on "anal
sex". Where in Genesis 19 is there any hint at all of "anal sex"? There is
none. The dictionary is wrong. Just like a lot of Bible translations that are based on
religion and not on the facts are wrong. Can you believe that! I can.
Webster’s Dictionary shows that the first English use of "sodomize" was
in 1868.
Bible Translations Are Wrong.
In the original text of the Bible, a sodomite is simply someone who lived in Sodom,
including Lot and his family. Where the King James Version uses the term
"sodomite" in Deuteronomy 23:17; 1 Kings 14:24; 15:12; 22:46; 2 Kings 23:7,
there is no mention of Sodom or the word "sodomite" in the original text. The
"sodomite" hoax is an infected blister on the Bible. Words that mislead and
offend and destroy need to be cut out so that healing can happen.
The New Revised Standard Version translation (1989) used "sodomites" in 1
Corinthians 6:9 for "arsenokoitai" where the 1971 "second edition"
used "sexual perverts". Many famous Greek scholars challenged the use of
"sodomites" in 1 Corinthians 6:9, but the New RSV still appears in plain texts
and in study Bibles (such as The New Oxford Annotated Bible) with the incorrect
"sodomites" glaring painfully and inaccurately from the page.
Giving a homophobic twist to "Sodom" to create the verb "sodomize"
took great care and deliberation. The abusive anti-gay slang language that modern
scholarship has imported into Bible translations is "the abomination that makes
desolate" for millions of closeted homosexual Christians who love God and follow
Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life.
Homophobia is based on fear, which is based on ignorance. Ignorance about sexual
orientation is based on distortions and perversions of biblical words and phrases. John
the Baptist said concerning abusive oppressive religion: "The axe is already laid at
the root of the trees (Matthew 3:10). Jesus said the same things in Matthew 7:15-23, where
he cried out: "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s
clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." Then Jesus called abusive religious
leaders "rotten trees bearing bad fruit." A lot of rotten religious timber has
to fall before our community will be free from the perverted use of the Bible and religion
against us.
Rembert Truluck
"Perfect love casts out fear" 1 John 4:18.
Read all of 1 John 4:1-21 for a commentary about what is happening today.
http://www.truluck.com
PO Box 24062
Oakland, CA 94623
See my detailed discussion of Sodom at http://www.truluck.com/html/six_bible_passages.html.
Also see Mark D. Jordan, The Invention of Sodomy in Christian Theology: The
University of Chicago Press, 1997, for a carefully researched study of how the term
"sodomy" developed in the history of the church.
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