Sodom and Gomorrha

Sodom and Gomorrha were terrible places where all the people were wicked. God came to Abraham and told him that he planned to destroy the cities. However, Abraham begged that God not destroy the cities and insisted that God let Abraham show him that there were still good people in Sodom. God sent angels to Abraham and when the men of Sodom heard of the visitors they insisted that Abraham released the angels so that they could... well you know... The men became wicked and tried to break down Abraham's door. The angels pulled Abraham back inside, shut the door and blinded the men. Abraham was told to leave the city and never look back as it was to be destroyed. As Abraham and his family were leaving the city, his wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt.

People are unfairly punished all the time. Unfair punishment happens all the time in school when one person cheat, or does something wrong, and the entire class or school is punished. In these instaces all I can ask is why? Why not punish the one individual who deserves the punishment. If KFDSK cheated why should I be punished.

The picture is from Wikipedia of Sodom and Gomorrha being destroyed as Abrahams family leaves.

gomom and sodorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah were two lovely happy places to live in biblical times. the streets were full of wonderful sin, the homes were held together with family discord, and the people enjoyed leisurely activities of rape and killing. Abraham was a man that lived near these two cities with his godly family and his livestock. one day two angels came to Abraham and told him of the towns demise. When Abraham heard of this he begged god to spare the city if 10 good men were found. When the men heard of the angels at Abraham's house, they all asked Abraham to send them out so they could have sex with them. Abraham said no and offered his two virgin daughters in return. The men outside refused and the Angels pulled Abraham inside. God told him to leave the city as fast as possible and not to look upon the sinful town again. Abraham's wife turned to look as they were leaving and she turned into a pillar of salt.
That's great and all but kind of insane. I have never been punished unfairly. once I came very close though. I was minding my own business and all of a sudden these cops show up. Without asking me any questions, I am handcuffed and put in a cruiser. throughout this time I was yelling and demanding that i get a call to my father for release. upon arriving at the central station I was escorted to a jail cell and told to think about my "actions." I was totally confused. I made a phone call to my father and asked him what to do, i was told to hold tight and not answer any questions. speaking of unfair punishment, lets all hope that none is in store for me when I inform you that the suspense was a lie and this post is late. :)

Sodom and Gomorrha

God appears to Abraham and Abraham makes the best meal he can to present to God. God tells Abraham that he will be back in a year's time and by the point Sarah will have a child. Sarah laughs and questions it due to her age but God is offended that she would doubt his word. Abraham is walking with God and the other men and hears God talk about how he is going to destroy the towns of Sodom and Gomorrha and Abraham questions why he should kill innocent people. God said he would spare the destruction for the lives of those people even if there were only 10 innocents.

Two angels show up at the house of Lot. Lot takes them in for the night and the townspeople are curious as to the are and try to break down Lot's house. The men blind the townspeople and tell Lot that he must take his family and get away from the city for it is about to be destroyed. When Lot and his family got to the town of Zoar, God brought lava down upon the city. Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt for her disobedience.

I think unfair punishment is obviously not a good thing but it is also very hard to avoid. I honestly though don't have many other ideas on the matter because its such a complicated issue.

Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

Three angels, disguised as men, visited Abraham. They revealed to him that they were on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah to observe the extent of the wickedness in those cities. The Lord told Abraham that he would destroy the cities because of their wickedness. Abraham bargained with the Lord to spare the cities if he could find at least ten righteous people in them. Two angels continued down to Sodom and arrived at Lot’s house. Lot invited the men into his home and convinced them to eat and sleep the night in his house. Later, angry men came to Lot’s home and demanded that he turn over the two guests. Lot offered his two virgin daughters in place of his guests but the angry mob rejected his offer and tried to knock down his door. The angels pulled Lot inside, locked the door, and blinded the men outside. Then the angels told Lot to take his family far away from the city and never look back because it was going to be destroyed. The Lord rained down burning sulfur over the city and destroyed everything that lived in the city. Lot’s wife, however, looked back and was therefore turned into a pillar of salt.

Luckily for me, I haven’t ever been faced with any real/substantial forms of unfair punishment. Of course, there are the petty things that I’ve experienced simply because “life’s not fair,” but they don’t count for much in the grand scheme of things. I guess, the most common form of unfair punishment in my life is when my mother finds a chore for me to do and then says, “because I’m your mom” as if that were a valid argument… 

http://wheelerroad.org/origin-redemption-sodom-gomorrah

Blog Number Nine - Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha

Three angels visited Abraham and his wife Sarah warning them of the destruction planned for the wicked city of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham's nephew, Lot, and his family lived in that city. Also, due to Abraham's kind heart he pleaded God to hold back from destroying the city if there were 50, then 45, 40, 30, 20, and finally 10 people with righteous hearts were found. God agreed to this, remaining patient with Abraham as he negotiated with him many times. Lot was visited by two angels later that evening. He was warned to leave the city, for it was to be destroyed. Outside his home, the men of Sodom (old and young) threatened to break down his home if he did not hand the two angels (who were disguised as men) to them. God then blinded the men Lot was then instructed to go to the mountains to seek refuge, but he pleaded God to let him escape to a nearby city instead (which God had planned on destroying too). He agreed. Lot took his wife and two daughters to flee, but Lot's wife disobeyed God's command not to look back. She was too attached to the wealthy life of Sodom and glanced back as the city was destroyed. She turned into a pillar of salt.

