Even if we assume that the story is all about homosexual rape - what level of homophobia does it require to insist that the problem is the 'homosexual' part and not the 'rape' part?
The way I see it, Chick has not read what the Bible says about Sodom but has instead bought into some very old propaganda, which hides the rape aspect or any other but homosexuality. (Most of the following comes from my reading of
Homosexuality and Civilization by Louis Crompton):
In the Apocrypha, Sodom’s sin is still about pride and inhospitality. In the Pseudepigrapha, Sodom’s sins become more about sexual misconduct, only loosely including homosexuality.
The first work in which Sodom becomes significantly about homosexuality is in Philo’s
On Abraham. Here the sin is not much about pride and inhospitality anymore, but about indulgence in food, drink,
and sex, which was a result of their wealth (prosperity can cause gayness was the idea). But still, these Sodom men became sex fiends, not homosexuals; men, women, didn’t matter.
Over the years, Christianity latched onto the homosexuality angel of Philo’s take. It seems, Paul in the NT already saw homosexuality as a thing for pagan religions, and Sodom would be a great way for an organized church to use homosexuals as scapegoats. Sodom became the example city.
In the 3rd century Clement of Alexandria still characterized Sodom’s sin as gluttony, in food
and sex, but St. John Chrysostom, in the 4th century, and St. Augustine, in
The City of God (412 AD), made homosexuality Sodom’s
unique sin. Now, the sin wasn’t anything most reasonable folks call immoral today, like rape, or mistreatment of strangers. It wasn’t about crimes people do, as much as it was about having a certain type of person in the city’s midst. Playing on that paranoia was valuable. From here we can find homosexuals being blamed for and punished for everything from a boom in the rat population to Muslim successes on the battlefield, as, of course, God wouldn’t punish an adherent Christian city for nothing.
You left out the toaster.
Oh yeah. You also get a free toaster if you join. But remember, it’s a life long commitment; you have to really want the toast.
