(LifeSiteNews) — Notoriously dissident pro-LGBT Fr. James Martin has praised a Jesuit academic’s recently published claim that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as recounted in the Book of Genesis is not about the sin of sodomy.
In an apparent effort to undercut the biblical basis for the Church’s constant and universal condemnation of sodomy as a sin against nature that cries out to heaven for vengeance, the heretical Jesuit priest Fr. Martin has propped up fellow Jesuit Fr. Richard Clifford as a biblical “expert” who claims the sin of Sodom was one of inhospitality toward immigrant foreigners rather than the sin of homosexuality.
READ: Archeology appears to confirm biblical account of Sodom’s destruction
In a social media post, Martin touted Clifford’s interpretation of Genesis’ account of the destruction of Sodom, writing, “Richard J. Clifford, SJ, one of the world’s leading Old Testament scholars, has written an important new essay for @outrchcatholic answering one of the most commonly asked questions about the Bible: Is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah about homosexuality? His answer: No.”
Clifford wrote in an article published March 14 for Martin’s pro-homosexual group “Outreach,” “The sexual assault on the two angelic servants is certainly not a warning against homosexuality, and all attempts to interpret the narrative in that direction seriously misread the story.”
The Jesuit priest continues, “In Lot’s eyes, the men of Sodom were not intent on homosexual rape specifically, but rather on humiliating Lot, whom they despised as an immigrant (19:9), and his two guests. Recent accounts of warfare make clear that systematic sexual assault on non-combatants is an all-too-common means of demoralizing and defeating enemies. Lot’s words seem to indicate he is referring to that very practice.”
In addition to the prima facie evidence to the contrary – namely, the fact that the sin of homosexual acts are called sodomy since biblical times precisely because it has always been acknowledged by believing Jews and Christians that homosexuality was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, which God Himself calls an “abomination” before His sight – and in addition to the clear attempt to undercut the biblical foundation for holding that that sin is one of the gravest in the sight of God because it is contrary to nature itself, the punishment of which is unparalleled in all of human history, the Jesuit biblical scholar’s argument flounders by ignoring what the Bible itself says of the destruction and sin of Sodom and Gomorrah.
In the Letter of the Apostle St. Jude, chapter 1, verse 7, we read, “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” Significantly, the apostle not only expressly identifies the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah as unnatural sexual immorality – sodomy – but declares that they are now suffering the punishment of eternal fire in hell for this sin.
READ: Archeologists: Sodom and Gomorrah literally destroyed by fire and brimstone falling from the sky
Similarly, St. Peter identifies the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah as sexual sin. In his second letter, the apostle says the sexual wickedness of these men was a torment to the Lot because he was righteous.
In 2 Peter 2:6-10, we read,
If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly; and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked (for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and wilful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones.
And in the account of Genesis, prior to the inhospitality of the inhabitants of Sodom toward Lot’s guests, the two angels disguised as men, God declares the men of Sodom to be guilty of a sin so great He can no longer ignore the outcry against them. Hence the categorizing of sodomy as a sin “that cries out to heaven for vengeance.”
We read in Genesis 18:20-21, prior to the inhospitality of the inhabitants of Sodom toward Lot’s guests, that God tells Abraham “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.” In other words, the grave sins for which God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah were committed prior to the attempted assault on Lot’s guests.
Further, even granting that the inhabitants of Sodom did not welcome the guests of Lot, who was a foreigner, neither did they did simply reject his guests, but precisely engaged in a violent assault on his property in an attempt to commit homosexual rape.
In Genesis 19:4-5, we read, “But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.'” The men of Sodom were thus intending to publicly rape the men who had come to stay with Lot in an act of violent homosexual assault.
READ: No room for ‘inclusion’: Homosexuality and transgenderism are sins against nature itself
Contra the attempts of dissident theologians and scholars to downplay the gravity of homosexual acts and the biblical foundation for their condemnation, the universal divine judgment against the sin of sodomy runs through both Old and New Testament:
If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. (Leviticus 20:13)
And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:27)
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9)
This is not the first time that Martin has praised or promoted academics who seek to undercut the biblical foundation for the Church’s condemnation of sodomy as always gravely sinful. Earlier this year, Martin’s “Outreach” posted an interview with a Protestant pastor who wrongly claimed the Bible does not condemn homosexual acts.
READ: Fr. James Martin promotes Protestant pastor who falsely claims Bible doesn’t condemn sodomy
Martin also jumped at the occasion to “bless” homosexual “couples” following the Vatican’s allowance with the publication of the heterodox document Fiducia supplicans. Martin has been a long-time promoter of homosexual groups and has publicly called for the Church to change its strong condemnation of sodomy in the Catechism, saying that calling homosexual tendencies “disordered” is “offensive” to homosexuals.
Against the dissident positions of liberal priests such as Fr. James Martin, the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are intrinsically evil and always sinful and that Sacred Scripture condemns them. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) explains that “Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex.”
The CCC further states:
Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
Since homosexual acts are contrary to the natural law, it follows that they are always sinful, and the judgment of their morality is not bound to the sentiment of any particular age, as is often inferred by pro-LGBT Bible “apologists.”
RELATED
“Fr. James Martin Leads People to Hell” | Eric Sammons
Fr. James Martin announces he will bless his ‘friends in same-sex unions’ after Pope’s new text
Father James Martin performs another ‘blessing’ for two ‘married’ men