16 — OUT IN THE MOUNTAINS — APRIL 1999 6 ‘VERMONT99 n Saturday, June 12 cyclists from around New England and New York will get together in Vermont for Champ Ride '99. This is Vermont CARES’ First Annual Bike Ride to raise critically needed funds to continue prevention education and direct services for people living with, or at high risk of, HIV/AIDS. 4 ———————————————————————————————————————————— -——> The ride is a 25/50/100-mile ride. Everyone can participate, no matter what your cycling ability. This is a great event for both novice and avid bicyclists alike and a wonderful opportunity to get out there and test yourself, while marveling at some of Vermont's beautiful country landscape. '4 -------------------------------------------- --> We hope you will help us make this annual ride a tremendous success — either by participating in the ride itself,.making a generous donation in support of other cyclists, or volunteering on the day of the event. 4 ———————————————————————————————————————————— -—-> Help Vermont CARES celebrate its community and continue its commitment to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS. BE A CHAMP — DO THE RIDE! GAYIK grannies 8. design \§ . O/igl- I [II Riding I Name I Address 97' I City I State | Phone I E—Mai| L Send me more information about Vermont CARES’ Champ Ride '99 . 800.649.2437 am interested in: ' Cl Building a Team __......I D Volunteering L______ X Clip and return to: VT CARES, PO Box 5248, Burlington, VT 05402 X . . W-“ - cu- .. v -7-...«. -~. .- <7 ~v «-4 - an-aw t9:r_-_y.vaw~4pt.x‘*?"~¢‘.JP xv-~r~¢-'vx‘,n 5-; 4}’ at s 0 STIINEWMI Or Gog History In A Nutshell Illlv Tent Is Your Tent. not My Tent or Yours? BY CHARLES EMOND ow we come to the Biblical biggie! H where we get our fancy words like “sodomy,” “sodomite,” and “sodomize.” Boswell comments that these words, from the Latin “sodomita,” were applied to same-sex activity after preacher-type peo- ple decided that with ~ the right spin, this filled with lesbians or something exciting like that! Use your imagination here.) At any rate, according to Genesis 18, Sodom and Gomorrah were cities with bad reputations. The Bible also refers to their pride, “fullness of bread and abundance of idleness” — think Las Vegas here! ’ So God decides to destroy the cities despite the pleas of Abraham not to do so. ‘-1 ]ehovah’s Witnesses? Before this destruction happens though, God sends two of his angels to check the place out. When they arrive in Sodom, Lot is sit- ting by the gate. No, we don’t have a clue why he is sitting there, he just is. (The Bible doesn’t really answer all your ques- tions, you know!) When he sees these two fancy visitors, he latches right on, invites them to stay with him, and won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. They claim that they would prefer to spend the night in the square. (Hey, he is talking to them with his face against the ground! Would you go home with this guy?) But Lot insists and they finally give in. He brings them home and gives them supper. Before bedtime, all the men in the city surround the house and call to Lot to bring out the visitors “so that we may know them”. This phrase is the crux of the matter and it is interesting to note that the word “know” (“yadha” in Hebrew) means “to have thorough knowledge of.” Don’t raise those eyebrows yet. It was actually rarely used in the so-called Biblical sense —— even in the Bible. According to Boswell, it occurs 943 times in the Hebrew Bible, and only 10 of these occurrences refer to carnal knowledge! It is also interesting to note that Lot is actually a resident alien in Sodom, perhaps unaware of local laws. The men might just have wanted to check out the visitor’s cre- dentials. But even if we do translate this to mean that they wanted to rape the two angels, we would have to join in condem- nation, because, after all, any rape is wrong. Take My Daughters! Please! Getting back to our story, Lot goes out and says he won’t bring out the angels, but instead he will send out his two virgin daughters for the crowd of men to have fun The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is ' with. We do not know how the two virgin daughters felt about this offer -4 but judg- ing from their later actions they were prob- ably putting on their party dresses! So the men of‘ Sodom press forward. Lot is dragged back inside and the angels work a bit of magic so that the men can’t find the door. The two angels stay the story] m(ijght just come men 0fS0d0”1 ni1ghtLand C216}? trgy to in an y. “Here is - ta e ot an is am- ' God destroying two were all gay) dld . ily with them before homosexual cities, so - - - the city is destroyed. just say no!” Lot offer Ins vlrgln Lot just barely We didn’t get any 9 gets out with the two words from Gomorrah daughters to them’ virgin daughters; his that I know of. Since ' wife is turned into a nobody visits it in the Dld need to pillar of salt. (Don’t Bible, we are_ left in have their hair done? ask.) Then, abit later the dark. (Maybe it ' (Genesis 19:31), was a “sister” city both of his daughters get him drunk, have sex with him and become pregnant with his sons! (Are the writers of “As the World Turns” taking notes here?) Maybe They Were From Welcome Wagon Is the story really about homosexuality? Probably not. Firstly,‘ God had already decided to destroy the city before this angel business, not because of it. More importantly, if the men of Sodom were all gay, why did Lot, who should have noticed this fact while hanging around in the square, offer his virgin daughters to them? Did they both need to have their hair done, or what? The truth is that his story revolves around a lack of hospitality. Hospitality to strangers is highly regarded and crucially important in desert countries because human survival often depends on it. Lot was trying to be hospitable to strangers and the Sodomites were causing a ruckus about it. None of the other refer- ences in scripture — for example a very similar story of the town of Gibeah in Judges 19:22 — are connected with homo- sexuality. This interpretation is also supported by a very good authority, one Jesus Christ. He refers to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Matthew 10:14-15) in the mid- dle of a discourse on hospitality or the lack thereof in the towns where His disciples are headed. Hey, you can’t argue with Him! Next time: David and Jonathan ‘ get married! For more information on the subject of Christianity and Homosexuality, get The Church and the Homosexual by John J. McNeil]. This is a “courageous” classic treatise on the history of Christianity as it relates to gay people. McNeill, a Jesuit priest at the time he wrote it, was expelled from the order for his views.V Charlie Emond has a bachelor 3' degree from Queens College and master is degrees . from both Dartmouth and Keene State. He teaches college history courses in Springfield including a course he devel- oped: Hidden History: Homosexuality in Western C ivilizalion.