I'm sure a lot of people have a problem with this Bible account because we are so open to homosexuality and find that not accepting people's lifestyles is an act of discrimination. I don't particularly see this Bible account as unjust. People have to see that the scriptures condemn homosexuality as an immoral act, and people who followed God's law in Abraham's time (like Abraham, Lot, and Sarah) took this law to heart. Once you put it into concept, God was destroying a city that, according to his standards, was full of immoral acts. He couldn't even find ten righteous people in the city. We don't even blink when we talk about God wiping the Earth of wicked people with the Flood, but we get peeved when we talk about Sodom and Gomorrah. He was basically doing the same thing as the Flood. He was wiping out what he and his followers believed were immoral acts while saving those who were righteous in his eyes. So no, I don't think this is in anyway unjust. (I am in no way against gay people either. Just sayin'.)

As to injustice in general, yeah. It stinks. Injustice is when that kid who doesn't understand anything because they don't work or pay attention in class gets an incredible grade even though the only reason why they've lifted a finger is to copy down answers from your test or homework (not that I'm directing this at anyone. Like I said, "just sayin'".) I think this topic just hit a VERY sensitive nerve.


http://mhsredline.com/harbinger/2013/09/25/cheater-cheater-what-drives-students-to-dishonesty/

Sodom and Gomorrah

In this bible story, God yet again shows his power by destroying cities corrupted by evil and sin. Three angels travel down to the area disguised as travelers; two go exploring to witness the sin firsthand, while one-the Lord-stayed behind and told Abraham of his plan. Abraham bargains with the Lord, and eventually they settle on if there are at least 10 righteous, He will spare the cities.When the two angels arrived, Lot, Abraham's nephew, took the two men in for dinner. Next, the men of Sodom surround Lot's house asking about where the men that he had over dinner were since the men wanted to have sex with the angels. Lot, very troubled by the wickedness of the city, gave his virgin daughters to the homosexuals, but out of frustration, they break down the door to the house. Shocked, the angels struck the homosexuals blind and led Lot and his family out of Sodom with instructions to not look back. The Lord destroys the cities and everything in them by burning sulfur, and Lot's poor wife looks back at the destroyed city and turns into a pillar of salt.
I'm not a very big fan of unfair punishment, seeing as how it's unfair and all. I'm also not a big fan of impenitence, since I believe that everyone should own up to their actions and at least feel something about their sins.

Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha

In this story of the bible, three angels visited Abraham, the founder of Israel. They disguised themselves as men walking on a road traveling. Two of the angels went down to Sodom and Gomorrha to see the wickedness in these two cities. The other visitor, the lord, didn't go and instead stayed behind. He said that he was going to destroy the two cities because the people in them had evil ways. Abraham questioned if he should spare the city of righteous people lived there. Abraham bargained down the number of righteous people to ten, and he agreed not to destroy the cities if ten righteous people lived there. The cities continued to be filled with wicked people doing wrongs. The Lord rained down and burned sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrha, destroying every sight of life.
I feel that unfair punishment is just brutal. It happens a lot, but you shouldn't be punished for something you didn't do. The wrong people get punished sometimes. For example, a man went to jail for ten years for accused rape. The woman swore on it and everything. Then after 10 years she sees the true rapist. The falsely accused man suffered and got his life completely messed up because of this girl, yet he ends up forgiving her. It wasn't fair to him at all, but this shows his true character and how forgiving he was.

http://d4nations.com/webpubl/images/1asodomgomorrahandblogging-f65bimage03.png
This image captures the cities being destroyed.

The Saved and the Unbelievers

So two angles (girls might I add) came to the city of Sodom at evening. A man, Lot, just happened to be sitting at the gates. When he was them, he bowed and prayed to the Lord that he should house these two angles and feed them in his own home. After much resistance, the angles agreed and joined Lot and his family in the home. Later that night, a rowdy crowd had gathered around Lot's house asking who the visitors were. They didn't really give him an option when they asked to meet the visitors. Lot attempted to warn them that his two visitors were not familiar with people and to be good to them and his household. However, the crowd was too curious and when Lot went inside to get his guests, they warned that Sodom and all other towns in the plains would be destroyed. Poor Lot. When he told the moody crowd that if they didn't pray to the Lord they would perish, they laughed at him and mocked him. The next early morning, the angles woke Lot to get his wife and two daughters out. With a little resistance from Lot, Abraham granted the family safety outside of  the city. The angles then told him to flee to the mountains and don't look back. On the way, sadly, his wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt *snap* just like that. Lot continued on with his daughters and took residence in a cave. When Lot was old (I guess you could say his lot didn't look too good), his daughters decided to continue his legacy and each laid with their father. They both had boys who ended up the heads of a large group of peoples in the land.

