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So to anyone that quotes this story of S&G -- if you honestly believe these were the actions of a loving, merciful diety... well, y'know, there's a few issues there you might want to work on.

Good post. Most scholars IIRC figure the sins of S&G to be more along the lines of disobedience, hostile treatment of guests (Lot offered his daughters because, as any good Mideast house host with guests in your home, you always protect your guests at all costs) and a badly unorganized list of priorities (which means He wasn't at the top of the list).

As for mercy? God was actually haggled down from his original intent of just wiping out the city, to sparing it if there were five good and honest men in the joint. Throughout the Old Testament, God is often self-described as jealous, vengeful, and judging by some descriptions, pretty over-the-top when it comes to revene for injustices. But then, when you run the Universe and your subjects are semi-civilized humans who do far worse to each other on a near-daily basis... let's just call it Getting One's Undivided Attention.

Not until a far more advanced (relatively) stage of civilization do we see the radical concepts as put forth by one Yeshua of Galilee: Love, Forgiveness, Tolerance, Kindness...

/P