We just celebrated the 235th anniversary of our nation’s birth.
We can use this time to reflect upon the power of our Constitution and how we continue to interpret it to correct wrongs and injustices, to spread equality and protection.
The 1st amendment created freedom of religion; the 13th amendment abolished slavery; the 19th amendment ensured women’s right to vote.
We can also consider landmark legislation. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed racial segregation, ended unequal application of voting rights and ensured greater equality between men and women in the work place; Loving v. Virginia in 1967 made laws preventing Caucasians from marrying non-Caucasians unconstitutional; the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act made illegal any forms of discrimination based on physical and mental disabilities.
Our next great step forward considers same-sex unions (legal in five states) and same-sex marriage (legal in three states). The recent addition of New York makes this number four.
Within Judaism, much controversy surrounds the subject of same-sex marriage. But how we interpret law and tradition has changed with the times, organically, much like how we interpret our nation’s constitution.
I am proud of the courageous stances our Reform rabbis have made. In 1996, we passed a resolution accepting same-sex civil marriage; in 2000, we affirmed the use of ritual to commemorate same-sex unions.
However, we have yet to to take an official stance on whether same-sex unions/marriages have the same sense of Jewish holiness as heterosexual Jewish marriage.
What do I believe?
I believe it is possible for both heterosexual couples and same-sex couples to foster a relationship with an equal sense of holiness. This holds whether we are speaking of a Jewish heterosexual couple, an interfaith heterosexual couple, a same-sex couple where both are Jewish or an interfaith same-sex couple. To me, all can share a sacred, committed, permanent bond.
The Reform Movement teaches that being gay or lesbian is not a sin and that gay and lesbian sexual acts are not sinful. We teach that all are created in God’s image and that God would never create a person who was inherently sinful.
Within our nation’s legal code, in a way, our judges are making parallel constitutional rulings. Gay and lesbian sexual acts are no longer equivalent to violations of the law. Gay and lesbian couples should have the same opportunities and be protected by the same laws as heterosexual couples.
Jewish law and constitutional law can agree: the rights of minorities should be protected; might is not right; no one’s civil rights should be denied because of the religious beliefs of others.
As we celebrate the anniversary of our nation’s birth, may how we interpret our constitution continue to correct past injustice, foster equality, and as stated in its preamble, “form a more perfect union.”
And may how we interpret Jewish law and tradition strive to express the same ideals.
I am not sure how you can say that being gay or lesbian or their sexual acts is not a sin when God decided to destroy an entire community of people (Sodom and Gomorrah) for just that sin.
Also, in the same paragraph you state that God would not create a person who was inherently sinful, but that is not the case at all. God created us perfectly, but ever since sin was brought into the world by Adam and Eve’s disobediance we have all been born with a tendency to sin. The distinction here is that God did not create sinful people, but he did create people with the ability to sin; and had he not done that we would not have the ability to love, or in other words, we would be as puppets in God’s play having no choice as to the actions we make or carry out. This is obviously not the case, God created us with the ability to judge and choose between things, our problem is that we tend to choose the wrong way all too often. As we look into the laws of God (the ten commandments), we begin to see (if we are honest with ourself) that there is no way that any of us have been or ever will be able to keep any of these laws perfectly, which is God’s standard. This poses a real problem for us if we want to one day have communion with God for eternity.