In my life (so far at least), I feel as if I haven't had unfair punishment. When I was 4, I bit my mom on the shoulder once and was put in my room for 3 days, but I deserved that one. I have been threatened by my parents to have my phone taken away because I didn't feel like doing my homework.

http://www.lestermadden.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/no_iphones.png

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie66YoxIhNAx8lPDqMwq0p7Qxr9tTog8c5dId64MGa4-tfgdZFtzjCQJgeMHRcCLSzku6CmNQCCrhiqf0a3PsxAxSSrz3b1007GE-ZHqqvNwI_iafRvvuj23GDD_xzbbWvmw7a6Y6-9e0/s1600/IMG_3551Edited.jpg

Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha

The story of God's divine punishment of Sodom and Gomorrha goes as follows. Three men requested lodging in the home of Abraham. Because of his gracious behavior, God revealed that he would destroy Sodom and Gomorrha because they contained a great deal of extremely sinful people. Well, exactly how these people were sinful is up to debate. Some say that it was because they were homosexual while others believe they were just immoral people, the sinfulness having nothing to do with their sexuality. Abraham asks God to spare the city if he can find fifty, no, fourty-five, no, thirty, no, twent- alright, alright, how about just ten people. God agrees. Two angels then lodge with Lot, Abraham's nephew. A huge crowd of people gather outside, demanding to see the angels. Lot offers him his two daughters, but they refuse, demanding they will do much worse to Lot. The angels reveal their true identity to Lot as the civilians nearly break down his door and tell Lot to gather his family and leave as there are not even ten decent people in the city. They are told not to look back as they leave, but Lot's wife does as the city ignites. She then turns into a pillar of salt.

This passage is known for causing a large amount of controversy over whether "know" has sexual connotations or not, possibly implying homosexuality, especially because it is definitely used in a sexual way when referencing Lot's daughters right afterward in a very similar context. If I had to be completely honest, the evidence in favor of "know" having sexual connotations is too prevalent to be ignored. While I am certainly not a religious person, at the same time, I must point out that the Old Testament has all sorts of messages that even most Christians find outdated, such as a man that rapes a woman must pay her father and then marry the woman, so this sort of message is not out of place. I am honestly more perplexed as to why some can look at the latter with a sense of understanding that such customs, while acceptable then, are simply not in our modern day, yet at the same time cannot accept a group of people based on the message of the very same book. At the very least, if you're going to follow archaic teachings, follow all of them; don't be lazy and only follow half.

I have personally never experienced unfair punishment myself, thankfully. I probably owe this to being lucky enough to have rational parents as well as being born a white male. All of my behaviors come with their consequences, and to my knowledge, none of these consequences are too severe. In fact, if anything, I tend to get away with any bad behavior at school (likely because I very rarely ever behave badly), and yet, there are likely many students in more rural areas that are blamed for transgressions they did not commit simply because they are not white. Will that change? Probably not within my lifetime; I feel that race will always be a factor in our society because the idea of an ingroup is so thoroughly ingrained in our psyche. Then again, I lived a fairly sheltered life until high school (and even now, it's still fairly sheltered), so perhaps that has affected my personal opinion.

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

The biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is an interesting one. One day, three men came to Abraham with a message that god was going destroy the city's because they were full of sin. Abraham asked if they could find, it started at fifty and was negotiated down, ten good men, could the cities be saved? The Lord said yes. On their search for these men they end up at Abraham's cousin, Lot's, house. Here, Lot's unknown visitors save Lot by blinding some men, Lot realizes that they are angels not ordinary people. Lot was told to flee the city and take his family without looking back. One of the women in Lot's family did and therefore was turned to a pillar of salt. Not finding the ten men they needed, the cities were destroyed as well.

There is a lot of unfair punishment in the world which is not good. People and societies often strive for justice and proper punishments for actions but it varies from place to place based on people's values.

Sodom and No-More-Ah

 God tells Abraham that the city of Sodom is said to be wicked, that the sins of the citizens are the worst of all.  If He finds this rumor to be true, He will demolish every last piece of the city.  Abraham asks God if He plans on destroying the entire city's population or if he will only kill the evil ones.  So he gets God to promise that if He can find 50 innocent men there, He will leave the entire city in peace.  Kind-hearted Abraham gets God to whittle the number down to 10.  Two angels arrive at Sodom, and meet a guy named Lot.  Lot seems to be a pretty decent guy (there's the first of our needed 10) and offers a place for them in his home; he won't hear of them sleeping out in the street.  After he prepares for them a nice hot meal, men from all over Sodom crowd Lot's house and demand him to hand over the visitors so that they may have their way with them.  Lot doesn't wish this fate upon his guests, so he offers his two virgin daughters to them instead.  They laugh at this.  The ruthless men won't take no for an answer, and just as they are about to attack, the angels pull Lot back into the house, locking the door behind him.  The angels blind the men outside, leaving them to wonder aimlessly back home.  The angels then tell Lot to take his family and leave the city so they might escape the smiting that will occur.  When he hears of this planned destruction of Sodom, he tells his daughters' fiances; they take this warning as a joke and laugh it off.  So the angels take Lot and his family out of the city, and tell him to run away as far as possible, into the mountains.  Lot is afraid of what is out there, and begs them to allow them to run to the next city over, Zoar.  They agree to this, and promise not to destroy his new homeland.  Then God rained down that famous fire and brimstone and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.  Lot's wife looked back at this destruction and turned into a pillar of salt.


http://www.israel-a-history-of.com/images/SodomSetting2.jpg

It's nice to note that Sodom is directly below the Dead Sea.


