Lux Lucet

Answering Sodom by Ralph Ovadal (Madison, Wisconsin: Heart of the Matter Publications, 1998, 252 pages).

It has come as a bit of a surprise to this author just how much space has been dedicated on this blog to various aspects of the aggressive and unbiblical Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) agenda. This was not something that was planned. Rather, the alacrity the LGBTQ victories and the ominous implications they portend both for the well-being of America in general, and the welfare of American Christians in particular, cry out for sound Biblical analysis.

It was in the course of researching a recent article on Transgenderism that I discovered the book that is the subject of this review. Written in 1998, it appears that this title is no longer in print. But with tremendous resources available on the internet, it was not hard to find a copy for a reasonable price. In my case, I purchased the book on ABE.com for about $13.00, shipping included.

One may suppose that a book on the subject of the homosexual movement that was written 18 years ago may come off a dated. But this is far from the case. The issue at hand – the push by LGBTQ activists to gain legal sanction for, and societal approval of, their lifestyle – remains largely the same. And not only this, but the arguments used to justify the normalization of homosexuality have not changed much over the past two decades. Add to this Ovadal’s sound exegesis and application of the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality, and you have a book that not only is as relevant today as when it was first written, but perhaps one that is even more so.

Ovadal begins chapter one with the words, “The evening of April 12, 1996 was beautiful and calm in Madison, Wisconsin. Well, at least the weather was calm. By seven o’clock, the night air in front of Trinity Evangelical Fellowship Church was rent with curses, blasphemous invectives, and chants such as “Crush the Christians! Bring back the lions!” and “Queer mob rule!” All this, the author explains, as a result of a joint speaking appearance that included him and Scott Lively, the author of another book titled The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party.

At this point, a little background on Ralph Ovadal is in order. Mr. Ovadal is pastor of Pilgrims Covenant Church in Monroe, Wisconsin. He is an active minister, outdoor evangelist, Christian apologist and broadcaster. His sermons and Heart of the Matter programs may be found here on Sermon Audio. It was due to these activities that Ovadal found himself the target of the invective described at the outset of his book.

Chapters of Answering Sodom include: Harbingers of Hell in the Halls of the Church; Homosexuality: America’s Sacred Sin; Serving Satan in the Name of God; High Rollers in a Cosmic Casino; Anything but Sin; It’s All Just a Big Mistake; God vs. God?; Shame on Who?; Deadly Deceptions; Friendly Fire; Answering Sodom. The Notes section at the end provides ample documentation of the book’s many citations.

Ovadal summarizes his teaching on the subject of homosexuality on page 38 by noting,

Homosexual acts are acts of gross sexual perversion which are an abomination to God. Homosexuals are sexual outlaws who, short of repentance and rebirth through Christ, will spend eternity in the lake of fire. On the other hand, those homosexuals who are willing to repent and submit themselves to their Creator’s law can be washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God and adopted into the family of God by the merits of Christ, just as promised in I Corinthians 6:11.

This also serves as a good summary of the book.

Of all his statements on homosexuality, the one most likely to ruffle the most feathers in today’s world, even among profession Evangelicals, is Ovadal’s call to outlaw homosexual acts. In a nation that recently legalized same sex marriage, such talk would seem to be wildly out of place. But as the author notes, “Until 1961, homosexual acts were outlawed in all fifty states” (201). If this seems hard to believe, a New York Times
article from 1986 cites Supreme Court Justice Byron White making the same statement.

The book’s last chapter, Answering Sodom, is also among its strongest sections. One could even call it prophetic. For here Ovadal offers and insightful critique of the weak arguments put forth by pro-family/anti-homosexual organizations at that time. Throughout the book, Ovadal shows a penchant for using military language and examples to discuss the conflict between Christians and LGBTQ activists, an apt comparison. Using a World War II metaphor, Ovadal comments,

Standing against this perverse juggernaut [of the homosexual lobby] has been a too feeble, often timid, easily embarrassed pro-family movement which had counted on a just-no-special-rights Maginot line to stop the invaders, an ineffective defensive line long ago by-passed by the depraved storm troopers of the sexual libertine army which now occupies much of America (221).

The no-special-rights argument was an attempt by conservatives to prevent homosexuals from acquiring the status of a protected class in state law. By denying homosexuals protected class status, so the argument went, property owners could refuse them service on the basis of their sexual orientation and enjoy legal protection from discrimination lawsuits.

To demonstrate the weakness of this position, Ovadal cites a now long forgotten 1996 Supreme Court ruling, Romer v. Evans, in which Justice Anthony Kennedy overturned Colorado’s Amendment 2. As Ovadal explains, “Amendment 2 was a statewide referendum which was approved by Colorado voters and adopted to that state’s constitution. Amendment 2 precluded “all legislative, executive, or judicial action at any level of state or local government designed to protect the status of persons based on their ‘homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships’ ” ” (222).

Kennedy’s ruling, as Ovadal notes, was, “a logical conclusion, a virtual echo of the just-no-special-rights strategy which conservatives have been pursuing” (222). After all, the conservative, pro-family groups had argued that, “open homosexuals should be guaranteed every right and freedom law-abiding citizens are guaranteed” (224). Ovadal points out that Kennedy simply took this admission by the conservatives and threw it right back at them, arguing, “if the sexual acts which homosexuals commit are deemed to be legal, then why should discrimination based on those acts be allowed? Discrimination against “heterosexuals” is not allowed on such a basis” (223).

The passage of 20 years since Kennedy’s majority opinion in Romer v. Evans has added insult to injury for conservatives in Colorado. For the state is the home to one of the longer running, more bitterly contested civil rights cases involving gay marriage, with Denver baker Jack Phillips finding himself prosecuted by the state for his refusal to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple. One Colorado Civil Rights Commissioner went so far as to compare Phillips to the Nazis for his stance.

Justice Kennedy recently found himself in the news again, this time for this for writing the majority opinion if the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges case, in which the Supreme Court struck down all existing state level laws prohibiting same sex marriage.

Worth noting too is that Kennedy was not appointed to the Court by some liberal, but by the most iconic conservative of recent times, Ronald Regan.

Instead of making weak arguments along the lines of no-special-rights or seeking religious exemptions to pro-sodomite legislation, Ovadal argues that Christians, trusting in God, should make the Biblical argument that homosexuality is not only a sin, but a crime as well, and seek to have sodomy laws reinstated. This reviewer concurs with him.