{"id":681,"date":"2010-10-17T19:07:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-17T19:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/maybe-its-a-mitzva-for-gay-kids-to-kill-themselves.html"},"modified":"2010-10-17T19:07:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-17T19:07:00","slug":"maybe-its-a-mitzva-for-gay-kids-to-kill-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/maybe-its-a-mitzva-for-gay-kids-to-kill-themselves.html","title":{"rendered":"“Maybe It’s A Mitzva” For Gay Kids To Kill Themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Here is a horrifying story of Orthodox homophobia as told in the New York Jewish Week<\/i> by<\/span><\/a> the only out of the closet gay Orthodox rabbi, Steven Greenberg:<\/span><\/p>\n

This past spring, my partner and I moved to Cincinnati. Soon after we arrived, an Orthodox synagogue in town prohibited our attendance. The rabbi of the shul called apologetically to inform us that the ruling had come from a rabbi whose authority exceeded his own. I decided to call this rabbi, who is the head of a prominent yeshiva and a respected halachic authority\u2026.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026I shared with him that people who are gay and lesbian who want to remain true to the Torah are in a great deal of pain. Many have just left the community. Some young gay people become so desperate they attempt suicide.<\/span><\/p>\n

His reply: \u201cMaybe it\u2019s a mitzvah for them to do so.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I thought I had lost the ability to be shocked by their hatred, but apparently they have not fully explored all the depths of their loathing for gays.<\/span><\/p>\n

The very next day, a hatred-filled Jonathan Mark published his regular column<\/span><\/a> in the same newspaper:<\/span><\/p>\n

We know Reform rabbis support gay marriage. And, yes, they support intermarriage, too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026And we know that Reform clergymen love \u201cdialogue\u201d with any imam or priest, anywhere, any time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDialogue,\u201d by the way, is a fancy Reform rabbi word for what us regular folks call \u201ca conversation,\u201d just like a \u201ccollation\u201d after Temple is a fancy Reform rabbi word for what the rest of call a kiddush.<\/span><\/p>\n

One fancy Reform word that\u2019s used too often, when referring to the Orthodox, is \u201chomophobic.\u201d You almost can\u2019t find an article on Jews and homosexuality in which Reform rabbis (and other liberal Jews) aren\u2019t calling Orthodox rabbis \u201chomophobic.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026Dear Reform rabbis, you wouldn\u2019t like it if Orthodox Jews started calling Reform rabbis \u201cTorah-phobic,\u201d would you?<\/p>\n

By the way, when\u2019s the last time a Reform rabbi dared to call an imam, or the vast Muslim world, \u201chomophobic\u201d?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

First of all, I grew up Reform and never heard the word collation except when we were putting calendars together.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now to the point.\u00a0 I would argue that most Reform rabbis are Torah-phobic and rightly so.\u00a0 The Torah promotes racism, misogyny, genocide, rape and homophobia.\u00a0 I\u2019m proudly Torah-phobic (although it\u2019s a silly word that I won\u2019t use).\u00a0 My only complaint to Reform rabbis is that I wish they would admit it instead of pretending that the Torah is a useful source of modern moral authority.<\/span><\/p>\n

I will also happily call Islam homophobic. The Islamic world is indescribably worse for gays than America.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean we don\u2019t have problems here, too.\u00a0 I will also gladly call the Catholic Church and right-wing evangelical Protestants homophobic.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Steven Greenberg appealed to the basic humanity of that \u201cprominent\u201d and \u201crespected\u201d Orthodox rabbi, that wise rabbi praised gay teen suicide as a \u201cmitzva.\u201d\u00a0 I would like anyone to explain to me how that is not an expression of hideous, outrageous hatred.<\/span><\/p>\n

I won\u2019t call every Orthodox rabbi homophobic.\u00a0 The incalculably small percentage of Orthodox leaders who have signed the Statement of Principles on the Place of Jews with Homosexual Orientation in Our Community<\/span><\/a> are kind people.\u00a0 I certainly don\u2019t agree with their religious positions, but they are trying to be decent human beings. \u00a0In order to sign, Orthodox leaders don\u2019t even have to change their position on Jewish law.\u00a0<\/span>Their minute number underscores my point.<\/p>\n

For the sake of Jonathan Mark and his followers, I\u2019ll try not to describe the rest of them with a \u201cfancy\u201d word like homophobic.\u00a0 Let\u2019s see, what would be a good alternative that he wouldn\u2019t have to look up in the dictionary?\u00a0 Got it!\u00a0 I\u2019ll call them primitive, hateful nincompoops.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is a horrifying story of Orthodox homophobia as told in the New York Jewish Week by the only out of the closet gay Orthodox rabbi, Steven Greenberg: This past spring, my partner and I moved to Cincinnati. Soon after we arrived, an Orthodox synagogue in town prohibited our attendance. The rabbi of the shul […]<\/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":[16,27,31],"class_list":["post-681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-homophobia","tag-morality","tag-orthodox-judaism"],"yoast_head":"\n"Maybe It's A Mitzva" For Gay Kids To Kill Themselves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Here is a horrifying story of Orthodox homophobia as told in the New York Jewish Week by the only out of the closet gay Orthodox rabbi, Steven Greenberg:\" \/>\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\/2010\/10\/maybe-its-a-mitzva-for-gay-kids-to-kill-themselves.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Maybe It's A Mitzva" For Gay Kids To Kill Themselves\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here is a horrifying story of Orthodox homophobia as told in the New York Jewish Week by the only out of the closet gay Orthodox rabbi, Steven Greenberg:\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2010\/10\/maybe-its-a-mitzva-for-gay-kids-to-kill-themselves.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-17T19:07:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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