I don't think this was unfair punishment.  I mean, God made Abraham a promise that He only had to find 10 good people in the entire city in order to save it all, and He couldn't.  They kind of all sucked except for Lot.  He's the only noted good guy here.  And for those that argue this in the Christian-anti-gay war, don't even start here.  No no.  Not here.  Go outside and do that where you can dirty up the grass with your fighting.  Digressing.  If we get into hypotheticals, unfair would have been if God had let Lot be destroyed with the city; he didn't do anything to deserve that.  That would be like a teacher giving the class extra homework because of that one kid every hates, the one that never shuts up and always calls out and won't sit down for more than 2 seconds.  Now, it may not be that bad, but if it's only one kid messing around, punish that one kid.  Don't take it out on the rest of us.  And don't give me that crap about trying to show the kid the weight of one's actions.  This is no place for that life lesson.  Try that when it matters so he REALLY learns from his mistakes.  I shouldn't have to suffer for him to learn that right now in this moment.  Make him learn it on his time, not mine.

Sodom And Gomorrah

God's picked Abraham to be founder of his chosen nation- Israel. Abraham was visited by three angels disguised as men. Two of them went down to Sodom and Gomorrah to see the evil on the cities firsthand. The third angel, who was the Lord, stayed behind to talk to Abraham. The Lord said he was going to destroy the two cities because of how evil the people were. Abraham began to beg and bargain with the lord. First Abraham asked if the cities could be spared if he could find 50 righteous people. Abraham bargained down to only finding 10 righteous people and the Lord would spare Sodom and Gomorrah.
The two angels arrived in Sodom. Lot, Abraham's nephew, met them. He took the two angels to his home to meet his family and fed them. All at once the men of the city came to Lot's house and asked "Where are the men who came to you?" and "Bring them out so we can have sex with them." Lot was so offended by the evil of Sodom that he gave the men his two virgin daughters. They did not like/accept that offer so they broke down his door. The angels made the rioting men blind and directed Lot, his wife and two daughters out of the city.
The Lord made burning sulfur rain down on Sodom and Gomorrah. Destroying everything.


I have two older brothers. Typically I dislike being compared to them because in school and on standardized tests they did remarkably better. But when it comes to outside of school, following my parents rules, not getting into trouble and other things outside of the classroom I would say I've done remarkably better than them. Yet my parents still have as strict or stricter rules because of my brothers. I feel this is so unfair. Some aspects are different because neither of my brothers had a car during school and most of their friends were the same gender as them. But my mom has said directly to me "Hayes got away with those things because I was so innocent then, I didn't know what was happening. Now I'm aware of what goes on." I have not caused as much trouble outside of school as they have but I feel as though I am punished just as much or more than them.

Wow okay this should be fun

So here's how this thing went down. Abraham and his wife were visited by some angels, who hooked him up with the Lord to get a message. God was all like, "Yo, just a heads up, I'm gonna destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, cuz they're full of sinners." Abraham thought that was hella jank, that God would kill a handful of innocent people along with sinners. So he convinced God to spare the cities if he found 50 innocent people in them, and God agreed. Then he fluttered his eyelashes and haggled it down to 10, which God somehow agreed to. So he sent two of the angels to Sodom, and they stayed with Abraham's nephew Lot. But then, all the gay men of Sodom crowded around and demanded that Lot introduce them to these attractive new fellows, so that they may "know them"~. Lot instead offered them two virgin girls. They refused even the virgins, and instead tried to break in and rape errybody. So the angels blinded them all. Having not even found 10 good people, they ordered Lot to take his wife and daughters and flee the city, cuz they were gonna destroy it. They fled, but the wife looked back and was turned to a pillar of salt. And then INCEST HAPPENED, WTH. Guess ya shouldn't have spared them, huh? Lot totally got drunk and banged his daughters.

Unfair punishment you say? Hahaha how about that time in sixth grade when I got assaulted, so I bit the kid in self-defense? Yeah, it wasn't even that hard. Didn't even break skin. But he was a wimp and started crying, and I got sent to the principal's office. I got a level drop, which is the worst single-violation punishment at my middle school short of suspension. I got told that, if I had broken skin, I would have been suspended. They said that I overreacted, that a classmate confronting me in the hallway and wrapping his hands around my neck and squeezing heard was just harmless fun and games until I escalated the situation. They're lucky I didn't kill that SOB with just my teeth. Grrrr.

Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha

 Once upon a time, three angels came to Earth and visited Abraham. They brought news that God was going to shut down the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham negotiated with Him though, and made a deal that if he could find 10 righteous men in the city, it would be spared for the sake of those 10. The angels then went into town where they bunked up with Lot. The people of the city came to try to “get to know” the newbies, but Lot offered his virgin daughters instead. The people didn’t want the girls, though. The people tried to break in to Lot’s home, but the angels saved him and his folks by blinding the intruders. They then told Lot and his clan to leave so they could burn down the city and hooligans within it. Despite being told not to do so, Lot’s wife watched as the city was burned and was, therefore, turned into a salt pillar.

