Sodomy – A Crime for Homosexuals Only?

Introduction by John McGlone

I offer these thoughts based on the following article which I found and copied, but unfortunately I didn’t copy the source.  I find it to be very informative and provoking.  Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by God for sexual immorality.

2 Pet 2:6 “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;”

Something God has been putting on my heart for quite a few years now is how does this play out for the heterosexual Christian couple?   Are we allowed to participate in anal or oral intercourse?  Is this not just as filthy as what the homosexuals do? There are a variety of responses to this of course, everything from we can do oral but not anal, or to everything goes because as long as it is inside the covenant of marriage.  Some will say that God speaking of strange flesh means non heterosexual.  So, as you examine this great article I would ask for you to seek the Holy Spirit to convince you what is pure before the God you worship.  If we play into the ideas that a little bit of this sexual leaven is okay, how is that not hypocritical before God?  Even from a natural standpoint fellatio, cunnilingus, and anilingus are not healthy as the natural bacterias that reside in those areas are not compatible in the mouth and visa versa.  For example, E. coli forms a mutualistic relationship with its host organism. … In fact, E. coli is actually an essential organism to the human body. However, there are a few that cause food poisoning and cause serious infections. But the most dangerous is O157:H7, which can be life threatening.

Jude 1:7 “Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” 

 

Sodomy
by Unknown Source

Anal or oral intercourse between human beings, or any sexual
relations between a human being and an animal, the act of which may be punishable as a criminal offense.

The word sodomy acquired different meanings over time. Under the Common Law,
sodomy consisted of anal intercourse.Traditionally courts and statutes referred to it as “crime against nature” or as copulation
“against the order of nature.” In the United States, the term
 eventually encompassed oral sex as well as anal sex. The crime of
sodomy was classified as a felony.

Because homosexual activity involves anal and oral sex, gay men were the primary target of sodomy laws. Culturally and historically, homosexual activity was seen as unnatural
or perverse. The term sodomy refers to the homosexual activities of men in the story of the city of Sodom in the Bible. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their residents’immorality became a central part of Western attitudes toward forms of nonprocreative
sexual activity and same-sexrelations.

Beginning with Illinois in 1961, state legislatures reexamined their sodomy statutes. Twentyseven states repealed these laws, usually as a part of a general revision of the criminal code and with the recognition that heterosexuals engage in oral and anal sex. In addition, state
courts in 10 states applied state constitutional provisions to invalidate sodomy laws. As of early 2003, eight states had laws that barred
heterosexual and homosexual sodomy. Three other states barred
sodomy between homosexuals.

In Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186, 106 S. Ct. 2841, 92 L. Ed. 2d 140 (1986), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Georgiasodomy statute. Michael Hardwick was arrested and charged with sodomy for
engaging in oral sex with a consenting male adult in his home. A
police officer was let into Hardwick’s home to serve a warrant and saw the sexual act. Although the state prosecutor declined to prosecute the case, Hardwick brought suit in federal court asking that the
statute be declared unconstitutional.

On a 5-4 vote, the Court upheld the law. Writing for the majority,
 Justice Byron R.White rejected the argument that previous decisions such as the Court’s rulings on Abortion and contraception had created a right of privacy that extended to homosexual sodomy. Instead, the Court drew a sharp distinction between the previous cases,
which involved “family,marriage, or procreation,” and homosexual
 activity.

The Court also rejected the argument that there is a fundamental
 right to engage in homosexual activity. Prohibitions against sodomy were in the laws of most states since the nation’s founding. To the
argument that homosexual activity should be protected
when it occurs in the privacy of a home, White stated that “otherwise illegal conduct is not always immunized whenever it occurs in the home.” Because the claim in the case involved only homosexual sodomy, the Court expressed no opinion about the constitutionality of the statute as applied to acts of heterosexual sodomy.

The Bowers decision was severly criticized. Justice lewis powell, who voted with the majority, later stated that he hadmade a mistake in voting to affirm the law. In July 2003 the Supreme Court reversed itself on the issue of sodomy.
In Lawrencev.Texas, 539 U.S. ___, 123 S. Ct. 2472, 156 L. Ed.
2d 508, in a 6 -3 decision, the Court invalidated a Texas anti homosexual sodomy law by invoking the constitutional rights to
privacy.

Sodomy
n. anal copulation by a man inserting his penis in the anus either of
another man or a woman. If accomplished by force,without consent, or with someone incapable of consent, sodomy is a felony in all states in the same way that rape is.Homosexual (male to male) sodomy
between consenting adults has also been found a felony, but
increasingly is either decriminalized or seldom prosecuted. Sodomy with a consenting adult female is virtually never prosecuted even in
those states in which it remains on the books as a criminal offense. However, there have been a few cases, including one in Indiana, in
which a nowestranged wife insisted that a husband be charged with
 sodomy for sexual acts while they were living together. Traditionally sodomy was called “the crime against nature.” Sodomy does not
 include oral copulation or sexual acts with animals
(bestiality).  (See: rape, bestiality) 1

footnotes:
1.  http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/sodomy