 |
| LGBT flag on Jerusalem's King George Street, July 31, 2018 (Jerusalem Post) |
If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have
committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is
upon them. (Vayikra – 20:13)
I cite these two Pesukim to make it perfectly
clear that the act referred to in them are serious violations of the Torah of a
capital nature. And to be absolutely clear, the act in question is male to male
anal sex. That is what the Torah forbids on such a grand scale.
I mention this only because I don’t want my understanding of
the nature of homosexuality to be misunderstood. While I of course condemn the
act, I unequivocally do not condemn people that are attracted to members of the same sex. In fact I accept and respect them for who they are and do not investigate how they express those feelings.
That is between them and God. Nor do I necessarily suspect them of violating
the prohibitions outlined in the Torah.
There is nothing new in this statement. I have said it all
before. Many times. I have also addressed the idea of ‘Conversion Therapy’. Which
suggests that same sex attraction can be altered by way of torture (for lack of
a better description). Conversion therapy actually tries to torture people out
of their natural desires. An enterprise that
has been disproved for the most part.
To
he extent that there has been any success at all, it is very likely with people that
were unsure about their sexuality – and were probably heterosexual at the
core. For those that have no doubt about who they are attracted to, it doesn’t
work. Despite claims to the contrary. Experts in the field have made that
determination and I have no reason to doubt them.
As I have also said before, I have no clue whether there is
a ‘gay gene’. There has as of yet been no conclusive medical or scientific
proof one way or the other. What is clear, however, is that whether it is
nature or nurture, once same sex attraction sets in, it is not subject to
change. To put it the way Woody Alan did about his attraction to his
stepdaughter, Soon-Yi Previn, ‘The heart wants what it wants!’
This is why I oppose conversion therapy. Not because I support
a gay lifestyle. But because it is a ‘Bracha L’Vatalah’ (a euphemism for waste of time). It may actually cause harm in a form of
sexual abuse!
So again. I want to make sure that my position on this is clear. I support
the right of people to know who and what they are and to accept them that way. And
not to judge them. We are not God’s accountants.
I bring this all up now because of what happened in the Israeli
Keneset as reported in the Jerusalem Post yesterday:
The Knesset approved a bill to ban psychologists from practicing conversion therapy in Israel on Wednesday, amid a stormy plenum vote. The bill passed with 42 for and 36 against, with haredi members of the government threatening consequences after coalition members voted in support of the bill...
"Shame and disgrace" shouted some haredi MKs after the bill passed…
The United Torah Judaism Party announced on Wednesday that it was releasing itself from all obligations towards the coalition and was considering further steps. UTJ added that they would file a number of bills concerning religion and the state to the coalition in the coming week.
UTJ MK Yisrael Eichler denounced the approval of the bill, saying "the government died in the epidemic of abomination laws."
The haredi Shas Party announced that it would not take part in votes at the Knesset plenum until further notice.
With this kind of vehement
opposition, you would think the Keneset just passed a law legalizing murder! Not a word about distinguishing between the attraction from the act. Implying that the natural physical attraction
itself should be condemned.
That is
not what this law is about. It is about the first rule of the Hippocratic Oath:
First, do no harm!
I understand why they support such ‘therapy’. They want to prevent people from committing a capital sin based on those attractions. They believe it is
possible to change same sex attractions and have ‘proof’ in the many ‘successes’ brought about by such
therapies.
I doubt that is really the case. As noted it is far more likely that
those successes were for those confused
about their sexuality. Not about those that are hard-wired to it.
If someone wants to seek psychological help about their sexual attractions, I have no issue with that. God bless them. There are mental
help professionals that are equipped to deal with that. But conversion therapy is not
one of them.
Whether a gay man can get married to a woman and have a relatively
normal life is a discussion for another day. I would not advise it, although I know
there are such marriages that are successful. The problem is that more often
them not, they are anything but successful. In some cases causing irreparable
damage to the children of such a marriage.
I suppose that another reason the Charedi parties are so
upset is because they see supporting gay people the same as supporting the violation of the Torah itself. Had they not been opposed,
it would be the same as supporting a Toeivah.
This is one of the things I question about Charedi
world. Everything is either black or white. Good or evil. No nuance. No grey. In this
case and with an attitude like that - innocent people get hurt. Where is their
compassion?
