 
words: Sodomy
Coined around 1050, "sodomy" is still used in some American states to refer
to the crime of sex between two men, and sometimes to particular sex acts between men and
women. Historically, its exact meaning has varied across time and place.
Usually, it has referred to sex between men - especially anal intercourse - but in some
countries at varying times it has also been applied to anal intercourse between men and
women, sex between women, and even bestiality.
When St. Peter Damian coined the term in the 11th Century, he was naming a sin that had
earlier been referred to only vaguely as the "sin of Sodom". Peter
included masturbation as one form of sodomy - albeit the least serious - but this usage
did not stick (see Onanism).
The term is derived from the prototypical fire and brimstone story of the cities of
Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis Chapters 18 and 19. It begins with a conversation
between the Lord and Abraham. The Lord knew that Sodom & Gomorrah were peopled
by wicked men, and he told Abraham that he was about to destroy them. Abraham
pleaded on their behalf, and after arduous negotiations, the Lord agreed to spare the
cities if just ten good men lived there.
To find out, the Lord sent two angels to spy on Sodom. They were greeted by Lot,
Sodom's last good man. He invited them in and fed them, but before they could
retire, the men of Sodom surrounded Lot's house and demanded that his guests come out that
they might "know" them. The angels, aware that "know" meant sex,
"smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness" but the men
kept trying to get in.
The angels told Lot to flee because they would destroy the city. After a brief
protest, Lot gathered his family and escaped. The next morning, Abraham rose early,
and from a high vantage point, he saw the entire plain where Sodom and Gomorrah sat
ablaze; "the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of the furnace".
Contemporary theologians
interpret the biblical text in a variety of ways - maybe it was just part of the origin
myth of the Hebrews - but St. Peter interpreted the text literally. It was sodomy,
sexual desire between men, that destroyed the "cities of the plain".
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© 1999
Andrew Wikholm
All Rights Reserved
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