[MAexile]

Not a new argument. Pretty sure the first time I heard it was about thirty or so years ago.

[MayflowerMadam]

“first time I heard it was about thirty or so years ago.”

Wow. It’s a first for me. It’s truly insane. But I guess if a man’s goal is to rationalize raping little boys, it does make sense on one level.

[aumrl]

true
and how can New Testament passages be ‘explained’ ?

[jjotto]

The original point of reasons other than homosexuality being offered for the destruction of Sodom was because Sodom wasn’t unique in rampant buggery, and were cruel thieves and murderers as well.

See Ezekiel Chapter 16

Remember, God offered to save the cities if righteous people could be found.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I bet the first time you heard about this "Sodom's sin= inhospitality" thing, would have been the first time you read the Bible:

"Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."(Ezekiel 16:49, KJV)

"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."NIV and other translations (LINK)

This is not to say sodomy (legally defined in many places, including historically in my state of TN, as "oral or anal copulation with a man, a woman or an animal") was not the most revolting abomination, but that all these other sins were there, mutually corrupting and tending toward the same end: serving one's own purposes , not God's.

I've read that it was a commonplace in Christian preaching in centuries past, to group the three sins of "Luxury, Usury and Sodomy" to characterize an appetite-driven, self-serving, ungodly life.

Hat tip to you, Some Guy. You are a perceptive reader.