Michael Medved writes in the USA Today:
Arnold Eisen, chancellor-elect of The Jewish Theological Seminary, declared: "The decision to ordain gay and lesbian clergy at JTS is in keeping with the longstanding commitment of the Jewish tradition to pluralism.
Pluralism means that we recognize more than one way to be a good Conservative Jew, more than one way of walking authentically in the path of our tradition."
In other words, he now embraces moral relativism in its modern-day "let’s not be judgmental" garb and abandons the traditional role of religion to command or at least suggest clear standards for human behavior and intimate relationships. Jonathan Sarna, professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, justified this new direction by suggesting that Conservative Judaism couldn’t survive without it. "A movement that wants to attract a younger generation of disaffected Jews had no choice but to make this decision," he told The New York Times.
Recent history in both the Jewish and Christian communities suggests he’s wrong: Disaffected young people seldom flock to watered-down versions of religious faith that lack continuity or integrity. The rapidly growing denominations are those that make demands on potential adherents and advance clear standards of right and wrong. That’s why Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity has grown while "mainline" Protestant denominations have dwindled, and why traditionalist Catholicism boasts more worldwide vitality than liberal strains of the church. Meanwhile, Mormons uphold multiple restrictions (giving up alcohol, coffee, tobacco, among other things) and yet constitute one of the fastest-growing creeds in the USA.
Judd posts:
Read this week’s torah portion. The act of homosexual sex is deemed sinful. It does not mean Judaism detests those who have homosexual desires or even those who sin, teshuva is always possible. However, the Rabbis took pains to keep people from the temptation of homosexual sex, in the same way they took great steps to keep married men from the temptation to engage in extramarital sex.
It is not about being against "pluralism," it is about abiding by a code that is of greater import, at times, than what you and I think.There are married men who cannot abstain from extramarital sex, in the same way that many homosexuals claim they are hard wired to being attracted to men. What one must decide is whether one wants is what type of person should be a spiritual leader.
In conservative/reform, it is OK that your rabbi drives on the sabbath, does not possess a certain body of knowledge of the torah and the talmud, and now, perhaps, engages in homosexual sex without any compunction. I don’t like slippery slope arguments, but why can’t a philanderer be a conservative rabbi. There is no law he is breaking and the same chapter that prohibits homosexual sex prohibits extramarital sex – I do not see the difference. It is ersatz judaism with a liberal hat tip. Conservative Judaism will demographically be gone in the US in 50 years. This will only speed the process.
