This content reinterprets the biblical story of Lot and his daughters in Sodom, drawing parallels to modern societal issues, particularly the exploitation and silencing of women and girls, and the concept of "collateral damage" in various contexts.
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Chapter 19:es 6-8.
Everyone knows where Genesis is,
right? If you find yourself lost in the
wilderness with the Israelites, you went
The book of Genesis chapter 19:es
6-8. I'll be reading from the message version.
Lot went out of the door to the men.
Shut the door after him and said, "I beg
you, my brothers,
do not act so wickedly.
Look, I have two daughters
who have not known a man. Let me bring
them out to you and do to them as you please.
please.
Only do nothing to these men, for they
have come under the shelter of my roof.
Look, I have two daughters
who've not known a man. Let me bring
them out to you.
Do to them as you please. Help us. Help
us. for the f moments that we have to
share tonight.
Proctor, I'd like to speak from this
thought. The girls are not up for grabs. [Applause]
[Applause] [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
[Applause]
God, we love you.
We thank you and we glorify you.
I thank you, God, for the privilege of
standing at this sacred desk. I do not
take it
lightly. I have no delusions of
grandeur. I'm only what you make me in this
this
moment. So empty me, God, of anything
that's not like you. Fill me with your
Holy Ghost
power that as your word goes
forth, your people will be
edified and you will be glorified.
It's not in my manuscript. Put it in my mouth.
mouth.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
I just come from the poorest part.
Bright lights, city lights. I got to
make it. This is where it goes down.
I just happen to come up hard. Cuz legal
or illegal, baby, I got to make it.
If the lyrics I just recited resonated
with you, then you, like me, were
probably riveted each summer as you plop
down with your tablet, phone, or in
front of your television.
Press the button for access to your
Prime app, hit play on Stars, and
prepare yourself to watch the latest
episode of Power.
Airing for six seasons from June 2014 to
August 2019.
Power tells the story of James St.
Patrick, an intelligent, smooth, yet
ruthless drug dealer who goes by the
alias of ghost.
And having grown sick of the sacrifices
and the shenanigans of the street life,
St. Patrick aspires to leave the
criminal world to pursue legitimate
business interests as a nightclub owner.
And St. Patrick's aims to balance those
two lives while also avoiding police
capture, trying to navigate his
crumbling marriage and manage shifting
economic alliances.
Ghost, constantly under stress and
duress, finds that no matter how much he
seeks to leave the streets and go
straight, his compulsion toward criminal
activity and unavoidable complexities
charters a continuous coercion toward crooked,
crooked,
leaving calamity, confusion, and
collateral damage in its wake.
Collateral damage is any death, injury,
or other damage inflicted that is an
incidental result of an activity.
Originally coined by military operations
in times of war, it is now also used in non-military
non-military
contexts. Collateral damage isn't just a
footnote. It's a flesh and blood tragedy
happening in real time. It has a
heartbeat, a name, a home. And right now
across the globe, collateral damage is
crying out. Can I help you make
collateral damage current?
We see the collateral damage of the
shattered and silenced in Gaza.
Picture it. Six-year-old girl buried
beneath the rubble of what used to be home.
home.
She didn't pick up a weapon. She just
lived in the wrong place at the wrong time.
time.
The bomb were bombs weren't aimed at
her, but they took her anyway. Water is
scarce. Medicine is a luxury. And an
entire generation is growing up under
the weight of war that they never started.
started.
Collateral damage. We see collateral
damage in the starved and the suffering
in Sudan.
The bread basket of Africa now starves.
Farmers, teachers, mothers reduced to
scavengers. Not because the land is
barren, but because warlords turned
hunger into a weapon.
The world calls it collateral damage.
But starvation isn't an accident. It's a strategy.
[Applause]
We see collateral damage in the
displaced and desperate right here in our
our
communities. A grandmother stands on the
same street where she raised her babies,
but now she can't afford to stay. The
corner store is a cafe. The rent has
tripled and the neighbors don't look
like family anymore. She worked, she
saved, she built a life, but now her
community has been sold to the highest bidder.
bidder.
They call it
revitalization. But let's be real, it's
Cuz the news won't show the families
forced out, the culture erased, or the
history paved over for profit. But tell
me, when did home become collateral?
Collateral damage is not a statistic. It
is the breaking of families, the eraser
of futures, the merciless toll of
battles waged in boardrooms and bomb
shelters alike. It is never incidental
and it is never
acceptable. Now,
interestingly, current culture provides
a parallel to pop culture when we
consider the collateral damage of James
St. Patrick as he continues to engage in
war. The war within himself as he
straddles the line between the streets and
and
self-righteousness makes his public
school paramore Angela collateral damage.
damage.
The war in the streets and his position
as a permanent target always puts his
tough talking wife Tasha in the trenches
obligated to either take the bag or take
the heat. Collateral damage. H the war
he has with law enforcement and the need
to protect his son sees two sisters from
home go from home girls to homicide.
When Kesha is killed in her brand new
crib, that's collateral
damage. The war with his enemies and the
rules of the game finds his daughter Rea
rendered as a sacrificial lamb in
defense of her twin brother Reek, giving
a new meaning to the phrase from the
womb to the tomb. It's collateral damage.
damage.
