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Here, in Israel, there has been a rather interesting development on the gay scene. A group of religious gays (Jews) has organized itself and is trying to get rabbis (some of whom can spit hellfire as well as a US bible-belt fundamentalist) to agree to sign a certain statement.
The idea is to word the statement in such a way that it includes only matters to which there really is not and cannot be any objection under religious law and to carefully avoid including matters to which said rabbis would object.
Thus rabbis are asked to sign that
Gays should and can remain religious
Gays should not be forced to marry women
Conversion treatment "does not suit everyone"
There is no ban on expressions of love and friendship between men
The virtues between a man and his friend also apply to gay people.
If a large enough number of rabbis were to sign such a document it would allow religious gays to be accepted as such within their communities. This is particularly true of the ultra-orthodox (black coat) gays.
It will be interesting to see how many rabbis will have the guts to sign such an innocuous statement - which carefully omits any reference to Leviticus etc.
J F R
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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