Sodomy: Is It Loving To Refer To Sodomites As Sodomites?

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Welcome to Bible Bashed, where we aim to equip the saints for the works of ministry by answering the questions you're not allowed to ask.

Listen and enjoy this installment of Iron Sharpening Iron as Pastor Tim answers your sincere questions.

Here's Pastor Tim. On this episode of Iron Sharpening Iron, we're going to be answering the question, is it loving to refer to sodomites as sodomites?

And I suppose the follow -up question to that is, what should we actually call them? Or what's the most loving or helpful thing to call them?

And I would say that this is a pretty difficult question for a lot of reasons. It seems like the main terms that we frequently use, terms like homosexual, sexual minority, even gay or terms like that, it seems like these terms, they carry with them significant connotations that are often unintended by the people who use them.

Part of the strategy of the left has always been to redefine everything and then to claim authority or control over the dictionary.

So one of the things the left does is that the left determines what's acceptable usage, the acceptable usage of words.

And in some ways, these words are constantly changing. It's interesting to think about how that relates with the idea of what white people should call black people.

There's a game that's often played in discussions like that to where the appropriate or acceptable term is always changing.

And that changing has a way of destabilizing an individual and keeping them constantly at the mercy of a party that's going to be perpetually offended.

So when you think about terms like that, most white people, when they think about what to call black people, there's this instant kind of insecurity that comes up in their own hearts and their own minds.

They don't want to say the wrong term. And inevitably, any term that they actually say is going to be offensive to one degree or the other.

And the same sort of game is being played as it relates to the issue of sodomites. Whatever term you say is going to be offensive.

And this is just evidenced by the fact that in the LGBTQ acronym, the

Q stands for queer. But then if I were to describe what individuals maybe want me to describe as a homosexual, as a queer, if I were to call them a queer, then that's instantaneously going to be viewed as a pejorative.

And I'm doing something scandalous or wrong, while at the same time they're allowed to refer to themselves in that sort of way.

And so the rules are somewhat complicated as it relates to all of these terms. And so part of what we want to do with this episode is to answer the question, well, what should we call them?

Is it loving to call them a sodomite? That seems to be kind of mean. That seems to be kind of rude. It seems to be kind of offensive.

And part of the strategy as it relates to this discussion is to take hold of language, as I've said.

But the language that we use as it relates to this point is language that is fraught with a certain interpretation of the world.

So the idea of homosexual, if we start there, should we call sodomites homosexuals?

Well, part of the problem with calling a sodomite a homosexual is that in that very language, that seems to indicate that there is some alternative orientation, sexual orientation, that's fixed and unmovable, as we've discussed at various times.

So if I refer to myself as a heterosexual and I refer to a sodomite as a homosexual, if someone asked me, you know, what are you, and I were to say

I'm a heterosexual male, how do I identify myself? Well, the problem with that is that I have reinforced this kind of narrative that there is such a thing as a homosexual orientation that's somehow fixed or immutable or impossible to change.

I'm basically giving up the game, so to speak. I'm basically giving evidence to the other side.

So through the use of that sort of language, one of the things that I'm doing is I'm basically reinforcing a certain view of sexuality that the other side is using to great effect.

So I think that Christians should try to avoid using terms like homosexual for that very reason.

Now, when it comes to a term like gay, you know, gay used to mean happy, and if you're a

Christian, you try to use the term gay to describe someone. You really are playing a certain game of Russian roulette as far as that's concerned.

If you think, well, maybe that's a nice term to use, maybe that's one of the permissible terms you use, if you use that and if you criticize a homosexual or a sodomite in any way, one of the things that's going to happen is that that's instantaneously going to be viewed as a pejorative in the sense of what you're saying then is like you're so gay or something like that.

Gay can be a pejorative. Part of the problem related to this discussion is the only way to really interact with this sort of discussion is that you have to use the approved words, but not only do you have to use whatever the approved words are, and they change all the time, but the only way that it will be decided whether or not those approved words are appropriate is going to be, you know, what follows those words.

And so if you do not use... So let me give you an example.

So if I were to say, hey, my gay friend over here, whom I love and accept for who he is and who is triumphant and brave and everything else, then

I can use the term gay. But if I say, you know, gay people need to learn to straighten up or something like that, as I have done in podcasts, then instantaneously that same word then becomes some sort of...

You know, should gays straighten up and marry a member of the opposite sex, then all of a sudden that becomes offensive or unloving or unhelpful or whatever else.

And that's part of the issue with these kind of discussions.

