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Homosexuality and the Holy Law |
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by Rabbi David Eidensohn
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.
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D. Eidensohn's poem
"The Wall" won an International Poetry Contest. His poems appear in
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