Post #50 - Homosexuality and Religion

This Shabbos, Brandeis had the privilege of welcoming Rabbi Steven Greenberg, the only openly gay Orthodox rabbi and the author of "Wrestling with G-d and Men," a book about how Judaism has responded to homosexuality. Friday night after Hillel dinner, Rabbi Greenberg talked about his journey into Orthodox Judaism as a teenager and how he struggled to reconcile his religious identity and sexual orientation. As one can imagine, it was a very long process, but I think he came out (no pun intended) with a sense of self-acceptance and duty to his faith that isn't easy for a gay person coming from a socially and/or religiously very conservative environment.

This afternoon, Rabbi Greenberg discussed the broader issues surrounding religion and homosexuality with Brandeis' Catholic chaplain, Father Walter Cuenin, and Professor James Mandrell, who is a Unitarian Universalist. While it didn't surprise me to hear that in Catholicism and Orthodox Judaism there's a very strong tension between religious leadership and law and the opinions of the laiety, it was interesting to hear how things are changing in terms of acceptance of gay and bisexual people. 

Having grown up in a very liberal (both theologically and socially) Protestant church, I took it for granted that LGBTQ religious people and allies could easily find accepting communities, and saw conservative congregations who didn't declare themselves "open" or "welcoming" as morally backward at worst and at best sadly out of touch. When I converted to Judaism, my initial perceptions of Orthodox communities were similarly narrow. I thought that both my conversion and my social views were too extreme to get along with anyone leaning to the right, even as I espoused the sentiment that people should just get along.

But this Shabbos, the people who came to hear Rabbi Greenberg were not just a small portion of Reconstructionist and Reform Jews, whose movements have accepted LGBT Jews for a long time, as well as LGBT rabbis, or even liberal-to-moderate Conservative Jews*. There were a large number of Orthodox Jews, some Christians, and non-religious attendees as well. 

Granted, Brandeis is a fairly socially liberal campus and most of its Orthodox population could be characterized as leaning slightly to the left/modern side. But I think such a positive response to a person like Rabbi Greenberg would not be seen in many parts of this country and might not even have happened here in Massachusetts just 10-15 years ago. Hopefully that kind of acceptance can continue to happen, and on a wider scale than a small New England college campus.

* = The Conservative movement is in an awkward position in terms of accepting LGBT Jews. It has multiple position papers about the acceptance (or non-acceptance) of LGBT laity and rabbis; in effect the movement lacks a unified position on issues such as the ordination of gay rabbis or acceptance of same-sex marriage and for better or for worse leaves these decisions up to individual congregations.