Lot and Sodom (was Question about New (now Old) Testament)

[David]

I don't really have anything to add on the original question but I 
just wanted to comment on this point.

Barb wrote:

> What we 
> really see in this passage is that it is okay for women to be 
raped 
> but not men. 

I'm not sure one can really infer this.  Just because this was Lot's 
chosen approach for dealing with the situation doesn't IMO permit 
one to make general deductions about ethics, not even for the people 
of the time.

Even for characters such as Abraham and David who get a much more 
clear cut Biblical commendation than Lot, it is a difficult matter 
to deduce that any particular action of theirs is one to be 
commended.  One of the lovely things about the narrative sections of 
the Hebrew Bible is the way the writers in the main leave it to the 
readers to draw their own lessons from the stories.

In fact one could draw a parallel between criticisms of the Harry 
Potter books because Harry is the hero and breaks rules, and 
criticisms that are sometimes levelled against the Bible because 
the 'heroes of faith' do some pretty awful things.

David