Homosexuality and the Holy
Law
By Rabbi David Eidensohn
The issue of
homosexuality, soon to be decided by the United States Supreme Court, roils the
land. People have privacy, the right to live their life, but society thrives
only with family and adherence to biblical mores. The bible considers
homosexuality “an abomination.” On the other hand, most Americans, even the 46
percent who consider themselves evangelicals and the millions of Catholics do
not accept much or most of the Five Books of Moses. Therefore, the Gay Lobby
asks the religious and family advocate, “Why do you invoke the bible when it
suits you with homosexuality, and yet eat foods proscribed by the bible?”
What role does the
bible play in human affairs? Why should something thousands of years old
dictate who can marry? Can people “update” the bible?
Modern physics has
accepted the “anthropic principle,” otherwise referred to as the “A” word,
meaning the cosmos is designed for people, not for chaos and chance. If the
four basic forces of modern physics digressed a bit the world could not exist.
The balance of various parts of the atom, an electron circling at the speed of
light around the nucleus quarks, depends on physical and mathematical laws. If
the nucleus could pull in the electron, the universe would implode and cease to
exist. If the electron flying at the speed of light could slip its attachment
to the nucleus of the atom, the universe would fly apart and disappear. A
similar cosmic precision guides every DNA phase as the double-helix splits and
gathers new bases to create life.
If there be an
“anthropic principle” and Intelligent Design aimed at making people, why did
the Creator of man make our world? We surely cannot invent it or guess it,
because to do that would make us compare our minds and will with G-d, something
unlikely. We know how limited we are. Surely we cannot
invent the mind of G-d. Only G-d can reveal the Mind of G-d. The Jewish people
received the Law or Torah from G-d at Sinai 3,000 years ago. All of
No Jew, no rabbi, no
prophet may ever modify our Sinaitic theology. He may
only declare what we received from Moses. The Talmud says, “No prophet may
create,” only inspire, predict and perorate us with
threats and blandishments. The theology never budges from the basics. The bible
does not evolve. My religion is exactly the same one
as practiced by Moses and my ancestors. We do not question why the bible
proscribes homosexuality or why it is an abomination. After the fact, we may
deduce various ideas and seek to understand, but we cannot do much more than
that.
This is fine for
Orthodox Jews. What of everyone else? They don’t
accept the absolute primacy of the bible. Some foreign language speaks to all
of us from the flowers and the stars, but we cannot understand it. Thus, people
seek religion. For all of human history people have had religions. Even in the
French Revolution, Rousseau attacked atheism as “the luxury of the aristocracy.”
For most people religion is a reaction to something beyond us, but inside of
us. Religion is a very powerful emotion or force, but we cannot clearly
describe it. Will such a religion succeed in defining objections to
homosexuality? Religion based upon purely subjective feelings as opposed to
finite facts will discuss homosexuality with subjective feelings. Can society
govern with such obscurity?
The Oral Law and
rabbinics designate homosexuality a universal law, meaning that even Noahides or non-Jews may not commit homosexuality. Those
who do not accept the bible may nonetheless invoke the proscription of
homosexuality because it violates a basic tenet of humanity, the most sacred
human relationship of marriage. Ultimately, however, each person must either invoke the authority of the bible directly, or,
failing this, must explain why this particular law is sacred while other
biblical laws are not. This is done by demonizing
homosexuality and setting it apart from other sins, such as eating ham and
shrimp. However, once the pro-family position is expressed
by labeling homosexuality in secular terms as unnatural or perverse, we change
the terms of the debate from the will of G-d to the determination of people. We
willingly decide that homosexuality is unnatural and perverse, and then invoke
the bible. Others can disagree with our assumptions, and do.
The enormous agitation in major Western
religions between liberal and conservative is a war that will never end,
because Western religions are created by individuals and
debated by others. As long as there is no sacrosanct bible and Code to
interpret it, there will be differences. Indeed, the founding principle of
Western religion is that mortals coming thousands of years after Sinai may
disagree with both the Written and Oral law given at Sinai. A religion founded
in innovation and progress will never survive an attempt to arrest innovation
and progress. The enormous battles going on now in Catholicism and
Protestantism are nothing new. It has always been this way, except that in
earlier generations the variant sects attempted to settle their differences
with the sword. The secular society is the answer to continual social
destruction, and there is no other solution. Therefore, when the religious
right attempts to impose its moral views by making
Homosexuality is tearing all Western religions
apart, and as time goes on, the debate will grow. Those who battle the Gay
Lobby must fight inside the religious community as well as the secular gay
lobby outside of it. How painful it is when secularists, intellectuals and
media types outside of the religious community hurl missives at the family
activists from religious people. The issue therefore is first the authority of
the bible and secondly, general values. All is focused
on the homosexual issue. At stake are the status of homosexuality in our
society and the status of the bible. If the gays succeed, the bible will become
a hate book. If the biblical people advance, homosexuals will not be able to
consider themselves married, and will not achieve some of their goals.