Now why would we in our podcast use a term like sodomite? Why are we attempting to use the sodomite as a word?

Well, sodomite is a word that has a meaning, and it's a word that's a moral term. It's a word that carries with it moral condemnation.

And so the offensive part of using a word like sodomite is that that word itself has moral condemnation that's built into its very fabric.

And so it's a moral word. It's not a word that's indicating some sort of neutral orientation that's fixed and unmovable and unable to change.

A sodomite in the American Heritage Dictionary is a person who engages in sodomy. And then what is sodomy?

Well, sodomy is any of various forms of sexual acts regarded as perverted, especially anal intercourse, oral -anal contact, or sexual intercourse with an animal.

So sodomy is a word that comes from the biblical city of Sodom who was destroyed by the

Lord in part due to their lack of hospitality. Wink, wink, liberals. But then in other part, that lack of hospitality was made manifest in their attempt to engage in sodomy with the angelic visitors that were there.

So they were a town that was characterized by vile affections. They were characterized by sodomy. They were a town that incurred the wrath of the

Lord and the Lord utterly destroyed them for their acts. So this term sodomy is a term that is used to describe the kind of sexual contact or intercourse that they were behaving in.

Now that's a term that's a moral term. So instantaneously, when you use that word, instantaneously, you're going to be called a bigot, you're going to be called a hater, you're going to be called any number of things.

But then it is an accurate term that is describing a certain phenomenon. Instead of conceding the point as it relates to acknowledging that there's some sort of alternative orientation that individuals are born with that can't help and is going to be a fixed feature of their identity permanently forever, when you call an individual a sodomite, it really is a loving thing to call them because one of the things it does is it doesn't continue to endorse this delusion that there's this somehow separate kind of orientation that they can't help.

It just defines them by a particular type of action that they are committing, an act which they can put off and mortify and learn to quit desiring.

So when you use a term like that, the point of a term like that is to not be the sort of individual who is reinforcing or supporting a lie for the other side.

And that's the kind of thing that you're doing when you say homosexual and that's the kind of thing that you're doing when you try to describe individuals as sexual minorities.

One of the things you're doing is you're supporting them in this delusion, you're granting them this victim status, you're basically enabling them along the way.

Now the problem though is that, and you'll see it's a problem as you listen to some of our podcasts on this topic, if you try to avoid using these standard terms like sodomite or homosexual or you try to avoid using these standard terms like homosexual or sexual minority, many of the ways that you might describe these individuals end up becoming clunky and unwieldable and somewhat, you know, it seems like at times it's unnecessarily long.

And so the value of the terms that we're commanded to use as far as that goes is that they're typically shorter and more, you know, easier to say and they flow off the tongue easier than some of the colorful descriptions that you might find.

Being given by the kind of individual who is trying to avoid giving license to individuals who are engaging in a particular form of sin.

So that's part of the problem with part of what we're doing. Now there's any number of pejoratives that are going to be used also for individuals who are committing the sin of sodomy or the reverse sin of lesbianism.

Now I don't know that there's an easy single word for something like lesbianism and so you're basically doing the same thing you're doing with homosexual.

But, you know, I would say that it's very difficult to figure out how to even communicate this.

Sometimes it's clunky. But there's pejoratives that are used along these lines. And so some of those pejoratives are homo.

So homo is a shortening of homosexual. And, you know, individuals like Stephen Anderson or Westboro Baptist are known to use as many pejoratives as they can possibly use just for the sake,

I think, of being offensive. So you have a pejorative like homo. You have a pejorative like pervert.

It used to be that we lived in a society that considered sodomy to be fundamentally perverted and then that became shortened to be described as pervert.

And then, you know, sometimes gay can function as a pejorative or a fag. So the

Westboro Baptist, their slogans are often God hates fags. Now a fag is short for a faggot, which is a bundle of sticks.

And, you know, maybe there's some utility to that sort of thing in that, you know, in the last day, like a bundle of sticks, sodomites will, if they're unrepentant and do not turn to Christ for grace, yes, they will be cast into the lake of fire forever and ever.

But I don't know that there's much value in using pejoratives for the sake of pejoratives.

So if you say something like homo, I don't know that you're doing anything other than being insulting.

If you say something like, being insulting to people that, you know, in some sense, yes, obviously they're trying to destroy you, they're trying to corrupt your children, they're trying to destroy society and everything else.

But they are, you know, a Christian should consider them a mission field, and a Christian should be attempting to love them and to somehow win them over to Christ.

