The Gay Lobby, mostly non-homosexuals, is using the homosexual issue for bigger game, the destruction of religious influence and the demonization of the bible. In this, they are succeeding; at least, they are trying with improved tools. The first impact of Gay Rights Bills is the obligation of the state to promote the rights of a behavior banned by the bible. Thus, there is tension between the state and the religious community because of Gay Rights. There is a cleavage between religious and secular people. This is nothing new, indeed, the struggle between secular and religious is the defining force of Western Civilization. Knowing history of this issue tells us much about the present and illuminates our understanding of terrorism.
In the early sixteenth century, the Moslems threatened Vienna. Charles V of Spain and Germany wanted to drive them back, but the Reformation arrived and divided the West. To this day, the Moslem presence in Eastern Europe is a testimony to those times and the failure of the West to resolve its internal disputes when faced with a focused enemy. Charles had to fight France, a Catholic Country, the Protestant German princes, the Mediterranean pirates, and the Moslems. He failed to defeat the Moslems, and eventually, broken in spirit and body, abdicated.
As time went on, sects spawned by the Reformation quarreled as well, and ferocious religious wars engulfed the West. The "Hundred Years War," the "Thirty Years War," and similar strife created devastation that brought the West to the point of destruction. Entire cities were destroyed, helpless orphans withered along with much of society. Finally, a weary West declared secularism; from now on, governments would serve populaces without getting involved in religion. There were those who felt that secularism, science and culture were valuable and that religions were deleterious. Others asked, "What is the purpose of life? How can we proceed without higher truths?" For five hundred years, this issue has not been resolved. The Gay issue is only its latest manifestation.
The West pursued science and dominated the world with military technology. The First World War saw a reversal of the power of the Turks, as the British under Allenby strafed the Sultan's army from the air. After the First World War, the Moslems, especially the Turks, realized that they could not prevail in their struggles with the West and Christianity unless they invoked science. This is behind the furious efforts of various countries to get missiles and weapons of mass destruction. Once they have it, their focused ferocity may challenge the supremacy of the West, resting as it does on science.
The West divided into hundreds of religious creeds, and these creeds themselves are unstable, so the West has no unity in belief. Secular society allows for questioning and finding new science. As the Moslem world learns to question in science and becomes ever more religious even fanatic, the stage is being set for a replay of the past, and nobody knows how it will eventually turn out. Islam had its quarrels, but they were not the utterly divisive ones about the essence of theology that permeates the West. If a civilization is its religion, the West may be a confused civilization, seeking in materialism what it never really found in spirituality. The Moslem and radical socialists are not confused. Herein lies the challenge.
The West, especially after Hitler, is wary of religion, and most large religions either accept secularly imposed boundaries on belief or face decline. Here again is an example of the West's instability regarding religion. The religions themselves are constantly making peace with new secular demands, and thus are fluid in their theology. As they do, the religions split. Conservative Judaism now is in danger of splitting over the issue of homosexuality, and may do so in the next year or so. As religion divides into right and left, the divisions in society deepen. Eventually, some people realize that they must choose between their beliefs and secular demands, and deny secular social commonality. Others become more secular. We become a nation of extremes, and neither segment has true satisfaction in the eternal search for rational transcendence. The clash between religious demands and secular freedom creates a cycle that has no end and leads often to violence.
A television program pours scorn on those who quote the bible about homosexuality when they do not follow other parts of the bible. The television program then goes further and ridicules the bible itself. Gallup in January 7, 2003 reports Public Gives Organized Religion Its Lowest Rating. The crushing public relation blows to the Catholic Church and criticism of Protestant leadership erode the strong cultural ties Americans have to their churches. This dovetails with the Gay Lobby portraying religious people as "haters" and "homophobes." On the other hand, another Gallup reports states that, Religious Awakenings Bolster Americans' Faith. Science and secularism have no answers, and can say nothing about our values and spiritual concerns. This, and the fear of terror, spur people to find G-d.
A faithful visitor to our website has asked how I resolve this issue personally, and I am happy to oblige. First, I believe in G-d as the Creator. The New York Times ran an article not long ago on the "A" word, the accepting by modern physicists that the universe was designed for people, and is thus "anthropic." Who designed it? The Creator designed it, and on this point, most Americans agree, as there are few atheists here. The question then is: If a Creator created the world, why did He do it? Does it make sense that such a marvelous Creator should just shoot out a cosmos and leave it to fly and eventually die? Not even a normal mortal would do such a foolish thing. Therefore, there must be a purpose in Creation. How are we to know it? The missing thing is for the Creator to reveal His Will. This He did at Sinai, when G-d gave the Ten Commandments and the Torah Law to the Israelites after they left Egypt. The bible clearly teaches that all Jews and the multitude of Egyptians who accompanied them saw G-d give the Law to the Israelites. The Ten Commandments and the Torah are all products of that Revelation.
There:
1) G-d spoke the Ten Commandments.
2) Moses received from G-d, during the forty years of the Israelite's sojourn in Egypt, the Written Law, known as the Five Books of Moses.
3) Moses received from G-d the Oral Law. In the Oral Law are the rules to interpret the Written Law.
The Written Law without the Oral law is a disaster. When King Ptolemy forced the rabbis to issue a translation of the Scripture, the rabbis declared it a time of tragedy. Why? Firstly, people would read the bible without the Oral Law Code and think that the Scripture was unfair or unwise. Secondly, people would interpret the Scriptures with no Code and invent what they wanted. An example: The bible is filled with capital crimes. The Oral Law interpreted this as a warning, not put into practice until a person sinned in front of two witnesses who warned him of capital punishment and he sinned anyway. This is so unlikely a scenario. One Talmudist taught that a Sanhedrin that killed once in seventy years was "bloody."
