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Judaism's Sexual Revolution: Why Judaism (and then Christianity) Rejected Homosexuality
orthodoxytoday.org ^ | Dennis Prager

Posted on 05/21/2015 6:18:24 AM PDT by RoosterRedux

When Judaism demanded that all sexual activity be channeled into marriage, it changed the world. The Torah's prohibition of non-marital sex quite simply made the creation of Western civilization possible. Societies that did not place boundaries around sexuality were stymied in their development. The subsequent dominance of the Western world can largely be attributed to the sexual revolution initiated by Judaism and later carried forward by Christianity.

This revolution consisted of forcing the sexual genie into the marital bottle. It ensured that sex no longer dominated society, heightened male-female love and sexuality (and thereby almost alone created the possibility of love and eroticism within marriage), and began the arduous task of elevating the status of women.

It is probably impossible for us, who live thousands of years after Judaism began this process, to perceive the extent to which undisciplined sex can dominate man's life and the life of society. Throughout the ancient world, and up to the recent past in many parts of the world, sexuality infused virtually all of society.

(Excerpt) Read more at orthodoxytoday.org ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: gays; homosexuality; marriage; westerncivilization
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To: Phinneous

According to Jesus, marriage was God’s plan from the beginning...

Matthew 19:4-6 “And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Whether Jews believe in Jesus as the Christ or not, I think Jesus’ interpretation of Genesis is right on. Noah received guidance, but the plan was there before Noah.


21 posted on 05/21/2015 7:23:14 AM PDT by CitizenUSA (Proverbs 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.)
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To: RoosterRedux

I notice that this “PIECE” was only reserved for the Christians and the Jews. Let me ask this question: “WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME A JEW OR A CHRISTIAN KILLED A HOMOSEXUAL”? Meanwhile the Muslim religion has never been asked that question. If you will notice, most of the killings of homosexuals are being done by the MUSLIMS. We see in every day news, how MUSLIMS are killing homosexuals by the hundreds, if not by the thousands. Yet no one in the liberal, socialist or communist group has ever made any accusations to the MUSLIMS


22 posted on 05/21/2015 7:40:02 AM PDT by gingerbread
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To: CitizenUSA

What did he interpret? A specific verse is quoted...


23 posted on 05/21/2015 7:40:03 AM PDT by Phinneous (Viva Napoli!)
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To: TMA62
Excellent point TMA62!
24 posted on 05/21/2015 7:45:55 AM PDT by Know et al (Keep on Freepin'!!!)
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To: RoosterRedux
"Hope you agree?"

Yes, I do. It is a very well developed argument.

One interesting tangent shooting off from Preager's observation that Jews would not have considered an unmarried Rabbi to have the necessary gravitas to be a leader of a congregation is what to make of Christ.

I can see a number of interpretations:

1. His unmarried status may explain, to some extent, why the religious hierarchy took a dim view of His teachings.

2. Being Devine Himself, He did not require a mate to increase His holiness.

3. Jesus represents an evolutionary step in monotheism that transcends the Old Testament conscriptions.

Nevertheless, I think, this is a very thoughtful essay.

25 posted on 05/21/2015 7:47:12 AM PDT by Pietro
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To: RoosterRedux
B T T T ! ! ! ©

26 posted on 05/21/2015 7:47:12 AM PDT by onyx (PLEASE SUPPORT FR. Donate Monthly or Join Club 300! God bless you all.)
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To: Pietro
One interesting tangent shooting off from Preager's observation that Jews would not have considered an unmarried Rabbi to have the necessary gravitas to be a leader of a congregation is what to make of Christ.

I think Jesus is the exception to the rule because as the Son of God, the Church (the entire body of believers) is to be His bride.

27 posted on 05/21/2015 7:53:29 AM PDT by RoosterRedux (WSC: The truth is incontrovertible; malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end...)
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To: RoosterRedux

Because God said so?


28 posted on 05/21/2015 7:58:24 AM PDT by JimRed (Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & Ifwater the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
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To: RoosterRedux

It could explain why he was so poorly received in the Synagogue.


29 posted on 05/21/2015 7:58:52 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you are not part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: RoosterRedux

This article goes right along with an article posted just a short time before on FR about the new “Mad Max” movie. The original article is at http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/05/emmad_maxem_and_the_dreamwork_of_homosexuality.html


30 posted on 05/21/2015 8:13:01 AM PDT by DeweyCA
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To: RoosterRedux
Ancient societies unassociated with Judaism or Christianity also had marriage between one man and one woman. The Greeks, the Romans, the Norse, they all had institutions of marriage.

Yes, the wealthy or kings might have harems, but that was true of the old Jewish kings too.

31 posted on 05/21/2015 8:18:42 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: Travis McGee

I’ve brought up his points in arguments with feminists.
No society that ever tolerated homosexuality ever treated women as equals.


32 posted on 05/21/2015 8:58:42 AM PDT by tbw2
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To: tbw2

Ditto polygamy. Women always wind up as slaves. Always.


33 posted on 05/21/2015 9:19:37 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: MrB

“Of course, the lib in question didn’t have the biblical knowledge to understand what I was talking about.”

I’ll bet not. Most people wouldn’t. I presume you are referring to Isaiah’s prophesies. He was either a time traveller, or Someone was telling him the future.


34 posted on 05/21/2015 9:35:56 AM PDT by TexasRepublic (Socialism is the gospel of envy and the religion of thieves)
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To: TMA62

From God via the Jewish faith.


35 posted on 05/21/2015 9:36:33 AM PDT by Biggirl ("One Lord, one faith, one baptism" - Ephesians 4:5)
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To: CitizenUSA; TMA62; RoosterRedux; don-o
I'm pretty sure Prager, being a God-believing Jew, would say God created marriage. It's also true that He had His message carried forth civilizationally, through the Jewish people.

Though I'm not quite sure what happens to Polygamy, Biblically. The Patriarchs and Kings were not one-woman men. And this is never explicitly repudiated. It does seem, historically, that polygamy had become rare among the Jews--- if it had not faded out entirely --- by the Christian era.

I read articles on this a while back in the Jewish Encyclopedia online (both on Monogamy and on Polygamy) and --- if I'm remembering correctly -- over the centuries just before and just after the time of Christ (though they didn't describe the timing that way) it gradualy disappeared. There wasn't a General Council of some kind that specifically rejected it. Polygamy simply became, for most of Judaism, a moot point. Anybody have more information on that?

36 posted on 05/21/2015 11:27:09 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Jesus, my Lord, my God, my All.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/12260-polygamy#anchor3


37 posted on 05/21/2015 11:49:13 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Mrs. Don-o

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/558598/jewish/Does-Jewish-Law-Forbid-Polygamy.htm

The Jewish Encyclopedia is not really a Jewish source. A similar source that is Jewish is

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/index.html


38 posted on 05/21/2015 12:11:57 PM PDT by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: onedoug

Thanks for this reference. Polygamy seems to have been mainly a “king” thing.


39 posted on 05/21/2015 12:13:48 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (I'm not denyin' the women are foolish. God Almighty made 'em to match the men.)
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To: jjotto

Thanks for these references. It’s an interesting history.


40 posted on 05/21/2015 12:24:55 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (I'm not denyin' the women are foolish. God Almighty made 'em to match the men.)
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