Posted on 11/19/2005 3:40:09 PM PST by Alouette
HOUSTON - The leader of the largest branch of American Judaism blasted conservative religious activists in a speech Saturday, calling them "zealots" who claim a "monopoly on God" while promoting anti-gay policies akin to Adolf Hitler's.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the liberal Union for Reform Judaism, said "religious right" leaders believe "unless you attend my church, accept my God and study my sacred text you cannot be a moral person."
"What could be more bigoted than to claim that you have a monopoly on God?" he said during the movement's national assembly in Houston, which runs through Sunday.
The audience of 5,000 responded to the speech with enthusiastic applause.
Yoffie did not mention evangelical Christians directly, using the term "religious right" instead. In a separate interview, he said the phrase encompassed conservative activists of all faiths, including within the Jewish community.
He used particularly strong language to condemn conservative attitudes toward homosexuals. He said he understood that traditionalists have concluded gay marriage violates Scripture, but he said that did not justify denying legal protections to same-sex partners and their children.
"We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations," Yoffie said. "Yes, we can disagree about gay marriage. But there is no excuse for hateful rhetoric that fuels the hellfires of anti-gay bigotry."
The Union for Reform Judaism represents about 900 synagogues in North America with an estimated membership of 1.5 million people. Of the three major streams of U.S. Judaism Orthodox and Conservative are the others it is the only one that sanctions gay ordination and supports civil marriage for same-gender couples.
Yoffie said liberals and conservatives share some concerns, such as the potential damage to children from violent or highly sexual TV shows and other popular media. But he said, overall, conservatives too narrowly define family values, making a "frozen embryo in a fertility clinic" more important than a child, and ignoring poverty and other social ills.
One attendee, Judy Weinman of Troy, N.Y., said she thought Yoffie was "right on target."
"He reminded us of where we have things in common and where we're different," she said.
Yoffie also urged lawmakers to model themselves on presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, who famously told a Houston clergy group in 1960 that a president should not make policy based on his religion.
On other topics, Yoffie asked Reform synagogues to do more to hold onto members, who often leave after their children go to college. He also said the Reform movement, which is among the most accepting of non-Jewish spouses, should make a greater effort to invite spouses to convert.
Judah P. Benjamin was a Jew who was twice elected to the US Senate by LA voters in the decade prior to the civil war. He resigned from that office in 1861 and was appointed to 3 separate positions in Jefferson Davis' cabinet.
He was first appointed to the position of Attorney General where Davis called him ""a master of law and the most accomplished statesman I have ever known." Later he was chosen to be Davis' Secretary of War, then later he became Secretary of State for the CSA. After the fall of the CSA government Benjamin escaped to the Bahamas and then went on to England where he became a prominent, and very wealthy, lawyer.
More about Benjamin HERE
Fear not correction. In this case, you are correct. ;-)
Oh, I know all about Mr. Benjamin. Truth be told, I've been fascinated by the Confederacy and Mr. Benjamin ever since I read Mr. Benjamin's Sword. Painted a very different picture of the Confederacy for me than what I learned in school. Later research showed me that, while undoubtedly racist, 19th century Southern States were -not- anti-Semitic. In fact, Jews seemed to integrate much better there than the North and were accepted as part of the community. In fact, it was only until well after the War that the South began to turn anti-semitic for the next few decades. Largely related to the rise of the KKK probably. I continue to study it idly every now and again. The problem was, since the major wave of Jewish immigration (at least numerically) came in the 19teens and 1920s, the Jews remember that period, and not the good ol' days (so to speak). Cultural imprint that's hard to change.
But with proper education and access to a full spectrum of sources, it's not an unfeasible longterm goal. ;)
What leftwing ideas have ever been spawned there rather than being imported from university intellectuals or the political class? What element of the ideology of the left can anyone point to and say "Reform Judaism originated that?"
I can think of none.
However, if one were to ask, what parts of the ideology of Reform Judaism originated at the universities or in the Democratic Party, I can think of many.
If it doesn't work this time, the address is www.biministry.org
Somewhere you can hear James Baker saying I told you so.
Actually the Midwest was where Jews assimilated the most seamlessly, back when. Senator Alan Specter, from Dole's tiny town of the prairie, Russell, Kansas, is an example. He maybe a bit too liberal, but he is totally Midwestern, in accent and style. Feingold is another, and that genial stupid senator named Wyden (who brings the average Jewish IQ down all by himself), from the Yankee WASP diaspora area known as Oregon is another. When I meet some unaffected genuine person in California, of about my age, sans the BS, someone of whom I think I can trust their word, I find more often than not, that they are from the Midwest. Just another anecdote.
There is nothing in Judaism that prevents gay men from being counted into a minyan, any more than pork-eaters, or Sabbath violators.
Welcoming such people into a congregation does not imply an endorsement of their conduct, but rather a request to help them repent.
Living without the joy of eating properly prepared and BBQ'ed and sauced baby backed pork ribs, seems an intolerable discipline to me.
You have never tasted my hot wings.
thanks for posting those links! awesome! no suprise, Robert E Lee, was the most dignified man I know of.
I like this idea. Or we could hold a death-cage wrestling match between Rabbi Yoffie and Pat Robertson. Sell tickets; all proceeds go to Magen David Adom.
He's talking about Moose Limbs, right?
Perhaps he goes to the same Kabalah class as Madonna.
Since Pharmboy brought Kabbalah up, can I as you something just because I'm really curious. How popular is Kabbalah among Jews? It seems to be well accepted at JewishWorldReview.com.
Beef ribs on the grill are even better than pork ribs.
oh yes..most definitly there are many Dim "churches"
of conveinience, whose main tents seems to be that
God was created in their image, and is malable
and ignorable on any point of disagreement.
LOL! Yep! That lil speech woud certainly raise
hackles in cewrtain circles of the Left.
I thought I smelled some Jewish penicillin (chicken soup) in there somewhere. Otherwise, it just sounded like warmed over socialism.
Nam Vet
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