Information AboutSodomy |
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The term “sodomy” derives from the name of the ancient city of Sodom, which according to a common interpretation of the Bible , was destroyed by God for its sins (see Sodom And Gomorrah ). In today's common language it identifies the practice of anal or oral intercourse. ALTERNATE UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE SINS OF SODOM In the book of ). From the Biblical perspective, the sins of Sodom were many, though not all were explicit in the narrative account, and the act of attempted homosexual gang rape may be read into it, serving to emphasise the Sodomites' depravity rather than uniquely characterise it. According to recent critiques by some liberal Christians, the sins of Sodom were related more to violation of Hospitality laws than sexual sins. An explicit scriptural connection between homosexual aggression and Sodom is found only in the Qur'an , though the city name 'Sodom' does not appear there. The Sodomites are referred to as "the people of Lut (Lot)." Lot is the nephew of the Hebrew/Arabic patriarch Abraham and, in the Judaic Sodom stories, is head of the only family allowed by God to survive Sodom's destruction. In the Qur'an, he is also the divinely appointed national prophet to his people. Since their national name was unrecorded and "people of Lot" was the only available designation, the Islamic equivalent of 'sodomy' has become 'liwat,' which could be roughly translated as "lottishness" (see Homosexuality And Islam ). FIRST CENTURY OPINIONS The 1:21-32), but another theory is that it is just a reference to the “strange flesh” of the intended rape victims, who were angels, not men. The Jewish historian — circa A.D. 96 ). The final element of his assessment goes beyond the Biblical data, even in the New Testament. Nonetheless, this meaning is the primary one used today. BANNING OF SODOMY IN THE UNITED STATES From the earliest times in the United States, sodomy (variously defined) was prohibited in the United States, although some historians feel that early sodomy laws were mainly used to address issues of non-consensual behavior, or public behavior. Historians also note that not until the 1970s did sodomy laws concern homosexual acts exclusively. In the 1950s , all states had some form of law criminalizing sodomy, and in 1986 the United States Supreme Court ruled that nothing in the United States Constitution bars a state from prohibiting sodomy. However, state legislators and state courts had started to repeal or overturn their sodomy laws since the 1970s, and thus in 2003 , only 10 states had laws prohibiting all sodomy, with penalties ranging from 1 to 15 years imprisonment. Additionally, four other states had laws that specifically prohibited same-sex sodomy. That year the United States Supreme Court reversed its 1986 '' Bowers V. Hardwick '' ruling and in '' Lawrence V. Texas '', invalidated these laws as being an unconstitutional invasion of privacy, and violating the equal protection clause. '' See Sodomy Law .'' However, Lawrence V. Texas has not changed the Uniform Code Of Military Justice Article that bans all servicemen and women from engaging in “sodomy”. The United States Armed Forces Code defines the offense thus: :Any person subject to this chapter who engages in unnatural carnal copulation with another person of the same or opposite sex or with an animal is guilty of sodomy. Penetration , however slight, is sufficient to complete the offense. While the definition of the sodomy clearly prohibits heterosexual servicemen and women from engaging in oral or anal sex with a consenting adult in private, the law is rarely invoked against heterosexuals for such conduct and is mainly used against homosexual servicemen and women who engage in sodomy. EVOLUTION OF THE TERM IN OTHER LANGUAGES In modern German , the word “Sodomie” has no connotation of anal or oral sex, and refers specifically to Zoophilia . (''See Paragraph 175, Version Of June 28, 1935 ''.) The same goes for the Norwegian word “sodomi”. “Sodomy”, therefore, can be considered being a '' False Friend ''. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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