Monday, June 20, 2011

Things that make the Charedi community stop eating


Apparently, a fast was called to provoke God into cancelling the New York Assembly's plan to legalize gay marriage. This occurred last week. No word yet from God regarding the success of the effort.

Meanwhile, I remain mystified. I understand that Orthodox Jews believe that God frowns on sodomy, but the proposed gay marriage law will not legalize sodomy. Sodomy is already legal, and blocking the proposed law will not change that.

Moreover, it's in our best interest as Jews for the government to remain strictly neutral on matters of theology. If the government can make gay marriage illegal, why can't it also ban Erusin and Kiddushin? If it can declare homosexuality immoral on the grounds of one set of religious teachings, why can't it declare shabbos immoral on the grounds of some other religion's teachings? Our own thoughts on homosexuality remain strictly irrelevant here. The goal must be ensuring that the government stays silent on any religious question.

PS: The note's use of  hyperbole is awesome. The proposed gay marriage law will not affect a single Jew in the entire world, and arguably, passing the law makes it harder for the government to interfere with Jewish practices, yet the short-sighted and foolish authors of this flyer call the proposed law "A hard and terrible decree".

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