Posted on 07/06/2013 1:38:33 AM PDT by darrellmaurina
LOS ANGELES — Sinai Temple is a Conservative Jewish congregation perched on a hill in Westwood, famous for its wealth, its sizable population of Persians, many of whom fled Iran after the fall of the shah, and a well-known and outspoken rabbi who has at times pushed his congregation on ideologically adventurous paths.
So it was that three weeks before the Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California, the rabbi, David Wolpe, announced in a letter to the synagogue that gay marriages would be performed in this 107-year-old congregation, as soon as the court ruling he anticipated was handed down.
Celebrating same-sex marriages is hardly a new stand for Conservative Jewish congregations. But the decision in this distinctive synagogue has set off a storm of protests in recent days, particularly from Persian Jews, reflecting not only the unusual makeup of the congregation but also the generational and cultural divisions among some Jews over how to respond to changing civil views of homosexuality.
“To officiate a union that is expressly not for the same godly purpose of procreation and to call such a relationship ‘sanctified’ is unacceptable to a sound mind,” M. Michael Naim, an architect, said in an open letter to other Iranian members of the congregation. “Homosexuality is explicitly condemned in Scripture and has been categorically and passionately rejected by all classical Jewish legal and ethical thinkers as a cardinal vice in the same category as incest, murder and idolatry.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
22 ... All of this is only a quick summary and I'm not being fair to the movements described. Describing modern American Jewish practices requires a book, not a page.
34 The surprise for me is the absence of a definitive ruling by Jewish authorities on homosexual marriage. The Catholic Church, for example, bans homosexual marriage ... period. I believe the same is true for the Orthodox Church. Protestant churches, which emerged later, have differing views. Is there an "official" position by the Jews?
It is a very interesting topic. For ~ 1.75% of the U.S. population who are ethnically Jewish, they have certainly impacted the American culture in a large way, for better and worse. Wikipedia stated that there were 7 branches of Judaism present in the U.S. Wikip also cited a 2003 Harris Poll which cited the breakout ... Wikipedia-American Jews
The Harris Poll survey found that of the 4.3 million strongly connected (U.S.) Jews (~67% of the U.S. Jewish population), 46% belong to a synagogue. Among those households who belong to a synagogue,...
38% are members of Reform synagogues
33% Conservative
22% Orthodox
2% Reconstructionist, and
5% other types.
Reconstructionist Judaism (U.S.): 1985 - homosexual ordination, 1993 – homosexual marriage
Reform Judaism (U.S.): 1990 - homosexual ordination, 2000 – homosexual marriage
Conservative Judaism (U.S.): 2006 – homosexual ordination, 2012 – homosexual marriage
Orthodox Judaism (U.S.): no homosexual ordination or marriage
I looked into a Conservative shul. At least in NYC they are nothing more than the retarded wing of the Reform movement, running about 10-20 years behind their heresies.
It’s not so much that the Orthodox Church “bans” homosexual marriage, as we regard it as an impossibility — Christ’s comments in reply to the query from the Sadducees about repeated levirate marriage and the resurrection defining the normative notion of marriage.
I suspect rabbinic Judaism has much the same take: there’s no need to have commented on an absurdity, so there is no formal position.
On the other hand, Leviticus does command the death penalty for lying with a man as with womankind (we Orthodox Christians narrowly interpret this as male-on-male anal sodomy, which alone among homoerotic acts — all of which are sinful and have canonical penances — has the canonical penance common to all sins punished by death under the Old Covenant of excommunication with communion of the Holy Mysteries on the deathbed only), so now that the issue has been raised, it’s rather obvious what the answer is.
As an individual of African and Jewish descent, thank you for your comment.
That is gold. I intend to make that phrase famous. Hope the guy doesn’t mind.
This Jew sure ain’t liberal!
:-)
This is a good sign, but it doesn’t happen nearly enough. If my religion is going to survive, many of my co-religionists need to wake up and wake up very quickly. Liberalism is what spawned Nazism.
It needs to be stated with great regret that 70% of America’s Jews voted for the evil Chairman Obama.
I wonder what would help more Jews understand the truth of their own scriptures and spiritual traditions. Private schools? Maybe outreach among Jews - Sabbath School for adults?
A reaching out attitude from religious Jews to the secular/liberal ones?
Of course huge numbers of Christians think “gay is good”, abortion is fine, and let’s vote for 0bastard.
The problem of religious people not following their own scriptures and spiritual traditions is huge. (Obviously I’m leaving out Izzlam. We want them to get far away, as fast as possible, from their book and traditions...)
When the messiah mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures comes (not Jesus) the Jews of the world will be fully observant to Torah.
The Conservative Movement was infiltrated by the same Marxists that infiltrated the liberal Christian seminaries. It’s become steadily more absurd for decades. Orthodox Judaism has attracted thoughtful young people. The Conservative Movement is nothing buy an arm of the homosexual agenda. These dishonest activists mold God to their image, rather than the other around. Tremendous dishonesty.
and the worst part is they don’t care.
Refreshing!
Great post, I am in agreement with what you said.
"We have no king but Caesar." (John 19:15)
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