Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Agudath Israel, Orthodox Union, issue statements in response to supreme court ruling on DOMA

 Agudah issued the following statement:
  
Society’s mores may shift and crumble but eternal verities exist. One is marriage, the union of a man and a woman. Its sanctity may have been grievously insulted by the High Court today, but that sanctity remains untouched.”  

The following  statement is from the OU .
  link.
Today, the leadership of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America issued the following statement:
“In response to the decisions announced today by the United States Supreme Court with reference to the federal Defense of Marriage Act and California’s Proposition 8, we reiterate the historical position of the Jewish faith, enunciated unequivocally in our Bible, Talmud and Codes, which forbids homosexual relationships and condemns the institutionalization of such relationships as marriages. Our religion is emphatic in defining marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman. Our beliefs in this regard are unalterable. At the same time, we note that Judaism teaches respect for others and we condemn discrimination against individuals.


We are grateful that we live in a democratic society, in which all religions are free to express their opinions about social issues and to advocate vigorously for those opinions. The reason we opt to express our viewpoint in a public forum is because we believe that our Divine system of law not only dictates our beliefs and behaviors, but also represents a system of universal morality, and therefore can stake a claim in the national discourse. That morality, expressed in what has broadly been labeled Judeo-Christian ethics, has long had a place in American law and jurisprudence.

We also recognize that no religion has the right to dictate its beliefs to the entire body politic and we do not expect that secular law will always align with our viewpoint. Ultimately, decisions on social policy remain with the democratic process, and today the process has spoken and we accord the process and its result the utmost respect.

The Orthodox Union is proud to assert its beliefs and principles in the public forum, and will continue to do so in a manner that is tolerant and respectful of all of our nation's citizens, but which is also authentically based upon our sacred ancient texts and time-honored traditions.”

2 comments:

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  2. The United States is a degenerate, decaying society that is rotting away faster than Europe has (I say this with great sorrow as someone who
    was born in the US and who appreciates how good it was to me personally and the Jewish people in general). Almost half the children born in the US are born to single mothers and half of all adults are unmarried. We are seeing an unprecendented collapse of the moral of normal family life for a whole generaton of unfortunate children who ae being raised in this abnormal environment This will have titanic social and ecnomic conseqences for American society.
    Regarding the messages of the Agudah and OU, all I can say is they are wasting their breath. No one will listen to them and they will be dismissed as bigots or fascists. The battle is lost.
    For those religious Jews who live in the US, all I can say is that they are deluding themselves if they think they can insulate themselves from these diseased social trends which will have incalculable social, economic and political consequences. There is only one place in the world where a healthy, Jewish-Torah society is being built, and it is not in Europe or the Western Hemisphere.

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