Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
God, having deemed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah wicked and full of sin, decided to destroy them. He and two angels came to Abraham disguised as men and told Abraham of his plan. Abraham bargained with God until the Lord promised he would not destroy the cities if he could find ten righteous people in them. The next day the angels went to Sodom and were met by Lot, who invited them into his house. They feasted, but a mob of angry people came to Lot's house, wanting to have sex with the strangers. Lot, being a good host(????) did not betray his guests, but instead offered his two virgin daughters up to the townsmen. The mob, unreceptive to Lot's offer, stormed the house, but the angels protected him. Then, having decided that there were not ten righteous people in the whole town, they urged Lot and his family to flee before the whole city was destroyed. Lot and his two daughters reached the nearby city of Zoar, but his wife disobeyed the angels by looking back at the destruction and was thus turned into a pillar of salt.
As Scar once famously said, "Life's not fair," but that doesn't mean that humans shouldn't strive to eliminate unfair punishment. Our justice and imprisonment system in America is screwed up, handing out unfair punishments all the time; punishment is certainly necessary sometimes, but it could often be handled better. I, for one, am a big fan of forgiveness, given that my name means mercy, especially in a biblical context. Had I had the power to destroy whole cities (or flood the Earth) like God does in this story, I would never have followed through with his plan. For supposedly being such a forgiving Lord, his actions often do not display clemency. This has always been a big contradiction for me in my faith. I think we all, as sentient beings (sentient being the key word), should strive to be more compassionate and forgiving and realize that everyone sins.
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