What's morally wrong with "What's morally wrong with homosexuality?"

By David Benkof
DavidBenkof@aol.com

Dr. John Corvino's talk, "What's Morally Wrong with Homosexuality," has been canceled by Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan (a Catholic school) and the same talk has been rescheduled for tomorrow night at the Fountain Street Church.

Corvino has been giving versions of this talk in many venues over the last decade, challenging his listeners to articulate exactly what - if anything - is morally wrong with gay sex and gay relationships. He has quick, thoughtful comebacks to many of the standard answers ("It's harmful," for example, and "It's unnatural.") I've read some of Corvino's arguments at the Independent Gay Forum Web site, and I admire the fact that Corvino acknowledges that decent, intelligent people can disagree on moral issues relating to homosexuality. However, I must say that Corvino's approach could never convince an Orthodox Jew like me.

First off, I should make it clear that Orthodox Judaism does not believe that homosexuality (as a set of attractions or an orientation) is itself immoral. Gay sex and gay marriages, however, are considered immoral.

Corvino's approach to morality is similar to Descartes' approach to reality - one can sit alone in a room and think hard about morality and figure out what's moral and what isn't. Judaism rejects this approach. Instead, we believe that morality comes from G-d - as revealed in His written Torah (the five books of Moses) and oral Torah (codified in the Talmud and elaborated in other rabbinic texts).

Exactly which kinds of intimacy are moral and immoral - and between whom - are spelled out in this legal corpus. Virtually all sexual contact between males, and much sexual contact betwen females is forbidden, and same-sex marriages are rejected for both Jews and non-Jews.

Now, Corvino could probably sit in his room and come up with lots of reasons that aspects of Judaism are "immoral" while things Judaism rejects are actually "moral." He could claim that it is never OK to perform elective surgery without the patient's consent - and infant circumcision, the very sign of G-d's covenant, would be out. He could rail against G-d's commandment that the Jewish people annihilate the Amalekites (a people we no longer can identify) and claim that genocide is "always immoral." He could claim that even though Jewish methods of slaughtering are clearly humane, newer methods actually cause less pain and therefore kosher slaughter is immoral. And he could argue (as he has) that gay sex makes certain people happy, and it therefore must be moral.

The problem is, Corvino is not divine. We may think we've figured out why certain behaviors are moral or immoral, and even find some of G-d's moral calculus to be frankly troubling. But we are moral dwarves compared to the infinite wisdom and goodness of the creator of the universe. One rabbi has compared the situation to a young child who is perplexed as to why his mother would allow the doctor to inject him with painful needles. But parents know that inoculations, while painful, are essential to a child's well-being. Similarly, we may feel that for us, avoiding gay sex is painful and it may even seem "immoral," but G-d knows better than we do what is best for us.

I doubt that anything written above will change the mind of anyone who isn't an Orthodox Jew. And I have no idea to what extent the argument I'm making applies to religious Catholics, Protestants, or Muslims. It's even possible that Dr. Corvino doesn't really have a beef with Orthodox Jews, since none of his arguments seem to address people like me. But I think it's important to point out that for some of us who believe that gay sex is immoral, Corvino's clever ripostes and well-rehearsed arguments are pretty much beside the point.

Labels: homosexuality, Judaism, morality

posted by David Benkof at 8:24 PM | link

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