ANGER SIMMERS AMONG NY CLERGY ON GAY RITES: From the NY Sun

Not consulted, for the most part, by politicians or the press, many New York religious leaders expressed anger at a state Supreme Court judge's decision redefining marriage and frustration at receiving the cold shoulder from Mayor Bloomberg on the issue of gay marriage.

"The church teaches that the state is in a position of recognizing, but not designing, marriage--it comes from God. ... It really can't be messed around with," the priest at the Immaculate Conception Church in Staten Island, Peter Byrne, said. ...

The Catholic Archdiocese of New York declined to comment. ...

The president of the Catholic League, William Donohue, criticized the mayor for not communicating with the religious community on the gay marriage issue. Mr. Donohue, whose national Catholic civil-rights organization is based in the city, is strongly opposed to same-sex marriage.

"Clearly, if the mayor had in place the kind of outreach programs to people of faith as he has to the gay community," Mr. Donohue said, "he'd be much more inclined to reconsider his position, and take a stronger stand." ...

Also expressing concern about the judge's ruling was Agudath Israel of America and its executive vice president for government and public affairs, David Zwiebel.

"We oppose the idea of redefining marriage to encompass same-sex relationships. We think it creates a fundamental revolution in civilized societies and also, at the same time, places a certain imprimatur of legitimacy on relationships that large segments of the population, including our own, regard as sinful," Mr. Zwiebel, who is an Orthodox rabbi and a lawyer, said. ...

The Rabbinical Assembly's Joel Meyers also said the court decision reflected an excess of zeal for stripping the secular law of any sort of religious content. The assembly represents Conservative rabbis, and Mr. Meyers said: "For the Conservative movement, marriage at this point ... continues to be viewed religiously." ...

Their Reform counterparts, however, feel quite differently.

"The Reform movement has been fully supportive of civil legal rights to gays and lesbians, and that includes gay marriage," the director of the Religious Action Center of the Union for Reform Judaism, David Saperstein, said.

Mr. Saperstein said the movement's stance on gay marriage stemmed from its opposition to discrimination of any kind, and its "clear policy that sexual orientation ought to be treated like gender and race."

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posted by Eve at 5:55 PM | link

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