( CNN ) This is week three of an ongoing series : A Catholic Reads the Bible . Read week one and week two . When I started this project , my brother texted me , `` Wait until you get to Lot . '' By Sunday afternoon , I understood what he meant . I am horrified by the story of Lot in Genesis . Lot and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was new to me . I actually had n't put two and two together that Sodom is the origin of the word sodomy . ( Feel free to call me dense as you read this ) . Lot is the central character in the grim story of Sodom and Gomorrah 's demise in Chapter 19 . You are introduced to the city by Abraham who tries to save the town . In the preceding chapter , Abraham asks God to agree that if he can find 10 good people in the town , God wo n't smite it . God agrees . Lot is visited by divine emissaries to investigate if there are indeed enough good people to save the town . The men of the town come to seek out the new visitors for `` intimacies . '' Ahem . Yeah . Hospitable bunch , huh ? Those `` intimacies , '' we are meant to understand , account for Sodom 's wickedness . And I guess meant that the town was doomed . ( `` Intimacies '' is the term used in my 1991 edition of the New American Bible . The revised edition refers to `` sexual relations . '' ) To protect the emissaries from the mob , Lot offers up his virginal daughters . Which . Ugh . Anyway , it does n't work . There apparently are n't enough good men to save Sodom , which leads to God destroying yet another population in Genesis . Oh , and while Lot 's chosen family members flee the destruction , Lot 's wife turns around and is turned to salt . She had been warned not to look back . After God destroys Sodom , Lot 's daughters worry that there are n't any men left , so they get their father good and drunk and have sex with him . They need to have children to keep the human race going , the logic goes , I guess . After reading that section , I put my Bible down . I could n't read anymore . Then I read it again . What was I reading ? What are the morals , the meaning , I 'm supposed to get from these ghastly stories ? This is not the God that I have known for nearly 42 years . It 's not the version of the God I pray to daily . I truly do n't believe in a God that wipes out a town in general because of sexuality . Why are they wicked ? I do n't believe that my God that would go after one group -- any group . The God that I pray to does n't punish the `` wicked '' like this . I ca n't comprehend this version of God . I ca n't believe in that kind of God . There were much easier things to write about this week in the pages that I read . But , I want to be truthful with you , my readers . The Lot story struck me -- hard . I wish that I had answers for you as to why this happened or how it was written many years ago . But I do n't . It could be that it was a tale told to make sure that people only had sex to have children . Or it could be a morality tale for the times . The truth is : I do n't really know . I just know that my faith does n't include the idea of such a punitive God . I now fully understand how you could devote your life to reading and analyzing the Bible . And when I read this rough draft to my brother , he said to me , `` You have just hit the tip of the iceberg . '' So , I will continue reading .
This is week three of an ongoing series : A Catholic Reads the Bible . Read week one and week two . This week 's reading is a Lot to take in . Literally .