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b'Sodom and Gomorrah is one of the six or seven clobber verses that is commonly used to condemn homosexuality. We talk about what the verse really represents and how it is not about LGBTQ issues. When read using the correct lenses, it focuses on the injustice and oppression that is currently occurring in today\\u2019s world. It also pushes us to find ways to help the needy, the poor and the innocent.\\nEpisode TranscriptBrian: Welcome to the Queer Theology podcast!\\nFr. Shay: Where each episode, we take a queer look at the week\\u2019s lectionary readings. We\\u2019re the co-founders of QueerTheology.com and the hosts for this podcast. I\\u2019m Father Shay Kearns\\xa0\\nB: And I\\u2019m Brian G. Murphy.\\nFS: Hello and welcome back to the Queer Theology podcast. This is Sunday, July 28th and we are going to look at a doozy of a passage today, Genesis 18:20-32. You can find that in the show notes at QueerTheology.com/287, but I\\u2019m also going to go ahead and read it for us now. So this is Genesis 18:20-32.\\nThen the Lord said, \\u201cThe cries of injustice from Sodom and Gomorrah are countless, and their sin is very serious! I will go down now to examine the cries of injustice that have reached me. Have they really done all this? If not, I want to know.\\u201d\\nThe men turned away and walked toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing in front of the Lord. Abraham approached and said, \\u201cWill you really sweep away the innocent with the guilty? What if there are fifty innocent people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not save the place for the sake of the fifty innocent people in it? It\\u2019s not like you to do this, killing the innocent with the guilty as if there were no difference. It\\u2019s not like you! Will the judge of all the earth not act justly?\\u201d\\nThe Lord said, \\u201cIf I find fifty innocent people in the city of Sodom, I will save it because of them.\\u201d\\nAbraham responded, \\u201cSince I\\u2019ve already decided to speak with my Lord, even though I\\u2019m just soil and ash, what if there are five fewer innocent people than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city over just five?\\u201d\\nThe Lord said, \\u201cIf I find forty-five there, I won\\u2019t destroy it.\\u201d\\nOnce again Abraham spoke, \\u201cWhat if forty are there?\\u201d\\nThe Lord said, \\u201cFor the sake of forty, I will do nothing.\\u201d\\nHe said, \\u201cDon\\u2019t be angry with me, my Lord, but let me speak. What if thirty are there?\\u201d\\nThe Lord said, \\u201cI won\\u2019t do it if I find thirty there.\\u201d\\nAbraham said, \\u201cSince I\\u2019ve already decided to speak with my Lord, what if twenty are there?\\u201d\\nThe Lord said, \\u201cI won\\u2019t do it, for the sake of twenty.\\u201d\\nAbraham said, \\u201cDon\\u2019t be angry with me, my Lord, but let me speak just once more. What if there are ten?\\u201d\\nAnd the Lord said, \\u201cI will not destroy it because of those ten.\\u201d\\nB: I\\u2019m so excited!!!\\nFS: Yes! What do you make of this? What do you do with this?\\nB: Yeah! So obviously, this is the start of the story of Sodom & Gomorrah which LGBTQ people are intimately aware with, and honestly, at this point probably, most people are aware of it because it\\u2019s just become so ingrained in our culture. Sodomy is a word that has come to mean: non-PIV sex right? It derives from this story and I think there are all sorts of takes on why that\\u2019s maybe not accurate and we will perhaps get into some of that today. But what struck me today, and I think I said this last week, I just love coming back to texts over and over again because each time you see something different. And so, when we picked this text I was, \\u201cOh! We\\u2019re gonna talk Sodom & Gomorrah. We are going to talk about homosexuality in the Bible. And we\\u2019re gonna talk about how you can know it\\u2019s okay and this doesn\\u2019t really say what people say that it says.\\u201d All that definitely happening. Today prisons came up, particularly the death penalty, but prisons in general, and so often we need to punish people for their crimes and what about innocent folks who get swept up in this. Here God is saying, let\\u2019s just assume for the sake of this argument that all of the city of Sodom really is terrible people. God is like, I\\u2019m not'