Orthodox Rabbis and Gay marriage

It would undoubtedly give me much pedantic satisfaction to pick apart the Rabbinical Council of America and Orthodox Union's position on Gay marriage, but I will settle for making a few points. (For such a short document, it is so full of Jewish and logical inaccuracies, it is frightening that the group is actually made of rabbis.)

Traditional Judaism has a position on Jewish marriage. There is no traditional Jewish position on either non-Jewish marriage, or civil marriage. Jewish marriage is ke'daat Moshe v'Yisroel. Non-Jewish marriage is not. So to jump from a position on Jewish marriage to civil marriage is not in conformity with Jewish religious or legal tradition.

The only position that Judaism has regarding the sex life of non-Jews is that they not engage in incestuous relationships (contrary to the popular perception that it includes anything Jews don't like about sex). That is one of the seven Noahide laws. Judaism has no other view of the definition of marriage.

Judaism has a general position on homosexuality. That is: The lord said to Moses that the children of Israel should not be engaging in it like the other nations do, because he finds it disgusting. (See Lev 18) Judaism has no verse that goes: The Lord said to Moses that you ought to preach to the whole world that homosexuality is wrong. Nor does it have a position on the types of unions that are wrong for others.

So while the RCA and OU should have a position that none of THEIR rabbis, or even that no rabbis should be supervising the marriage of members of the same sex, it is unclear where they get a position on civil unions. What the other religions or civil institutions do is way out of their domain.

One of the things that makes Judaism great (and I do not say that lightly) is the fact that it does not have a mandate to impose its beliefs on others. Jews are charged with being a light unto the nations. That means that Jews ought to inform others what it is that they do and why that is a good thing. Jews are not charged with coercing others to do things their way, or even to tell others that their way is right and other ways are wrong. Jews are charged with doing right. Judaism is extremely pluralistic that way. We do not tell Christians, Muslims, Hindus or anyone else to keep the Sabbath, the kosher laws, or anything else. Jews simply preach an internal doctrine: it is wrong for Jews.