Inherent
in the religious treatment of homosexuality is the future of Western religion.
Will it remain rooted in the Sinaitic Revelation, or
will it turn to the Eastern call of mysticism without the clear details? The
universe reveals man, but hides his purpose. Spirituality awakens the soul but
does not speak clearly to the mind. Thus, the bible with its specifics is usually ignored. Transcendence is
translated by individuals; the new religion enters the world determined
to spread Truth. When religions clash, society trembles. The impossible
situation of religious warfare then pushes society against religions, and
secular barriers are posted to secure civilization.
One who believes that G-d spoke the prohibition of homosexuality has nothing
against homosexuals. One who denies that G-d said this but nonetheless
proscribes homosexuality must add to homosexuality some secular or cultural
onus, and demonize it.
The Talmud is the Oral Law that interprets the
Written Law, or the Five Books of Moses. Bar Kaporo,
a rabbi of about two thousand years ago, said that the
Hebrew word for “abomination” used regarding homosexuality is an acronym for
“you are lost in it.” Abomination in the English has a connotation of something
repulsive. TOEIVO in the Hebrew is surely a vile thing, but the Oral Law adds “you are lost in it” to indicate a twist on the onus of
homosexuality. Sexuality far removed from the holiness of marriage is a very
sensitive thing. The spirit is searching for resolution. The fire of biology
needs peace. Some forms of sexuality supply neither resolution nor peace. Some
homosexuals do find some peace and resolution with a partner, but in general homosexuality is a sexual style of the traveler,
seeking but not finding. Some homosexuals go from partner to partner, meeting
utter strangers in the street, mating without any delicacy, sometimes through
holes in toilet walls. This is more than sin. This is the soul adrift in pain. A prominent gay writer of a conservative bent
was recently horribly humiliated when some of his own kind found his e-mail
address on some perverse Internet sites. For some reason I
cannot fathom, they decided that since he was a conservative he deserved to be
publicly revealed, as if only liberal gays deserve privacy and self-respect.
Many people are “lost in it,” such as the highly respected Dean of Divinity at
Harvard whose downloads in his computer did him in.
We don’t resolve
Homosexuality by calling names. “You are lost in it” means that we have to help
people find their way back. This is an integral issue of the Gay battle. The
Gay Lobby wants to remain “lost” and declares that nobody can return from
homosexuality. When Dr. Epstein, the editor of Psychology Today, allowed an ad
from NARTH about therapy for homosexuals, the Gay Lobby threatened him. Central
to their program is that a) no gay can change and b) no gay should change. Both
are lies. However, the Surgeon General of the
The homosexual issue cannot
be fought on religious grounds in the West, for the simple reason that
religion is too confused. One study
showed that over eighty percent of Protestant clergy did not accept the basic
tenets of its theology. Editor David Kupelian wrote an article about this for World Net Daily.
“When asked whether they
believed that the Old and New Testament Scriptures were the ‘inspired and
inerrant Word of God in faith, history and secular matters,’ mainline ministers
responded "NO" in overwhelming numbers:
- Episcopalians, 95 percent
- Methodists, 87 percent
- Presbyterians, 82 percent.”
The Catholic Church is swimming in confusion.
To tie the battle against the Gay Lobby to such murkiness is to destroy it.
This is not to say that people who believe religiously that homosexuality is
wrong should not summon their minions to do battle to preserve the family and
biblical values. The tactics of the battle, however, must be secular. What are
they?
The Gay Lobby is itself a religion, whereby homosexuals
are privileged to infect thousands of others and the
state does not interfere. “We are what we are.” You cannot argue with a Gay.
You must do exactly what they demand, or else.
You cannot ask why HIV Confidentiality Laws exist when they result in
huge epidemic and terrible waste of lives and money. The Gay Religion has
spoken. If you disagree with Gay you must be silenced.
You are mentally ill, and must be cured. Hater,
homophobe, inciter, you must be removed from influence over your children. The
Gay Lobby is a global religion whose tentacles protrude in public schools, your
television set, the liberal media, teaching your children to despise you, to
spurn you, to reject you. The Gay Religion wars against the bible, against the
family community. The Gay Lobby is one of the most fanatic
of all world religions, dominating with determined and vigorous hate all who
stand before it. If we don’t get our act together, if we don’t apply ourselves
to defending America and our freedom to be religious and biblical, the gays
will take our children and everything else we hold to be sacred.