{"id":485,"date":"2011-05-26T22:43:00","date_gmt":"2011-05-26T22:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/05\/orthodox-gays-ask-for-recognition.html"},"modified":"2011-05-26T22:43:00","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T22:43:00","slug":"orthodox-gays-ask-for-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/05\/orthodox-gays-ask-for-recognition.html","title":{"rendered":"Orthodox Gays Ask For Recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There are few issues today that illustrate the superiority of humanism than homosexuality.\u00a0 For all of religion\u2019s talk of honoring people because they are \u201ccreated in the image of God,\u201d for the more traditional and hidebound among the faithful, this is often a meaningless slogan.<\/p>\n

An article in today\u2019s ynetnews<\/a> (English version of Yediot Achronot) talks about the creeping acceptance of Orthodox Jewish gays:<\/p>\n

A once unimaginable movement is emerging from within Israel\u2019s insular Orthodox Jewish community: Homosexuals demanding to be accepted and embraced, no matter what the Bible says.<\/p>\n

Living alongside a secular majority that has largely embraced the Western gay rights movement, Israel\u2019s religious gays are increasingly rejecting age-old dictates to ignore their attraction, abstain from sex or undergo therapy that supposedly will make them straight.<\/p>\n

A decade ago, says Yuval Cherlow, a heterosexual Orthodox rabbi, he would have dismissed the phenomenon as \u201ctwo or four crazy people that are assimilating into Western world culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then he was invited to a meeting of Orthodox homosexuals. More than 50 people turned up, nearly all graduates of Orthodox religious seminaries. Cherlow said he began to realize the issue had to be addressed, and he now advises religious gay groups.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First of all, I have to give kudos to Rabbi Cherlow and the handful of others who do take their rhetoric seriously.\u00a0 Even so, as the article goes on to explain, no one has any illusions that this will grant anything to gays that Jewish law explicitly forbids.\u00a0 Tensions have already broken out over just how much they can really ask for and just how loud and proud they should be.<\/p>\n

Humanism doesn\u2019t use scripture as a starting point, except insofar as it points to a long history of suffering for women, minorities, gays, the physically disabled and so on.\u00a0 Humanism simply asks this:\u00a0 How can we elevate the dignity and well-being of a person without diminishing the dignity and well-being of another living being?\u00a0 That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

Scripture can be very good literature.\u00a0 But when we\u2019re trying to figure out the place of a person or group in our society, it\u2019s the humanistic question we should pose.\u00a0 I can certainly understand the horrible position that these religious gays find themselves in.\u00a0 They want God\u2019s approval so badly.\u00a0 However, God never gave or withheld approval from anyone or anything.\u00a0 It\u2019s we humans who do that in his name.\u00a0 Even the theists should see this, given that there is rarely any agreement among them about what it is their God wants or approves of.<\/p>\n

They, too, might try asking the humanist question first.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are few issues today that illustrate the superiority of humanism than homosexuality.\u00a0 For all of religion\u2019s talk of honoring people because they are \u201ccreated in the image of God,\u201d for the more traditional and hidebound among the faithful, this is often a meaningless slogan. An article in today\u2019s ynetnews (English version of Yediot Achronot) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16,31],"class_list":["post-485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-homophobia","tag-orthodox-judaism"],"yoast_head":"\nOrthodox Gays Ask For Recognition<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There are few issues today that illustrate the superiority of humanism than homosexuality.\u00a0 For all of religion\u2019s talk of honoring people because they are\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/05\/orthodox-gays-ask-for-recognition.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Orthodox Gays Ask For Recognition\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are few issues today that illustrate the superiority of humanism than homosexuality.\u00a0 For all of religion\u2019s talk of honoring people because they are\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/05\/orthodox-gays-ask-for-recognition.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-26T22:43:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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