I posted about this issue earlier, but am revisiting it in light work being done by three Jewish groups in response to LGBTQ bullying. Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST), Keshet and Nehirim are starting work to promote acceptance for those who identify as LGBTQ within the Jewish community, and just jointly started a project called Strength Through Community.
This project cultivates support from organizations, leaders and individuals within the Jewish Community against LGBTQ bullying. It also promotes training for religious leaders to this end. On the website, there are dozens of videos from Rabbis and leaders that give individual It Gets Better messages. Since its launch a month ago, the movement has expanded nationwide.
While I am just beginning to learn about this movement, perhaps what I admire about it most is the following quote from Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum of CBST: “Anyone who condemns LGBTQ people with religious language is blaspheming God’s name.” Clearly, this isn’t going to fly with every religious type around the world, but it is an interpretive move that I respect and am willing to support within my own tradition.
Within the Jewish and Christian traditions one similarity is the strict warning against blasphemy, or, mildly put, taking the name of God and disrespecting it. Here the implication is clear: using the Jewish religion to hurt another is counterproductive to the foundation of the religion itself. I would argue the same is true for Christianity, at least the of it version that I identify with personally.
It is currently the season of Advent within the Christian tradition. For me, this means I am engaging in a time of the year where I consider the birth of Jesus and what this means for me at the close of 2010. Right now, I immediately am reminded that Jesus came to reach out and protect the oppressed and the socially marginalized. I can’t think of an instance where bullying was a part of Jesus’ purview.
I close with the realization that more religious communities, including my own, should be engaged in the work congregations and organizations CBST, Keshet and Nehirim are doing.
Below is information I copied and pasted about groups mentioned above:
Congregation Beit Simchat Torah is one of the oldest and largest faith based LGBTQ action and community organizations in the country. Serving as New York’s synagogue for the LGBTQ Jewish community, and with an active social justice and educational program, CBST is a renowned leader of progressive religion and LGBTQ Jewish issues.
Keshet is a national grassroots organization dedicated to creating full inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Jews in Jewish life. We offer resources, training, and technical assistance for creating change in Jewish communities nationwide.
Nehirim (“Lights”) is the leading national provider of programs for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) Jews, partners, and allies. Our retreats and other programs transform lives, and inspire GLBT Jews to be agents for change in their home communities. Nehirim is an independent, nonprofit, and nondenominational organization which celebrates the gifts of Judaism and sexual & gender diversity.
For more information about this project, or to schedule an interview, please contact Gabriel Blau at 212-929-9498 x25 or email gblau@cbst.org
Thanks for keeping this topic going. It seems to me that Jesus was even known for standing up to bullies– especially bullies whose violence was fueled and endorsed by religious authority. When bullies believe God is on their side, the self-righteous, self-satisfied quality of their violence makes it particularly heinous and difficult to prevent. What was it Jesus said?
Oh yeah: Which of you bullies is going to cast the first stone?
“Anyone who condemns LGBTQ people with religious language is blaspheming God’s name.”
So says Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum.
“And you shall not cohabit with a male as one cohabits with a woman; it is an abomination.”
So, according to my translation, says Leviticus.
So to my question: can God blaspheme in God’s name?
The serious point which underlies this is that the debate within Judaism over homosexuality, as that within Christianity, reveals clearly the fickle nature of basing one’s morals on scripture.
When morality becomes literary criticism we have a problem.
So it’s either acceptance or bullying, huh? Nice rhetorical framing! I’d like to think there is a way to stand up to bullies and with the bullied even while Scripture, Tradition, and reason prevent me from being an “acceptor” (when that would include accepting the idea that homosexual acts can be God-pleasing). Wishful thinking on my part … or the way of Christ? (that is, James, the real Christ in whom the real Christians who read the Bible correctly believe 🙂
Paul: Thanks for your comments.
James: Valid questions. Sure, many religious communities justify all sorts of “biblical mandates” or “moral codes” by claiming a specific directives given to ancient contexts have the same relevance today. I don’t see how this interpretive method can be life giving or is particularly helpful, or even justified in these scriptures. And, everyone who read a holy scripture and has an opinion about it is using one form of literary criticism or another, so I don’t know what to say about your last remark.
Ben: I think I was attributing the promotion of acceptance to the organizations I identified. Mainly, I am talking about the important of religious communities working aganist this “bullying” that has been happening. I did not claim in my essay that there are only two ways to look at this issue. And, I appreciate that your interpretation leads you to different convictions than mine, but that does not mean my opinion is less “Christian” than yours (if that is the faith tradition you identify with.) What do you mean by “real” Christian, anyway?
Thanks, Honna, for your thoughtful piece and kind response to my response. The “real Christian” bit was written with a healthy does of sarcasm anticipating the incisive response I expected my comments might elicit from a keen intellect like James’– something like “given the plethora of interpretive options taken as of late, which ‘Christ’ and which ‘Scripture’ are you talking about?” It was my attempt to avoid the question of multiple interpretations. I was in no way questioning the “Christian-ness” of your convictions. I’ll attempt to telegraph my sarcasm as little more clearly in the future!
More to the point, while you might not be promoting the acceptance/bullying binary, I think many are… and perhaps not without cause. That is, even as one committed to the Great Tradition and in agreement with its understanding of the disordered nature of homosexuality, I am not so blind as not to recognize that the rhetoric of the church–ie, “homosexuality is sinful”–contributes in some way to the violent, bullying reactions of some against homosexuals. Is such rhetoric intrinsically violent? If not intrinsically, at least, very easily co opted. Knowing words like “homosexuality is sin” are often abused by some to justify violent acts, I somehow don’t feel I should be allowed to say them unless I am at the very same time actively and much more vociferously engaged in condemning the self-righteous ignorance that leads anyone to view homosexuals as anything less than those created in the the image of God and for whom Christ died.
Thanks, Ben, for your clarification. Usually, I appriciate sarcasm – but it is often hard to discern it here since many of us are still getting to know each other. I appriciate very much your clarifications – I can see how that would be a hard balence. I do think, given the complexity of the issue and the diverse views on it, that it is helpful for us to make sure there is a place for differing views on this issue. (And sorry for the delay – the holidays were pretty consuming.)