Hold on y'all. I I see a pattern here
that flows like a DMX bop Angela, Tasha,
Kesha, and Raina. Uh you see,
when we consider the wars waged by James
St. Patrick, it's clear that the wounded
are all women. [Applause]
In her peace, sins of the father, sins
of the son, on power and the perpetual
sacrifice of black girls and women.
Kahendai Thurman pens these words. She
says, "Power is full of men, full of men
and a boy making the wrong decisions and
full of black women paying for them."
Kesha Rain Tasha, power is full of
sacrificial black girls and women. Folks
often talk about the sins of the father
visiting upon the sons, but rarely do we
talk about those sins visiting upon the daughters.
But Raina knows.
Tasha knows. And here in the text, Lot's
daughters know.
While this star series storyline is
chilling, nothing is more haunting than
how this ghost story so intimately
imitates life. As we come to the reality
that in our country and current context,
our girls too are collateral damage. Can
I prove it to you? Black women across
the nation are murdered at a rate nearly
three times of that of their white
counterparts. Black women and girls aged
15 to 34. Homicide was the second
leading cause of death. And in 2020,
almost 300,000 women were reported
missing. According to the National Crime
Information Center, Proctor, our girls
are collateral damage.
And as we tiptoe through the terror of
this text, We find a man named Lot who
did so little to save his girls.
In fact, when the street came a knocking
at his door in the big rich town of
Sodom and Gomorrah, it was his girls who
were up for grabs. But let me pause here
parathetically to address what else is
up for grabs. The often problematic
position of this paricopy that has been
mislabeled by myth and misnomer by many.
Can I teach for a second?
You see, this text is often used to
condemn and criticize same gender loving people.
people.
But I caution you, Christian, not to
take this text out of
context. Help us here, Dr. Ory
Hendricks. Even the most cursory reading
of this text reveals that it neither
states nor implies that the men in the
offending crowd were anything other than heterosexuals.
heterosexuals.
We are simply told that they sought to
humiliate and gang rape Lot's guests.
Yet from this, somehow it has been
derived that the crowd was comprised of
homosexual men and that homosexuality
was rampant in Sodom. This has resulted
in the wrongheaded conclusion now widely
accepted as biblical truth that Sodom
was destroyed as punishment for the sin
of homosexuality. [Applause]
[Applause]
an interpretation that doesn't actually
seem to have actually entered Christian
discourse until medieval times, a full
millennium after the final form of the
Bible was canonized.
So whereas the sole argument on the sin
Previous chapters in the book of Genesis
elucidate and provide considerable
evidence that the sin of Sodom was not
specifically sexual in the suggested manner,
manner,
but a general disorder of a society
In other words, one ought not concern
themselves with the nature of their
sexuality without also criticizing the
nastiness of their immorality. Can I say
it again? One ought not concern
themselves with the nature of their
sexuality without also criticizing the
nastiness of their immorality. Don't
believe me? Just watch. Here in Genesis
chapter 18, the Lord said the outcry
against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great
and their sin so grievous. I'm going to
go down and see what that what they have
done is as bad as the outcry that
reached me. If not, I will know. God
heard the outcry, the overall
obstruction of justice and power. Jump
in here, Jeremiah. Jeremiah references
their social immorality. They commit
adultery and live a lie. Uh-oh. They
strengthen the hands of evildoers so
that not one of them turns from their
wickedness. They're all like Sodom to
me. The people of Jerusalem are like
Gomorrah. Enlighten us, Ezekiel. He
references their sexual immorality. Now,
this was the sin of your sister Sodom.
She and her daughters were arrogant,
overfed, and unconcerned. They did not
help the poor and the needy. Illuminated
Isaiah. He speaks to their s systemic
immorality. Wash and make yourselves
clean. Take your evil deeds out of my
sight. Stop doing wrong. Learn to do
right. Seek
justice. Seek justice. Defend the
oppressed. Take up the cause of the
fatherless. Plead the case of the widow.
[Applause]
And I wonder
if the girls ever cried out, [Music]
[Music]
did they have the courage to cry?
Did God hear their cry?
We'll never know
because the text renders them voiceless.
Even Mama Lot is voiceless,
a mere shadow of Sodom. All we know of
her is silence and salt.
Why are the voiceless always victims of
such violence?
Does God still hear the cry? Cuz for
centuries we've been crying. Does God
hear the cries of our community? Does
God hear the cries of our culture? Steal
away. Ain't I a woman? We shall
overcome. Does God still hear the cry?
No justice, no peace, power to the
people. I am a man. Does God hear the
cry? I am a revolutionary, a mind. We
who believe in freedom shall not rest.
Does God still hear the cry? I can't
breathe. Hands up. Don't shoot. All
black lives matter. Does God still hear
the cry? Me too, mama. My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Does God
still hear the cry? [Applause]
[Applause]
And will God answer?
For if there is a sinful behavior to be
singled out, it is the sin of the father
Lot. when he offers up his daughters as
an acceptable sacrifice to satiate the
salacious appetite of the
sodomites. I find it interesting
that a text that's so often used to
vilify what is considered gay completely
glosses over the groomer. [Applause]
[Applause]
For truly
Lot is fixed as the father of familial trafficking.