I see unfair punishment quite a bit in ROTC. We use “electric shock” punishment and group punishment to address most of the issues in our battalion. “Electric shock” is death by CrossFit under the assumption that if you associate physical pain with doing something wrong, you won’t do it again. I don’t really think it’s fair to give a physical punishment for academic failure or minor behavioral incidents, but it’s fairly effective. Group punishment is when the entire team, class, or other group gets privileges taken away or has to do something unpleasant for one person’s mistake. This, generally, results in the entire group making sure that the individual doesn’t make the same mistake again. 

Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha

So one day, God appeared in front of Abraham's tent in the form of three men. Abraham welcomed the men and offered his hospitality, preparing a meal for them. These guys tell Abraham that his wife, Sarah, is going to have a son, after already having gone through menopause. She knows she is too old to have a child and laughs from inside the tent, having been eavesdropping on this conversation the whole time. God calls her out on it, not directly, but towards Abraham, and she says from the tent that she had not been eavesdropping, proving her to have been eavesdropping the whole time (I'm not really sure why this detail is included). S the men were leaving, they tell Abraham the cities Sodom and Gomorrha are filled with sinners, their outcries are very loud. He says he is going to check it out and if things are as bad as they seem, he will destroy the cities and all its inhabitants. Abraham begins his bargaining with God by asking a fair question: will he destroy the righteous right along with the wicked? Even if there are only fifty good and righteous people in the city won't it be unfair to destroy them all? He says God is the '"judge of all the earth," so doesn't that mean he should act upon them with justice? God agrees and says he will spare the cities if there were at least fifty righteous people there, then 45, and he got all the way down to ten righteous people before stopping his questioning. The story then picks up at the gates of Sodom where two of his messengers/angels arrived at its gaits where Lot met them, showing them hospitality just as Abraham showed the three men. They come to find that the rest of the city isn't as kind, as they demand he give them up to them so they can rape the foreigners. He says no, but was willing to offer his two virgin daughters instead, just no men. Lot isn't as lucky as Abraham was with these crazed townspeople, and they deny this offer. Now they are threatening to rape him as well as the two men, after all Lot is just as much a foreigner two these people as God's messengers were. The messengers/angels pull him inside and blind these men, leaving them incapable of finding the front door. They tell Lot to grab his family and get the out of there because all hell is about to break loose (figuratively speaking). He takes his wife and two daughters and run for a nearby town. When they got to the town, the Lord rained "brimstone and fire" on Sodom and Gomorrah. He and his family were warned not to look back when all this was going to happen, but his wife did. She turned into some salt. Why not? The morning following this, Abraham went to the spot where he had said goodbye to the man and they warned him of the fate of the cities and saw the smoking rubble that remained of the cities. There weren't even ten righteous people, but God still sparred Lot and his family, remembering what Abraham had told him about not making the innocent suffer alongside the guilty.

Unfair punishment isn't really that strong of a factor in my life now, but when I was younger it showed up all the time. Like if my brother threw a fit, neither of us would get to watch TV, or if I started a fight both of us got sent to timeout or the corner or something like that. This could have been some sort of parenting technique, or just complete lack in the understanding of fair punishment or good parenting because singling out one of us is just too hard, and punishing the one who needs it just makes too much sense. It doesn't really affect my life directly any more though, not to say it doesn't exist all together.

Sodom and Gomorrah

One day, God appeared to Abraham as three men and Abraham welcomed him/them into his home and fed him. As they were leaving, God confided in Abraham that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were so sinful that He was going to destroy them. Abraham asked Him not to, pleading if he could find at least fifty… no forty-five… (etc) no ten, that God would not destroy the cities. That night, two angels went to visit Sodom and stayed in Lot’s home. All of the sudden, all of the men in the city came and asked Lot to bring out the two men so that they could sleep with him. Lot instead offered up his two virgin daughters to sleep with the mob, who all weren’t too happy with the consolation. The angels pulled Lot back into his home, blinded the mob, and urged him to gather his family and leave the city, as it was going to be destroyed by God. Lot, his wife, and his daughters left the city; as his wife looked back at their home, she was turned into a pillar of salt. Lot and his daughters camped out in a cave and his older daughter decided that because there weren’t any men to give them children, they should sleep with their father. So for two consecutive nights, they get their father drunk and are impregnated by him.

Lot's wife sea stack in Marsden Bay, Tyne and Wear, England

Gee, that was heavy. Anyways. Unfair punishments are so not cool. They’re actually kind of the worst kind. But in my case, I usually walk myself into that trap because I’m stubborn and I back talk and then it makes my parents extra mad, so it’s really my fault that I got an unfair punishment. Still though, it’s rough. Kind of. I feel like there are a lot more unfair nonpunishments than punishments in some cases. Oh, you know a guy who knows a guy? No biggie, here, have a stern look and a cookie! That’s always annoying.

