Re: Sodom destroyed for being Republican (Was Boycott CBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Fredric L. Rice wrote:
> > > > > Liberals are not open minded.  Neither are your breed of conservatives.
> > > > > Both are about equally closed minded, and equally dishonest.
> > > >
> > > > Liberals are, by definition, open minded.
> > >
> > > > > From the OED:
> > >
> > > > 4. a. Free from narrow prejudice; open-minded, candid.
> > > > Just because Rush is illiterate and uses the wrong word when he means
> > > > leftist doesn't mean the rest of us must.
> > >
> > > If one reads the Christanic mythologies and the story of the destruction of
> > > Soddom, the _reason_ why it and its sister city was destroyed was because
> > > the people of the cities were not liberals.  Their inequity in not being of
> > > a liberal heart was what caused their desert death gods to destroy them.
>
> > That's a totally revisionist reading, designed to make 
> > the "facts" fit your beliefs.
>
> Ezekiel 16:48-49 buddy, straight from the mouth of one of the more
> important Christian gods.  Need I quote the section for you?  Yeah,
> probably:
>
>     Ezekiel 16 48 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign
>     LORD , your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what 
>     you and your daughters have done. 
>
>     Ezekiel 16 49 " 'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She 
>     and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they 
>     did not help the poor and needy. 

Ezekiel was a prophet and often spoke in symbols. Consider the actual 
account:

        Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the
        city of Sodom-both young and old-surrounded the house. They
        called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring
        them out to us so that we can have sex with them."

        Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and
        said, "No, my friends. Don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have
        two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them
        out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don't do
        anything to these men, for they have come under the protection
        of my roof."

        "Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow
        came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We'll
        treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot
        and moved forward to break down the door.
        Genesis 19:4-9
        
> Memorize it and stop pretending that Sodom had anything to do with
> homosexuality while you're at it.

No, let's get a NT version of events:

        JUDE 7: as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a
        similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual
        immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an
        example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

The mention of "strange flesh" is from Greek PORNEIA: forbidden sex. 
Here's the NT Greek Lexicon entry (Strong's 4202) for porneia:
	
	illicit sexual intercourse

        1. adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism,
        intercourse with animals etc.
        2. sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18
        3. sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman;
        http://www.studylight.org/lex/grk/view.cgi?number=4202

> I win.

No, you don't. Sound interpretation of any text, whether it be religious 
or secular, requires *context*. The best way to determine context of any 
passage is to judge it in light of all other related passages, not 
reinterpret the rest of the passages in light of the one. Proper 
exegesis also considers whether a passage is symbolic or metaphor, or if 
it's literal. Historical information like that in Genesis, and 
information conveyed in an epistle like Jude, should be taken with more 
of a literal sense than something written in a symbolic or apocalyptic 
style. You've only put the cart before the horse.