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People reference Sodom and Gomorrah, and they reference Lot engaging in incest with his daughters, but they don’t focus on how the two are related. I figured out the connection between the two and how it explains Pakistani rape gangs in modern times. Here is a short refresher from the New King James Bible:
4 Now before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally.”
6 So Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, 7 and said, “Please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly! 8 See now, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please, let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you wish; only do nothing to these men, since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof.” (New King’s James Version. Bible Gateway websites. Genesis 19:4- 19:8)
Thereafter, the Angels who were accompanying Lot blinded the mob and urged him to retreat from the city. Lot’s wife also. But the husbands of the daughters thought Lot was joking (New King’s James Version. Bible Gateway website. Genesis 19:14). Also, Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. So constantly, we have people attempting to negotiate with utter degeneracy, and it destroyed them. In modern times, this could be interpreted as a warning to the British police departments and media rather than a condemnation of the rapists.
Now, at first reading, I found the husbands ignoring the warnings of Angels after being threatened rape ridiculous and G-d turning Lot’s wife into salt random and cruel. On a deeper reading, I found I had underestimated the folly of humanity and the dangers of tolerating evil. It is not uncommon to ignore and cover up child abuse and thus permit it to fester even in societies with high degrees of trust, as various Catholic and public school scandals have proved. And if you want to go into the most depressing literature ever, you will find there are women who will defend a boyfriend who abuses their kids.
According to iWe, the Torah suggests that Lot was not next to his wife when she turned back so Lot was not supporting his wife. Also, one must always look forward to the future to survive a crisis in the present. Also, I am sure that her turning to salt has some deep spiritual meaning. But let us move on.
Eventually, Lot commits incest with his own daughters. The daughters say that there is no man on Earth to mate with them. (Genesis 19:31) This probably doesn't mean that they thought all the men of the world had died but all the available men in their world had died. (Hat tip, iWe.)
It reminded me of an interesting play in the Middle Ages that my Shakespeare professor told me about. I think that the parents died and left a brother and sister alone. All the interactions between the church authorities, the politicians, and even their own neighbors were so corrupt that the ending of the play has the brother and sister decide to marry themselves. The outside world was so horribly corrupt that they could only trust one another. I am pretty sure that the act of incest was depicted as a terrible sin, but society was so corrupt that the brother-sister couple was sympathetic, if not virtuous.
Sadly, a culture of incest perpetuates a corrupt and tribal society and leads to more incest. In modern times, the Pakistani communities don’t report the gang members because they are all related to each other and cannot turn against their tribe. Also, incest makes it so that kin groups only rely on their kin, and it discourages a decent civil society where you can trust your neighbor if he or she is from a different clan or a different religion. At worst, it lets you see outsiders as the enemy, even if that outsider is a poor white girl.
I often wish some of the stories in the Bible were easier to understand. The symbolic nature of the stories and the extremely condensed style in which they are written demand more mental labor than I am used to. But one criticism of the Bible that I now vociferously disagree with is that it is too violent for modern times. It is because human nature doesn’t change that the old stories need to depict what humans are with necessary brutality. It is a job that many newspapers and TV reporters won’t do.
Discussion (6)
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But, one can get used to it.
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Presumably, in multi-family settings in Sodom and Gomorrah, the rules promulgated by HOA and condo boards would specify the terms and timing of presenting house guests for rape by the resident community, a policy better than a pitbull or NRA stickers for keeping annoying visitors at bay.
In enlightened Britain you don't have to actively turn over daughters and other girls to Muslim rapists but you may not complain if they do happen to get hold of such women lest your criticism be deemed an expression of a racist perspective on Islamic culture.
People are pointing out the extraordinary number of Labour Party grandees with convictions and connections to pederasty as an explanation of the official reluctance to address the grooming issue. But the larger reason is that having betrayed the entire moral, ideological and intellectual fabric of western civilization, the leadership class would be uncomfortable standing up to its enemies on its behalf and so they instinctively duck any such unpleasantness whether it was the threat from Communism 40 years ago or from Islam now. And it is also why the residual pockets of people who do continue to champion those old values wind up being their only express enemies.
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That's an interesting take. According to the Genesis account, the daughters got Lot blackout drunk and slept with him; first the older daughter and then the younger daughter the following night. The narrative specifically says Lot had no idea these things happened. In that context, it's tough to say "Lot commits incest with his own daughters." Wouldn't it be more accurate to say Lot's own daughters got him blackout drunk and raped him?
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I wonder if they were covered up (uh, except for the necessary parts) so that he wouldn't know who they were. I assume something like that with Jacob and Leah.
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Genesis 19:30-37 (NLT)
Emphasis mine in the passage above. It seems to me that they got him absolutely blackout drunk and he had no idea anything happened at all, aside from the drinking and what one must assume was a raging hangover afterward.
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