So I don't know that just, you know, engaging in, you know, as your standard mode of affairs with just, you know, pejoratives is really going to be entirely helpful, you know, if that's all you're doing.

So like the idea of homo, that seems to be a pure pejorative. Gay, you know, sometimes it can be neutral, particularly when individuals who, when sodomites are using it to refer to themselves as one of those n -words that, you know, no pun intended, that they're allowed to use and no one else is allowed to use.

But gay, I think, you know, I don't know, I don't know that there's anything necessarily wrong with that.

If you say, hey, gays, I mean they, other than the fact that, you know, the primary thing that might be wrong with that is that you're, with using that kind of word, what you're doing is you're, you know, if you appeal to the archaic form of the word which is happy, you're giving a lie about the actual state of the emotional affairs of these sorts of individuals.

But pervert is one of those ones that is a little bit more complicated because pervert, as we said in different episodes, sodomy used to be considered a perverted act or an act of perversion.

And, you know, when you look at the definition I gave in the American Heritage Dictionary, there's still that notion of perversion related to that.

So a person who engages in sodomy is called a sodomite and a sodomite is any of various forms of sexual acts regarded as perverted, meaning crooked, meaning not straight.

So like the idea of referring to an individual who is, you know, naturally and normally attracted to members of the opposite sex, a normal person, a normal human being, as we've said in a certain language, as a straight person, that is a moral term.

You say, hey, what are you, straight or are you crooked? Yeah, I'm straight, right? So the straight is in that sense being used in a moral way and perverted is being used in a deviant sense, meaning that those engaged in sodomy are engaging in a deviant sexual practice, a crooked sexual practice.

And so I think there is some utility or value in using the term pervert or perverted because it is a moral term.

It is a term that's seeking to, while it's also a pejorative at times, it can be used in a sense of a pejorative, it is a term that is trying to speak clearly about the nature of the problem.

Now, why even have this discussion? Well, I would say that I don't think that we should try to soften their descent into hell or try to help them along the way or give them a nice friendly push.

I think that we should do our best to stand in opposition to the language. And I would say that any attempt we have to do that is going to be viewed as morally offensive because part of the problem that's happening in our society right now is that there is this demand that we universally praise this deviant form of sexual immorality.

That's the problem. At every single level, there is a demand that we praise it. And that demand that we praise it, that's why sodomites are suing

Christian bakers and everything else. That's why they're going after those sorts of professions. It's because there's this demand that you must praise what

I'm doing. And that demand is coming for a reason. It's coming from a guilty conscience. So whenever an individual is engaged in something that they know to be destructive and know to be unhelpful, inevitably what they want and what they're going to demand is that everyone praise them because if they can get other people to praise them, it's an act that's going to help them silence their conscience.

And so I think one of the things that we should do is I don't think we should be unnecessarily offensive or just be attempting to use as many pejoratives as we possibly can just to stir people up or get them angry at us.

But I do think one of the things that we should do is just try to speak accurately about the behavior that we're talking about.

And in doing so, I would say it's a difficult thing to do because there's so much pressure.

And we're trained to speak the language that we're told to speak. But the more you do that, the more that you're not really loving anyone.

And if you try to push back against that at all, inevitably people are going to think, wow, that's outrageously offensive. But the problem is it's just being accurate.

And it's just describing what we're talking about in a way that is dealing with moral categories.

And so I don't know that there's any perfect description to use here.

But part of what we should be doing is we should be thinking about what the Bible says. In 1

Corinthians 6, 9, it says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

The text says, Do not be deceived. It says, Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor arsenokoitas.

Here's the thing. The Greek word there is a word that when you look that word up, one of the things that you're going to realize is that that word means the active partner in a same -sex kind of relationship.

And so you have two terms there. You have the term malakoi, and you have the term arsenokoitai.

And that term arsenokoitai refers to a man who engages in sexual activity with a person of his own sex.

And then the malakoi is a word which is basically the passive partner in a same -sex relationship or an effeminate person.

These are terms that you might describe in the language of being a sodomite or being effeminate.

These are terms that are there. Some of the modern translations have described the term arsenokoitai as homosexual, and I would say that that's entirely unhelpful as a translation because it has a lot of baggage as far as that goes with it.

But I do think that any time you can put the emphasis on the behavior, that's more helpful than otherwise.

This has been another installment of Iron Sharpening Iron. As always, if you would like to have your question included in one of these midweek episodes, email us at BibleBashedPodcast at gmail .com

Don't forget to subscribe and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Gab. Now, go boldly and obey the truth in the midst of a biblically illiterate world who will be perpetually offended by your every move.