The Queer Christian: Navigating Faith, Church and the Bible
3. Blame the Gay Guys: The Attempted Rape of the Angels
We dive deeper into these first two clobber verses: “Sodom and Gomorrah” in Genesis 19 and “The Murder of the Levite’s Concubine” in Judges 19-21.
What is really going on in these two stories? Are these mobs of gay rapists…? And what should we learn from these stories?
Transcript: https://affirmingscripture.com/3
A previous version of this episode called Mobs of Gay Rapists? is available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zsCqbh9rAGg (the audio is not quite as good as the podcast)
References and URLs:
“ANGELS OF INDETERMINATE GENDER IN GENESIS 19”
by Rev. Dave Barnhart (quoted in this episode– this URL loads slowly)
More on the gender of Angels:
https://nonbinary.wiki/wiki/Gender_variance_in_Christianity#Angels_in_Christianity
Rape in clobber verses #1 and #2 -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_the_Hebrew_Bible#Genesis_19
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_the_Hebrew_Bible#Judges
And for more information on: Sodom and Gomorrah see episode 1 and its notes.
And for more information on: The Murder of the Levite’s Concubine see episode 2 and its notes.
Judges Chapters 19-21 parallels and foreshadows sexual violence against women, people of color, sexual minorities, slaves, prisoners and indigenous peoples. Here are a few references:
History of sexual violence against sexual minorities:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5791869/
www.jstor.org/stable/i40206369
www.rainn.org/articles/lgbtq-survivors-sexual-violence
Sexual abuse of slaves in America:
Rape during wars:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartime_sexual_violence
www.hrw.org/video-photos/interactive/2017/10/05/they-said-we-are-their-slaves
Sexual violence throughout history:
The rape of Indigenous peoples in America:
Rap of men during wars and conflicts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wartime_sexual_violence#Rape_of_men