Two angels visited Sodom in the Biblical narrative (Genesis 18-19). God sent them to test the Sodomites, to see if their sin had reached the point of no return, to mete out utter destruction upon them.
What did the Sodomites do? All their men came out in unison to sodomize the angels of God. They were given a chance to redeem themselves and they did perhaps the worst thing possible. Sodom and Gomorrah were burnt to a crisp with fire and brimstone rained down upon them from God.
Sodom is memorialized by its destruction and by its most destructive act. They were visited by heavenly beings, and all they wanted to do was sodomize them. Is that not the epitome of wickedness, the moral of the story understood by all? Sodomy is not a good thing.
Where are we now?
In our fight for human rights, for empathy, understanding, and compassion, somehow sodomy has become a socially acceptable act, defended in unison by many. In fact, those who speak out against sodomy are described as the wicked ones.
The sodomizers of the past who were frowned upon and hid their lifestyles from society, are encouraged to parade themselves in the streets and flaunt their ways as they please. No longer are they the outcasts of the past. Lot would once more be the outcast now.
In the Biblical narrative (Genesis 19:5-9), Lot urged the people of Sodom not to sin in this matter, to which the people of Sodom responded: ‘Get out of our way. One comes to live with us, and he will judge us? Now we will do worse to you than them.’
These days, those who speak out against sodomy are frowned upon and hidden from society. They are marginalized, criticized, and ostracized. You don’t want to get caught up in that mess. Better to go with the flow, or so most people think, and stand in solidarity with the sodomizers parading in our streets.
What would the two angels say of us now? What should God think?
Gay rights are not Jewish rights
In our people’s quests to combat antisemitism, racism, discrimination, and oppression, Jews have empathized with those who have been oppressed like us and fought alongside them as brothers to their causes, but gay rights are not Jewish rights.
What Jews typically fight for is religious freedom, to be able to observe God’s Laws. What gay people fight for has nothing to do with that, and nothing to do with us. In fact, activists for gay rights are fighting against us and God.
Movements for gay rights fight to legalize gay marriage, to destroy the institution of marriage sacred to us. They fight for gender choice, to corrupt our children. They fight for gender neutrality, to topple the walls of modesty and privacy. They fight for sodomy, to flaunt their lifestyles publicly.
These people are fighting for the freedom to rebel publicly against God and against our common Judeo-Christian values which have been so instrumental to our success and to the success of Western civilization. They are fighting for the freedom to flaunt sin and destroy our society.
Freedom to do good, not evil
The religious freedom that Jews really need is the freedom to constrain ourselves to God’s Laws and obey Him. We don’t particularly need religious freedom. That choice does not serve our interests. Our needs are to be free from human intervention, to do God’s Will unhindered.
The whole concept of freedom is underrated. If we know what is good, and we should know as Jews, since we’ve been Given it in real clear terms, then we should be free to choose it. We should not be free to choose evil without legal consequences. That should come with the price of punishment.
What gay movements seek, per Judaism, and per God’s Word, is not the freedom to do good. They seek the freedom to flaunt sin without consequence. That is a terrible thing for us and for the whole world.
Sodomy has not been an enforceable crime for a while, yet the stigma remained, gay men who flaunted their lifestyles were still made to feel inappropriate.What gay movements sought was to remove that guilt, to admit their acts out in the open and without moral consequence.
Yet even that was not enough for them. Now gay movements seek to make converts, to flaunt their ways as being natural and commonplace. That path is completely at odds with God and Judaism. It is the path to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Note: There is a difference between having same-sex desires and flaunting them publicly. Rabbis, such as Rav Yaakov Meidan consider those with same-sex tendencies who abstain to be tzaddikim.
Yshai Amichai is a father of six and an author with a legal education, whose books advocate upholding the Torah as a national Constitution. He may be contacted at: [email protected]