Attraction or Compatibility?: Rabbi Marc Gellman responds
[You may recognize Rabbi Gellman as one-half of "the God squad" of Today show (and major newspaper column) fame]
Rabbi Boteach says about homosexuality: Sure it's a sin, but so is turning on a light on the Sabbath.
This argument is flawed on so many levels it is nearly impossible to recount them all:--there is a clear difference to all but orthodox Jews between the violation of ritual laws and the violation of moral laws. This is essentially the message of God through the Prophets "Sure you fast on Yom Kippur but you oppress your workers so your fast has no value to me." (Cf. Isaiah 58 which is read as the haftorah on Yom Kippur!) The truth God has taught and we are to learn is that moral laws (those that can be universalized as obligations for all people) have a higher moral claim than ritual laws (the kind that cannot be universalized and are obligatory only upon Jews). Homosexuality, if it is morally wrong (and this is a topic for another more extended discussion) is wrong for all people. It is not a ritual but rather a moral offense. Therefore if it is a sin, and Rabbi Boteach is compelled to affirm this, it is a sin of much greater gravitas than eating a cheesburger! He misses this fundamental point and goes down the wrong road from there.
--to make sexual attraction and compatibility of interests antinomies is also foolish and wrong headed. Both are needed for good marriages, not one or the other. And furthermore it is simply wrong to say that all women hate football and all men hate shopping. The point of marriage is to produce children who can grow up in a loving home with a father and a mother. If this proposition is controversial it is the fault of our age not the fault of our ancient religious wisdom traditions.
posted by maggie at
11:54 PM | Link |
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