Pew figur show 76% of Jews support legalizg gay marriage, higher than all but the youngt and most liberal of Democrats
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CONSERVATIVE JEWS APPROVE GAY WEDDG GUIL
The Conservative branch of Amerin Judaism has formally approved same-sex marriage ceremoni, nearly six years after liftg a ban on ordag gays and lbians. * judaism gay marriage *
First, should the Uned Stat ernment legalize same-sex marriage, offerg homosexual upl the same legal benefs that married heterosexual upl have? Renstctnist JudaismThe Renstctnist movement exprsed s support for the full cln of gay men and lbians all aspects of Jewish life s 1992 Report of the Renstctnist Commissn on Homosexualy. The report affirmed the hols of homosexual relatnships and the need to affirm them a Jewish ntext: “As we celebrate the love between heterosexual upl, so too we celebrate the love between gay or lbian Jews.
Renstctnist Rabbi Rebec Alpert, thor of Like Bread on the Ser Plate: Jewish Lbians and the Transformatn of Tradn and -thor of Explorg Judaism: A Renstctnist Approach, has argued that the Jewish prciple of enomic jtice mands support for civil gay and lbian marriage, bee the absence of legal benefs for same-genr upl n e them signifint fancial harm. The Central Conference of Amerin Rabbis (CCAR), the profsnal associatn of Reform rabbis, passed a rolutn 1996 opposg “ernmental efforts to ban gay and lbian marriage. ” The Unn of Amerin Hebrew Congregatns, the ngregatnal arm of the Reform movement, followed su 1997, rolvg to, “support secular efforts to promote legislatn which would provi civil marriage equal opportuny for gay men and lbians.
US JEWS AMONG THE MOST SUPPORTIVE OF GAY MARRIAGE
In 1997, the CCAR Commtee on Rponsa voted by a majory of 7 to 2 that homosexual relatnships do not f wh the Jewish legal tegory of kiddh. It also lled for the velopment of sample ceremoni to be ed as a rource for those rabbis who plan to perform same-sex Jewish Conservative MovementUntil very recently same-sex marriage and other gay and lbian issu met wh ltle nsens the Conservative movement. The mtee veloped two kds of ceremoni that n be ed as a gui for a rabbi marryg a same-sex uple, neher of which nta kiddh, and also issued a gui to homosexual divorce.
Two vers Levic (Levic 18:23 and Levic 20:13) exprs unequivol nmnatn of male homosexual sex (although is not clear whether what is referred to is terurse or all sexual acts between men). ”READ: Puttg The Prohibn Agast Homosexualy ContextAs evint by s language, the biblil prohibn do not extend to female homosexual acts, though later mentators disapproved of lbianism. Several tradnal sourc temper the harshns of the “abomatn” by cg the lack of procreative potential as the reason for the abomable nature of the homosexual act.
Nohels, the tradnal Jewish posn on homosexualy is still difficult for many liberal-md Jews, and the liberal nomatns have bated the extent to which gays and lbians n be fully tegrated to relig Conservative Halakhah and HomosexualyThe first and least ntroversial step taken by the Conservative, Renstctnist, and Reform movements was to endorse civil equaly for gays and lbians.