rev. kasibante erred on sodom

By Philip Aligawesa- The Monitor (Kampala)

Source: Allafrica.com

September 11, 2007: Rev. Kasibante's take on the 'real' sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is interesting, to say it politely. His article is evidence to the unflattering reality that the Bible is used as a resource for clergymen, politicians and conmen (please pardon my redundancy) to enforce and support whatever agenda they have on their minds.

The reverend wants us to believe that the real sin of Sodom had nothing to do with sexual deviance yet the whole Chapter 19 of Genesis depicts nothing but homosexuality, incest and rape. The twin cities were destroyed because God failed to find even ten righteous people amongst them.

 In the preceding Chapter 18, God had promised Abraham that if he found ten good people, he would spare the whole city on account of that ten. Lot was spared not because he was righteous, but because he was a relative of Abraham. "... So when God was destroying the cities, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the disaster that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived."

One wonders why Lot was inviting strange men into his house and baking them bread. And where was his wife at this time? That Lot's wife had looked back during the escape despite the warnings from the angels of death just shows how much she didn't want to leave all that debauchery behind. And the so-called virgin daughters were mischievous enough to get their father drunk and have their way with him.

If a woman has only had lesbian sex, is she still a virgin? Did the girls sleep with their father only those two times? Probably not, since they had to ensure that they both got pregnant. How drunk was this Mr Lot during this three-some with is daughters? Probably not very drunk. After all the Baganda say: 'Omutamiivu tabaaga mbwa' which loosely means 'a drunkard can't slaughter a dog however drunk he may be."

If the real sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was 'not extending a hand to the poor' like Rev. Kasibante would like us to believe, it really gets lost under all that sex going on in that chapter of the Bible.

If Rev. Kasibante's agenda in his article was to defend homosexuality, then he did his position a disservice by invoking a transparently fallacious interpretation of the events of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Homosexuality was a sin and God forbade the children of Israel to engage in its activities expressly by commanding thus in Leviticus 18:22: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable."

A few problems arise though when we try to argue against homosexuality in Uganda by invoking the Bible. For example the Bible is silent on girl-on- girl action, or lesbianism. This may give the impression that God concurs with most men that lesbianism is not detestable.

Also there are several other activities forbidden by the Lord in the Bible and if we choose to enforce only the one of homosexuality, we may come off as insincere, deceitful and outright hypocritical. So while we crusade against homosexuality, let's also remember not to approach our women for sexual relations during their time of the month and also we shouldn't take our wives' sisters as second wives while our wives are still living.