The city of "Sodom", in the Bible, represents the love of self and the love of ruling or dominating others springing from the love of self. This is why it is depicted as such an evil place, and why it was utterly destroyed by God.

This is not, of course, the usual association people have with Sodom; it has long been connected to homosexuality because in Genesis 19 the men of the city tried to rape the male angels who were visiting Lot. But if you think about it, it makes sense. Experts regard rape as a crime of violence and domination more than a crime of sexual desire. The fact that Lot offered his daughters as an alternative indicates that he thought that the men of the city were not picky about who they dominated and violated. Their chief pleasure was in the domination. All stories about adultery in the Bible -- from the more mild up to and including the intended homosexual gang rape in Sodom -- are actually depictions of selfishness in various forms.

2322. That 'Sodom' means the evil, especially those inside the Church, is clear from the meaning of 'Sodom' as evil that stems from self-love, dealt with in 2220, 2246. It means therefore people who are governed by such evil. People who understand the Word purely from the sense of the letter may imagine that 'Sodom' is used to mean a certain kind of foul behaviour that is totally unnatural, but in the internal sense 'Sodom' means evil that springs from self-love. Out of this evil all evils of every kind well up. And the evils that well up from it are in the Word called 'adulteries' and are described as such. This will be clear from those places in the Word which will be quoted at the end of this chapter.