We’ve been close friends for years. We have shared Sabbath meals and addressed one another’s constituencies. One of us is a very large black man, the other is an average size white guy. One of us raises Rottweiler dogs, the other sails boats. One of us is a Christian pastor, the other is an Orthodox Jewish rabbi. Yet for all these differences, something recently united us. And it was not that we’re both bald or that we both have beards!
What happened is that the senior rabbi of one of Seattle’s largest Reform congregations attacked us in a local newspaper for our opposition to homosexual marriage. In his florid article, he fired off three grenades at us.
The first was that in regarding homosexual conduct as a sin, we demonstrate that we lack love and compassion.
The second was that we sully religious faith with political exploitation.
The third grenade the Reform rabbi lobbed at us was that we hurl out our hate speech while safely hiding behind our ethnic identities.
Well, he’s not the first to deploy that outdated ordnance and not the first to discover that those particular grenades are duds. They make a lot of noise but throw no shrapnel.
Take that first charge, for instance. Does a mother who denies her children their urges for an excess of unhealthy food lack love and compassion for those children? Of course not. Some might argue, however, that while candy imperils teeth and half-pound hamburgers cause obesity, homosexual behavior hurts nobody. This is precisely where our beliefs differ from the Reform rabbi’s. We believe that homosexual behavior does indeed threaten the durability of a society – maybe not immediately, but in time.
You see, clear and present threats, like angry Rottweiler dogs, are not so dangerous because people recognize the threat and avoid them. But dangers that take longer to develop can be truly terrifying. For example, early in the 20th century people would seek therapeutic benefit in the tunnels of uranium mines in Montana. This horrifying practice persisted for decades before the dangers of radioactivity were fully understood. By the time they were understood, it was too late. By then large numbers of patients had contracted cancers, become diseased, and had died.
By the time the perils of homosexual marriage become obvious, it might well be too late. That is our belief and we are entitled to share that belief with others.
Our belief, shared by millions of our fellow Jewish and Christian Americans, is that Scripture provides a blueprint for safe and long-term human organization. Call us “old-fashioned” or any other names you prefer, but human history does seem to bear out our view. It is hard, if not impossible, to think of a society for whom rampant homosexuality was not a symptom of impending extinction.
Additionally, we also believe, though this seems obvious, that living in a healthy and vital society with a long-term future is more valuable than living in a doomed one. Thus it is our belief that societal acceptance of homosexual marriage will, in time, worsen the quality of our own lives and those of our children here in the United States. Let us make it as clear as we can: We oppose homosexual marriage because it will ultimately harm the land we love and lower the quality of life for those many millions for whom we have great compassion.
Look at it this way: we are advising all the occupants of our lifeboat to discourage some individuals from drilling small holes through the hull. They have their own reasons for wanting to drill those holes, and those small holes may not appear immediately to imperil the vessel, but in time, make no mistake, they will sink us.