Everything happens for a reason
Somebody up there likes me
What did I do to deserve this?
These and many other expressions that are often directed at the idea of some Divine exercise of "reward and punishment" stems from this very Torah portion.
Sure, chapter 26 of Leviticus is certainly a list of terrible things that God will do to you if you don't keep His rules. But this week's version not only has twice as many punishments listed (96 according to the count in Midrash Tanchuma), but it is preceded by 11-12 curses (depending on if you count #12 as a summary or a separate curse) of things people do in secret.
This view is damaging to society because it creates the view that anything bad that befalls upon another person is because he or she sinned. Are you a guy who was betrothed to a young woman who was raped (verse 28:30)? God was punishing you. Or maybe she wasn't raped, but committed adultery instead. Again, God was punishing you, and they were his vehicles.
Of course, how this affects any punishment for adultery or rape when it was apparently God's will requires a lot of philosophical gymnastics.
This is one of the core philosophies of the Westboro Baptist Church which pickets funerals.
They are simply echoing a sentiment found in The Babylonian Talmud by Rav Ammi (Shabbat 55a), that if not for sin, no one would die. And the idea that the children would die for the sins of their fathers was also acceptable as well. Here is a snippet from Shabbat 32b:
If you see someone mourning the loss of a loved one, do you accept that it was the result of sin and try to help correct the sinner, or do you give comfort?
That is the dilemma that literalists go through who accept that all punishment is the result of sin.
If there is a drought, then obviously the people of the town have sinned. Sure, they look like good people, but it's probably a secret sin. So the only way around this is to atone for it through fasting. At one time, self-flagellation was also considered a remedy.
The belief in a Heavenly Reward and Punishment has done much to impact who we are as human beings. It is a factor that was used to control people, to tell them that all the good that they have is from God, but also, all of the evil as well. And the only way to avoid the evil is to keep every single rule (28:1) that God set down, and the only way to have good in your life if to keep every single rule, and the only way to get rid of the evil in your life, beside returning to doing every single rule is to work with the religious leadership who will atone for you.
Little good can come out of this view.
And it is this view that festers among many of the religious, especially the one who blame those who died in a hurricane as deserving of God's wrath for any number of stupid reasons (e.g., God opposed that town's passing of a law that permits gay marriage.).
One would think that none of these people had ever read the Book of Lot.
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