A Good Book
Friday, June 10th, 2005The latest episode of This American Life is quite a corker; entitled Godless America it features a monologue from Julia Sweeney, in which she discusses her horror at learning the full story of Lot’s flight from [the doomed city of] Sodom, and listening to her description I found that I too was horrified. Beyond Sodom and Gomorrah and the pillar of salt trick, how many people actually know the details of this story?
The following is excerpted from the King James Bible [as downloaded from Project Gutenberg]. Please forgive the impractical three-column layout, but I think it’s an important reminder of the biblical context…
[…two angels arrive in Sodom, to warn Lot of the impending destruction of the city. Lot invites them to his house for the night…] 19:4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: 19:5 And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them. […which is to say, rape them. Lot is understandably horrified, and goes out to address the horny mob, offering an appeasement…] 19:8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. […luckily for his virgin daughters, the mob aren’t interested (because they are homosexuals). In the nick of time, the angels render the mob blind and then in the morning help Lot and his family escape the doomed city. They make for a smaller non-doomed city called Zoar…] 19:26 But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. […we all know that bit. So now it’s just Lot and his two daughters fleeing to Zoar, but after a while it seems that city life no longer agrees with him…] 19:30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 19:31 And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: 19:32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 19:33 And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 19:34 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 19:35 And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 19:36 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
This post is not about atheism versus religion. It’s about common sense versus fundamentalism. And it’s also about my utter lack of understanding of how anyone could believe that “everything in the bible is true”, for I hear there are large [growing?] numbers of such people, especially in the US. Moreover there are such people in positions of power, some of whom are keen to use the bible to justify laws enshrining bigotry and hate. It’s getting to the point where I’m actually finding it difficult to believe that it’s even possible for such people to believe what they claim. Am I perhaps the ignorant one, for assuming that when someone says they believe something that they might actually give a toss about the details…?
Obviously there’s loads more where this came from. That there are biblical stories advocating incest and mass-killings as the will of God comes as no great surprise; I’m just a little dumbfounded that even such a “well-known” story could be so vile. The only man deemed virtuous enough to be spared from the destruction of a city takes off for the mountains [after his wife is conveniently dispatched for having second thoughts] to enjoy carnal relations with his two daughters. Now that’s Deliverance!
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Postscript: It may seem [and may be] pointless for me to get all hot and bothered over the spectre of Christian fundamentalism in the US, since I have never lived there and have no plan to do so in the future; but when ideological shifts occur in Washington the whole planet is affected— and even though policy decisions made by the US government affect everyone, most of us get no say in who’s making those decisions. If Bush and his supporters truly valued the democratic ideal, they could never be so dismissive of world opinion… but then, democracy is not actually mentioned in the bible.
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