Reinventing Sodom

Religion, Violence and the Ab/use of Religious Symbols

Abstract

Sodom is a powerful religious (and political) symbol. Drawing from a biblical narrative – Genesis 19 – theological discourses have constructed it to represent (and condemn) what is called “homosexualism”, both in religious belief and doctrine and in political and juridical practices. Many efforts have been made to re-read the biblical narrative and offer alternative interpretations that contradict the association of its characters and homosexual (or LGBTQIAPN+) people through the image of the “sodomite”, mostly pointing to the issue of hospitality as the center of the narrative. Still the violence remains as the “sodomites” are portrayed as perpetrators and rapists and god destroys the city. Based on the idea that “our symbols are ill” (Gebara), this article cruises through the “invention” of this specific religious symbol (Jordan) and interrogates the violence that constitutes it from a feminist perspective (Deifelt) offering clues for its reinvention from the religious biodiversity and an epistemology or ordinary life (Gebara). Such a possibility might be offered by the dislocation articulated through the image of God the Sodomite (Althaus-Reid) and through a new narrative that presents Sodom as the place “where colors were born” (Miranda).