               

Sodom and Gomorrah

Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities that sat along the Jordan River. These cities were extremely wealthy and well off. At this time, if someone were to come to your house, you would, without questioning it, welcome them and make them feel at home. However, Sodom and Gomorrah essentially “cancelled” these laws in their land. They felt that this wasn't necessary, they wanted to keep their wealth to themselves. The case was, though, that two angels had appeared to Abraham. Abraham had then led the angels to Lot’s house in Sodom. Once they were at the door, Lot insisted that they come in. Townsmen arrived at Lot’s house and insisted that they “bring [the guests] out unto [them], so that we may know them” or  as put in other translations of the Bible “so that we can have sex with them.” (Genesis 19:5)

I think the most unfair punishment out there is that which you enforce upon yourself. I don’t think I can count how many times I've put myself down for messing up. I do it and I realize I do it. But I blame myself and I put myself down. Even though I shouldn't because I've tried my best and that’s all that really matters. And when you do put yourself down, you’re punishing both yourself and those around you. Yourself because you’re making yourself smaller and others because you’re depriving them of the "best" you.

DID SOMEBODY SAY SODOMY

No.
No, just Sodom.
And its brutal destruction.

(yeah there are gonna be jokes about sodomy in this post hold onto ur butts. heh. get it. butts. because... nvm)

So all these men were looking towards Sodom, right? And, I mean, who can blame them. One can't NOT be fascinated by it. As they were gawking Sodom-wise, God mused on whether or not he should hide from Abraham "that thing which I do". What thing, God? What thing?

But, um. Honestly, what brings this about sort of confuses me, but basically God decides that because Sodom's full of semen- I mean. Sin. He's gonna go down on it- um. Go down and see whether or not the people there have "come unto [him]". If they haven't, he'll know.

Abraham throws a fit about all this, though, claiming that if God destroys the city, he'll be destroying the 50 good men within it. God concedes that maybe he should scope the place out, make sure there are 50 righteous dudes there so that he doesn't unjustly kill them. Then, God and Abraham have a little counting session? What is this, biblical Sesame Street? I think Abraham's just tricking God into lowering the number of righteous men needed for God to not f*guitar riff*ck the whole place good and hard, because... Sodom really is full of sinners? I have no idea what's going on here, I'm literally only here for the sex jokes. (I'm going to be an adult soon. My life's path is full of hope and possibilities.)

Alright, I'm laughing at this next part. Two angels came in...to Sodom, and Lot saw them and fed them and all that good stuff. But then, the men of Sodom gathered round and were like YO LOT. WHERE ARE THE MEN WHICH CAME IN TO THEE THIS NIGHT? BRING 'EM OUT, WE WANNA BANG 'EM. And Lot was just like NONONONO YOU GUYS. YOU GUYS,  LOOK. He then explained that he had two virgin daughters, and, disgustingly, offered to the men of Sodom that they do whatever they wanted with his daughters as opposed to frick dudes. Because having sex with another man is SO much worse than tossing your virgin daughters out to be ravaged by horny Sodomites.

And then I think the Angels got mad? Quite frankly, I'm having a hard time following this whole story. They threatened to destroy the city, but first were like, 'Lot. You were so good to us that we don't wanna kill you. Get the hell out while you can.' So he did...? Something about Zo'ar? God, I don't know what's going on. SODOM GOT F*CKED, THAT'S THE POINT HERE.

Oh, and then Lot's two daughters got him drunk and slept with him.

There's a lot of frickin' going on here.

In terms of unfair punishment, um. Don't hate somebody just because they have sex a certain way? Like, okay, yes, one of the definitions of sodomy is bestiality and that is a VERY BAD THING, but... uh. Yeah. All sex is good sex as long as it's fully consensual and nobody's being hurt.

God, I can't believe I wrote all of this. I'm as ashamed of myself as everybody else surely is of me.

I would post a relevant picture, but... given the content of my post, I think it'd be best that I didn't. You can look that stuff up on your own.

Unfair Punishments, Creepy Advances, and Sixth Grade Selfies

Two angels are walkin' along, doing their jobs for the Lord.  You know, it's just the completely normally job of DESTROYING A CITY AND ALL OF ITS INHABITANTS.  No biggie.  Anyway, the angels arrive at Sodom, looking for anyone who might be righteous within the city, just in case there are any decent souls left.  They then meet Lot, a man who invites them into his home and gives them food and--hey!  He's nice!  Woo!  As the angels are chilling with Lot and his family, the rest of the men in the town surround Lot's house.  Lot goes outside to see what the men want, only to find that they're yelling for the angels to come out of the house so all of the men can have sex with them. YAY WOW GREAT FANTASTIC THAT'S JUST AMAZING but anyway.  Lot basically tells the men off--offering his daughters up to the crowd instead EWW--and the angels do a favor for Lot, in return.  Since they're going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrh, they tell Lot to take his family and leave, and to never look back.  So, Lot does that and gets out before the angels drench the city in flaming sulfur.  Pleasant angels, these guys.  Unfortunately for Lot's wife, she looks back at the city and gets turned into a pillar of salt.  Also, Lot's daughters sire his next two children to keep the family line upheld!  I mean, all of these people are super great and have their values set straight, am I right?