A similar thing is the biblical command regarding parents who have a child who becomes a thief and a glutton. The child is brought to court and killed. The Talmud says, "There was never such a case," because the Oral Law interprets the passages in an appropriate manner, and declares the passage an example of something that never happened but is a warning. "An eye for an eye" means monetary compensation, not gouging out the eye of the perpetrator. Personally, having studied Talmud for almost fifty years, and living in a scientific family, I am satisfied spiritually and rationally.
The above mentioned television show ridicules the bible because it proscribes wearing a garment composed of "diverse threads" of wool and linen. The Talmud says that indeed, it makes no sense, ostensibly. The law forbidding a Jew to wear a garment of linen and wool is a "choke" or rule that has no rational reason. "Choke" is important, says the Talmud, because when we do something in the bible because we understand its logic, we don't serve G-d, we serve ourselves. The bible contains, therefore, rules that make no sense, and we derive no satisfaction from performing them, except the knowledge that we obey G-d and are bound to His Word. Thus, the "Choke" brings us closer to G-d than the laws that we perform because we appreciate them. A scholar would not leave it at that. All of the "Chokes" in the Torah have something to tell us, especially when we get into the Cabalistic areas of polarity and the two forces represented by "flax" and "wool." Wool comes from a living being, whereas flax grows from the ground. Wool is the male force of "kindness" and linen is the female force of "justice," and these two, male and female, represent revealed transcendence (female) and obscure transcendence (male). We must know when we know and when we merely invoke what we do not. These polarities and cycles that are not our topic, but rich for those who pursue the ideas. Television shows are interested in finding something nasty to say about wool and linen garments, but for those of us who have lived for thousands of years bearing the brunt of the scorn of deniers, nothing can detract from our Torah of Truth.
Non-Jews do not have the "Choke" commands, but the Noahide Laws for non-Jews include the proscription of homosexuality. People who have a need for homosexuality act according to their nature, and yet, the bible considers homosexuality an "abomination." However, white-collar crime is not only an "abomination" but also "perverse, disgusting, twisted, wicked, etc." Violation of trust is worse than homosexuality, in terms of these names. Yet, homosexuality is wrong; the bible proscribes it. Homosexuality is a serious sin, but every sin against G-d is serious.
Do I believe that the bible is valid? My father was America's leading battery scientist who doubled the American submarine fleet's cruising power with one invention. My brothers have medical doctorates along with serious Talmudic training and beards. We meet and discuss psychology, physics, Cabala, Talmud and all areas of learning. We have a rational understanding of a rational system. Let those who ridicule the bible explain how 39 SCUD missiles landed on buildings in Tel Aviv without killing a single one of the thousands huddled there with their gas masks during the first Gulf War. Frederick the Great once asked a Lutheran minister for proof of G-d. The minister replied: "The Jews." Israel survived thousands of years at the mercy of a ferocious world. Without divine intervention, I would not be reading this today.
Others who are not Jewish are cognizant of the authority of the bible, and may effectively invoke it for their spirituality. It is G-d's word. The Talmud teaches that Noahides, non-Jews, may not be homosexuals. It tells of a community where homosexuals lived, but they did not perform marriage ceremonies. This recognizes that society is built upon the family, and homosexuality is a problem, not an answer. Even one who is a homosexual must recognize that there is a better way, and not sanctify a homosexual union with marital bonds.
The basic battle I have with the Gay Lobby is that they hurt homosexuals in many ways by telling them lies. If people with homosexual desires want help, why insult them and tell them not to get it? Let us find better therapies and ease the transitions for those who want it. If innocent and struggling homosexuals are locked in mortal battle with brutal fanatics in the Gay Lobby, why don't we help them? The ancient pagans thought that their gods needed burnt children. They put their sons and daughters into glowing hot metal images until the shrieks of the helpless finally stopped. The pagan parents then danced and rejoiced that they had merited to please the god. Others felt that their god needed a lovely young woman. Instead of sending her to the god in a space ship, they put her on an altar and carved out her heart. The Gay Lobby has murdered hundreds of thousands of homosexuals because it forced the government to allow homosexuals to infect other homosexuals with AIDS and HIV with HIV Confidentiality Laws. I would rather die being carved or cooked than to end it with AIDS. We live in a fanatical world. The Gay pagans slaughter huge amounts of people and defy basic human freedoms such as the right to determine one's own sexual preference. Gays say, "If you are inclined to homosexuality, you must be a homosexual, and don't try to change." We deal with another religion that sends little children with bombs to destroy other children. In Israel not long ago, an Arab woman blew herself up next to an Israeli woman. A secular newspaper, one of the bastions of the Gay Lobby, published a picture of two beautiful dead women, and labeled it as if both of them were worthy of the same pity. The New York Times refuses to this day to mention a word about a homosexual who hideously murdered a child. All of the news that is fit to twist. When we see the secular pagan, we know that the bible is better.
The gay world is buzzing now on the Internet about a prominent homosexual activist, B, who decided to turn away from the gay ethic. B explained that he did not find happiness in the gay lifestyle, despite being with lots of men, lots. He felt that his religion compelled him to find G-d through the Torah. Troubled and in need of counseling, the young man approached a non-Orthodox rabbi who listened to B's pain and propositioned him. Searching further, B came to Orthodoxy, although he is not finished with the gay lobby, nor is he finished with his problems. This story tells us a lot. Many rabbis/preachers/priests disgrace their calling. All of us are hypocrites to some degree. Every time I tell my children to behave, I know where they got the bad trait.
The bible teaches things that people do not accept easily. That is why it is in the bible. I know prominent homosexual activists who prayed bitter prayers that were not answered. When they and I come to Judgment, I will be more afraid than them. One thing, however, I can do. I can fight the Gay Lobby. May G-d help me, and them.