-SDJW staff report-
SAN DIEGO — The decision by President Barack Obama to throw his support behind same-sex marriages in the United States has prompted comment pro and con from various Jewish groups.
The Orthodox Union pronounced itself “disappointed by (Wednesday, May 9)’s statement by President Obama endorsing legal recognition of same sex marriage. Jewish law is unequivocal in opposing same sex relationships. Moreover, marriage and family has long been a prime value for the Jewish people. While Judaism also teaches respect for others and condemns discrimination we, as Orthodox Jewish leaders, oppose any effort to change the definition of marriage to include same sex unions.
“Such legalization is also problematic with regard to religious liberty, as dissenting institutions are pressured to support or recognize relationships they cannot. Thus, we appreciate President Obama’s statement … acknowledging that in states where same sex relationships are legally recognized, such laws must carefully address and protect the religious liberties of dissenting individuals and institutions, and the President’s reported reference to the New York State law (on whose strong religious liberty provisions the OU worked) as a model for how such protections must be in place.
“The Orthodox Union will continue its efforts to advance the values and interests of our community in the public square through civility and the democratic process.”
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Viewpoints of other Jewish organizations will be added as they are sent in
I have to tell you that over the course of several years, as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors, when I think about members of my own staff who are in incredibly committed, monogamous relationships, same-sex relationships, who are raising kids together, when I think about those soldiers or airmen or marines or sailors who are out there fighting on my behalf and yet feel constrained, even now that “don’t ask, don’t tell” is gone, because they are not able to commit themselves in a marriage, at a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married.
Angry voices on the so-called “Christian right” are already screaming about President Obama’s “war on religion,” but today’s announcement regarding same-sex marriage was actually an inspiring religious pronouncement. Why?
First, because it came one day after one of the nastiest, meanest anti-gay votes in recent memory, North Carolina’s “no families but mine” Amendment 1. It offers a studied contrast between humanity and dogmatism, inclusion and nastiness. Religious and non-religious people alike can now see two very different ways of approaching how we ought to live with one another, one welcoming and the other cruel, one open to the experience of others and the other with its hands over its ears, one focused on compassion and the other focused on exclusion. Who Would Jesus Discriminate against, anyway?
Second, Obama’s statement is a model of religious reasoning. Jesus said in the Sermon of the Mount, “By your fruits, you shall know them” (Matthew 7:16). This, not some obscure lines in Leviticus or Corinthians, is the real religious message regarding gays and lesbians, and it is the way Obama made up his mind on this issue. Over time, he said, he has come to understand the truth of same-sex couples, that they are as capable of commitment, love, and sanctity as opposite-sex couples, and that it is an injustice to deny the benefits of marriage to gay people.
Those are religious values; they are exactly what the Sermon on the Mount preaches, as well. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit,” Jesus said (Matthew 7:18). Well, let’s apply that method to the question of same-sex marriage. Does it produce bad fruit or good fruit? Good fruit, as Obama himself has come to understand. Therefore, it, too, is good.
This process is about the growth of individual conscience: I used to feel one way, but over time, in a careful and long process of discernment, I come to feel a different way. And look at the evidence Obama cited: People on his staff, friends, and family — these, not abstract principles — are what shifted his heart and mind. Thinking of his personal responsibility for the lives of soldiers serving our country — this, not some policy point — is the data that weighs into questions of right and wrong.
Affirming the equality of LGBT people, including same-sex marriage, is not a choice between religion and some other values, between God and gay. It is, on the contrary, a direct consequence of taking religion seriously. It’s easy to sit back comfortably with one’s assumptions and prejudices. What’s harder, and thus what really counts, religiously speaking, is to be open to what other people and their experiences have to teach us. That’s how we can fulfill the injunction of Matthew 7:16, and it’s exactly what the president showed us today.
-via Jay Michaelson
You are talking about fulfilling the injunction of Mathew. Yet the Bible says that homosexual acts are an OBAMANATION. Even Mathew would admit that.So really your opinion has nothing to do with the bible but with your own feelings.
Feelings are powerful things but as you know when we go after our feelings we sometimes get into trouble. The LGBT community is trying to shove their way of life down everyones mouth. They are trying to be federally and state recognized so that they can teach their alternatives lifestyles to children. In fact children in public schools as young as five are learning about that the gay way of life is an option. For many years gays were able to be together have civil unions. The reason they want legislation to marry (they already have civil unions)is so they can prosyletize and to make them feel better about the evil acts they do.
The Jewish bible says that non Jews are obligated to be against incest adultery Homosexual acts and bestiality. So society should be against it and certainly not promote it However on an individual level there is a democracy so individuals can live according to their choices that is democracy . However for the government to step in an mandate homosexual marriages this an act against humanity. For the government to change the definition of marriage is by definition immoral and evil For the president to publicly support this immorality makes him against Mathew against the old testament an enemy of the Bible an enemy of religion an enemy of morality and an enemy of real Jews Obama is like his name an Obamanation. Obama has nothing to do with religious reasoning he is one the great hypocrites of the times saying his Christian faith influenced him. He is just making fun of Christianity.