I'm one of the more fortunate people on this planet in that I don't really get punished too often.  In fact, I don't think I've ever been grounded before.  My parents are really nice on that front, which is super convenient in some respects.  However, I think I make up for their lack of punishment by punishing myself.  I get a little crazy when it comes to grades, and I can be really harsh on myself if something bad happens to my schoolwork.  I have this nasty habit of comparing myself to others, and it usually comes back to bite me in the end.
The worst, and most "unfair" punishment I've ever received is probably when I moved to Kentucky (wait wait wait, don't hate on me yet!  The story isn't finished!).  It was Pi Day of sixth grade at 5:29 pm when my parents told me.  I cried a ton, and ran to my best friend's house to tell her the horrible news.  I didn't know what I had done to deserve it; why had I been picked out of anyone to move to Kentucky?  Why was the world so cruel as to land me in a no-shoes, marry-your-cousin, speak-in-a-horrible-accent state, and not keep me in my beloved Georgia?  I didn't know at the time.  I didn't even know until a year and a half had passed from the moment my parents told me.  But, I figured it out eventually.  Looking back now, it's almost laughable--in a horribly sardonic sort of way, anyway.  If I still lived in Georgia, I'd be a completely different person.  I'd hang with different types of people, and I'd be into different things.  I wouldn't have my lovely puppy, Georgia.  I won't go on and on anymore, but to sum things up, the "unfair" punishment wasn't even as bad as I had originally thought.  I guess life is sort of funny like that.

So, being a dramatic sixth grader, I took some pictures--more like over 150 pictures--of my old house just before we moved.  Wanna see?

 And let the sad, dramatic pictures begin.

 The classic mirror selfie.

 Wet hair sad face.

 Oooo, and here we have an artsy shadow, waving goodbye (how original, Anna!).

 *sigh* Look how pretty my house was.

And finally, we have the "Kill me now / I hate life" picture (and if you looked at some 7th grade pictures, you can see how this is the transition between puppy dog face and full-on emo-ness).

Genesis 18-19

Genesis 18-19 discusses the troubled city of Sodom, which is plagued by sin and has lost all sense of righteousness. In addition, Genesis 18 tells the story of Abraham’s hospitality to the Lord and his two angels, who reward Abraham’s wife, Sarah, with a baby even at her old age. In Genesis 19, however, we see God punish the city of Sodom for its lack of righteousness and pure addiction to sin. This is clearly evident when the two angels go to visit Lot and are surrounded by the other men of Sodom once inside of Lot’s house. They demand Lot to hand the angels over so that they may have sex with them. This is clearly wicked and sinful in every way imaginable. However, what’s even more depressing from this story is how Lot responds in fear and offers to give up his daughters to them. Even though Lot isn’t trying to participate directly in the Sodom culture, he is subconsciously conceding that giving up his daughters to rape will solve the solution, which is obviously sad. As we see, the Lord rains down fire and sulfur on Sodom, killing everything within its walls to rid the place of sin. Still, that same idea of being gradually sucked into sin is also subconsciously manifested among the two daughters, who intentionally get Lot drunk so they can have sex with him and get pregnant in order to keep the lineage going.

                Now, I know most people out there, particularly non-believers would view this punishment as ridiculously harsh by God. However, here’s what we have to understand whether we are believers or not. God’s purpose, in everything he does, is to set an example of righteousness that we as humans (sinful creatures) must strive to follow. Notice how I say follow and not a word like “be”. This is a crucial point as the Lord has only ever enabled one person to have the capacity to be “perfect”: his son. He knows that we won’t be perfect. He’s knows that we will make mistakes. However, as painful as reading Genesis 18-19 might be and how the punishment may seem unfair, it sets an example for us to follow and avoid the pitfalls that engulfed desolate Sodom in flames as we strive for forgiveness and separation from our sins.

Speaking of examples, I thought I’d mention one of the examples who I’ve been looking up to as a role model lately. Tedashii is the name of a Christian rapper who I saw in concern a couple of months ago in concert at “Questapalooza”. Tedashii grew up with a caring mom and people around him that had supported him all the way to college at Baylor University. He always people saying that he was a “good kid” and he always considered himself to be a Christian. However, it wasn’t until he was at Baylor that someone spoke out and said that he wasn’t doing things in a godly way. Now, for many people, if someone calls you out about your religion, you generally don’t respond very kindly. Instead of that, Tedashii took it as a challenge to preach God’s word in a unique way through rap and serve as a positive influence to the young generation as well as become a more devout follower of Christ.

