Welcome to 10 minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life.

In the time it takes to get to work, I'm Keith Simon.

Why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorah? Let's come back to that and answer it in just a few moments, but first I want to

introduce you to Anhel Torres. He's a retired Forklift operator who is from Hartford, Connecticut.

One day he was out running errands and he was walking across a busy street in order to buy milk

at the grocery store when he was struck by a car. The car drove off and there he lay in the

middle of the street. Now we can see all this on video. People were walking on the

sidewalk and they just kept walking. They had clearly seen him but they didn't stop to help him.

Cars came up and drove around Mr. Torres's body. Now the good news is is that he

fully recovered from his injuries. But people were upset, rightly upset.

I mean, they were saying, has Hartford lost its heart?

We get upset when we see someone in need and no one stopping to help that person.

And we like to think that we'd never do that. But I wonder if what happened to

Mr. Torres is a little bit of a metaphor of what plays out on a larger scale in our

culture. Specifically, have American Christians, the American church, done what the people

on the sidewalk did? When the vulnerable of the oppressed, the marginalized, have been lying in the

middle of the street, at least metaphorically speaking, have we as a church done the right thing?

If we've stood by and watched, if we've been concerned, maybe clucked our tongue, but at a safe distance,

then it's far worse than what happened in Hartford,

because we should be motivated to help, not just because of our conscience,

but because of God's word, because of the gospel that we believe.

But instead of starting with our responsibility to help people, let's start with God's

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