It’s nice to know that irrational hatred of gay people isn’t confined to Christian extremists in the good old U. S. of A. A ten day gay pride festival is being planned for the city of Jerusalem in August. And the NYT reports:
Now major leaders of the three faiths – Christianity, Judaism and Islam – are making a rare show of unity to try to stop the festival. They say the event would desecrate the city and convey the erroneous impression that homosexuality is acceptable.
"They are creating a deep and terrible sorrow that is unbearable," Shlomo Amar, Israel’s Sephardic chief rabbi, said yesterday at a news conference in Jerusalem attended by Israel’s two chief rabbis, the patriarchs of the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches, and three senior Muslim prayer leaders. "It hurts all of the religions. We are all against it."
Abdel Aziz Bukhari, a Sufi sheik, added: "We can’t permit anybody to come and make the Holy City dirty. This is very ugly and very nasty to have these people come to Jerusalem."
Listen to that language: "very ugly and very nasty" for "these people" to set foot in Jerusalem. Because they will make "the Holy City dirty." That is not even "hate the sin, love the sinner" language (for which I don’t have much patience, but it’s at least a gesture). That is just out and out hate, and it’s terribly sad that that seems to be the one thing that Israeli "religious leaders" of the three major faiths can agree on.
It’s also ridiculous. I am confident that if Jerusalem survived the Babylonians, the Romans, the crusades, the Ottoman Empire, and the wars of 1948 and 1967, it can survive a gay pride parade.
Fortunately, it is only the extremists in each of these religions that are taking this view. More from the NYT article:
Organizers of the gay pride event, Jerusalem WorldPride 2005, said that 75 non-Orthodox rabbis had signed a statement of support for the event, and that Christian and Muslim leaders as well as Israeli politicians were expected to announce their support soon. They said they were dismayed to see that what united their opponents was their objection to homosexuality….
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, co-chairwoman of the festival and the rabbi of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, a gay synagogue in New York City, said the controversy was another sign that each religion had become polarized between its liberal and conservative wings.
The global Anglican Communion split deeply over homosexuality in the last two years after its American affiliate ordained an openly gay bishop and the Canada affiliate decided to allow blessings of same-sex unions.
"I reject that they have the right to define religion in such a narrow way," Rabbi Kleinbaum said of religious leaders who denounce homosexuality. "Gay and lesbian people are saying we are equal partners in religious communities, and we believe in a religious world in which all are created in God’s image."
The world’s major religions – all of them – are well down the road to splitting apart over issues like homosexuality, the beginning of life, and the end of life. I don’t pretend to know what, if anything, can or should be done to avoid that. All I know is that it’s coming.