This is the cover of his new album "Identity Crisis". http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/cdreviews/covers/identitycrisis.jpg

 

So, there was this city called Sodom and it was pretty bad. God send two angels to warn Lot that he needed to get his family out of the city. The people of the city stormed Lot's door, demanding that he hand over Lot so that they may "know" him. (Mostly likely, they intended to rape him. However, in some texts this is translated as "have sex with" which is conspicuous to me. Having sex implies consent, which isn't really how the angles or Lot feel about the whole situation.) But have no fear! Lot has too lovely daughters who have yet to "know men" that the angry men at the door may gladly share. And the Father of the Year Award goes to Lot. (I would like to take just a moment to point out nowhere could I find a mention that this is sinful in the eyes of God. The angels just seem to roll with it.) It ends up that Lot, his wife and daughters leave Sodom and make there way to Zoar. But on the way to Zoar, Lots wife looks back on her old home and is turned to a pillar of salt. Tragic. Lot and his daughters end up in a cave somewhere and his charming daughters, the very same he was willing to throw to a pack a savages, decide that they must carry on the family line. So, on separate nights, they each get their father blackout drunk and sleep with him. The end. Yay Old Testament.

Firstly, can we talk about how how harsh God seems to be? The woman turned around to give a last look at her home. And for that she is forever a pillar of a table condiment? Rude. If I was struck down for taking a glance at something I shouldn't, well I wouldn't have made it far past the 6th grade. Seems like God has changed his tune. Or his parenting tactics. Which is curious because God is infinite and unchanging. I say this in love and respect; simply an observation about the text.

Having two younger siblings I know a thing or two about unfair punishment. I have observed that as my siblings and I get older, my parents have less and less energy to devote to correcting out behavior, which means my brother gets away with things I never would have dreamed of doing. Like blowing up the family toilet. I apologize for those of you who have already heard this story, but I simply can't get over it. On the Fourth of July, my brother and a group of 3-4 friends decided it would be a good idea to drop a firecracker in the front bathroom toilet. Thankfully there was no exploding porcelain, but water went everywhere and there was a significant crack running all through the now decimated contraption. His punishment? Purchase a new toilet and a week of "no friends." I can loose my phone and laptop for weeks on end for looking at my parents wrong.

*Disclaimer. I am the eldest child therefore I am flawless and my brother is the anit-christ. Except not. I get away with a lot of things he does not and vice versa. I just like telling that story.

Destruction of Sodom

In this story, the city of Sodom is an extremely sinful place, and God decides that he will destroy it. Within the city of Sodom, Abraham's relative is visited by two angels who plan to destroy the city. Sinfully, Lot offers his daughters to an angry mob over the two angels that he is responsible for hosting. After this, the angels tell Lot and his family to flee the city, and begin to destroy it. They are also told not to look back at the flaming city. Unfortunately, Lot's wife looks back, and is turned into a column of salt. Mournfully, Lot and his two daughters flee further from Abraham out of fear. They live in a cave, and the daughters get their father drunk and sleep with him in order to continue their family lineage.

This story is extremely sad. However, I am glad that this is not the way that God operates these days, otherwise I think we'd all be in some major trouble. While dark, the story is a perfect example of what happens when you disobey authority. When someone senselessly disobeys, like Lot's wife did by looking back at the burning Sodom, he or she must face the consequences. In this case, Lot's wife gave a whole new meaning to being "salty" about the whole ordeal.

At some point in every one of our lives, we have or will fall victim too some form of unfair punishment. Either the punishment will outweigh the offense, or the punishment was not given to the appropriate person. In my case, the latter was the most common as a child. I had this friend that would do these random violent thing, for the sole purpose of turning around and blaming them on me. For example, this friend once broke my other friend's favorite toy sword on a tree in my back yard, and then told him that I broke it because I wanted it. First of all, that wouldn't make sense. If I wanted it, I would have stolen it, not broken it. Second of all, no... I didn't break the sword nor did I want it. However, I was blamed and had to buy the kid a new sword. It still haunts me to this day. That sword.

Unfair punishment is a huge part of soccer. This is a perfect example of it, where a referee gives an undeserved red card with a devilish smirk on his face.

www.theguardian.com 

Daphne and the Laurel Wreath

Apollo challenged the archery skills of Cupid. Cupid accepted the challenge by shooting two arrows. One dipped in gold and would cause whoever it hit to fall deeply in love and be filled with lust. The other dipped in lead and would cause whoever it hit to hate and have nothing to do with love. The gold arrow hit Apollo while the lead one hit Daphne. Apollo chased after Daphne and of course she did not like it. She got tired of him chasing her so she called her father for help. He turned her into a laurel tree. Apollo still had feelings for her and he climbed the tree and made a wreath with her leaves. He wore always after that.



I am not sure how I feel about eternal youth. I think I would like it for the most part but that is easy to say when I know it will never actually happen. I can't tell if I would have more stress being an adult or staying young forever. I wonder that because I don't handle stress well at all and I cause most of my own stress. Great. But I think I would enjoy it.

Tower of Babel

Everyone spoke one language and everyone became skilled in construction. They all decided to build a city with a tower in it that reached heaven. They wanted the tower to help them make a name for themselves and prevent the city from getting scattered. God saw what they were building. God knew this tower would lead them away from him. God confused their language causing everyone to have different languages. Also God scattered them all over the face of the Earth.

My next language will probably be sign language. I am learning some right now during mentoring because I work with some non-verbal kids and a few deaf kids. But if I continue with this career path I will just learn more and more sign language. My mentor doesn't know a whole lot, but she knows more than me.