I'm not Jewish, but it doesn't take a Jew or a genius to see this in the real world.
Posted on 12/01/2006 1:19:24 PM PST by Risha
Rabbis Reconsider Gay Sex
A panel of 25 Conservative rabbis is meeting next week in New York to discuss whether homosexual sex is permitted under Jewish law.
The discussion will center around five proposed teshuvot, or answers, to questions regarding homosexuality.
Two answers reportedly uphold the traditional position from the Bible: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is an abomination” – which prohibits homosexuality between men and, by extension, between women.
But the other three answers argue for a reinterpretation of that prohibition, and "on a practical level, they could open the way for Conservative rabbis to perform same-sex commitment ceremonies and for Conservative seminaries to ordain openly gay rabbis,” the Washington Post reports.
The Conservative movement has about 2 million members worldwide, and occupies a position between Orthodox and Reform Judaism. Advance word is that the panel – the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards – will approve conflicting answers. That’s possible because the votes of just 6 of the 25 panel members are required to declare an answer valid.
In any case, whatever decision the panel reaches will be only advisory, according to the Post. In the Conservative movement, each rabbi can decide which point of view to follow in his or her synagogue.
But the panel’s decision will be important for the future of the Conservative movement, which has seen its numbers dwindle in the U.S. in recent decades.
Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, told the Post that the "movement as a while will be able to say that it is in the center and, more important, that there is more than one way to be a Jew . . .
"The Democratic Party did pretty well with that big-tent strategy in this past election, and my sense is there is a lesson there for a centrist movement that is struggling to appeal to younger people.”
ping
These conservatives are not conservative.
In the end, I believe only Orthodox will survive, and rightfully so.
Why not go all the way and be a Unitarian. Then you can believe in everything. Or nothing.
The Jews once abandoned God, and in 70 A.D. "no stone was left standing upon another." They'd do best to revere their Torah, not revise it.
All they need now is the golden calf and it will be party party party. Meanwhile back orders for asbestos lined umbrellas are going through the roof.
Hmm. Wonder if God gets a vote?
Ah, GK chesterton, that man was wise.
My eldest brother is a college chemistry professor, extremely smart, and a Unitarian. I don't get it. How can you believe in a religion where 2+2=5, or maybe 3.4, or possibly an attractive shade of blue, or "whatever you think it is" and integrate that with being a scientific person?
Q: What do you get when you cross a Jehovah's Witness with a Unitarian?
A: Someone who knocks on your door and has absolutely nothing to say.
What the hell--let's make the Ten Commandments the Ten Optional Behaviors.
Big tent thinking, you know.
Conservative is as conservative does. So, now they want to be the "Big Tent" party of Rabbis.
Oy!
Not that there's anything wrong with that.............
Funny how they placed the phrase "big tent" into this story.
The headline is misleading. I thought it meant Brokeback Rabbis for a minute.
But the other three answers argue for a reinterpretation of that prohibition,
I can hardly wait to see the tortured logic used to reinterpret this bit of Scripture.
It's not ambiguous in the least.
Paul addressed the issue of women in Romans 1:26 (KJV), "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:".
So now there is a loose-leaf edition of the Torah?
Excellent graphic -- thanks!
I say this because this thinking has been used by the homosexual lobby to support their position.
If Jews no longer sacrifice, in violation of the Torah, why not allow gays to marry which is also against the commands of the Torah?
What is the rational by modern Judaism to stop the all the daily, monthly and yearly sacrifices?
And all at the same time!
"I give you fifteen...er Ten Commandments." - Mel Brooks as Moses
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