Question:
What do you say to a female rabbi and congregation in Huntsville, Alabama, allowing same sex marriage at the oldest synagogue in the State. I’m sure many Christians will no longer support that synagogue.
∼ Sharon B.
Answer:
We’re not quite sure why you are asking us this question, unless you are very new to our site and know little about us. We are very much in favor of choosing to give both financial and non-financial support to people and organizations that represent our values. We believe that people should be educated and prudent stewards of their resources.
The fact that a charity might label itself as compassionate, trustworthy or critically important would not alone motivate us to support that charity without researching exactly what they do and how effectively they do it. The fact that a group lables itself as Christian, Jewish or Catholic does not mean that we would donate to it without researching exactly what the organization does and how effectively it does it.
Reform Judaism abandoned the basic principles of Torah-based Judaism from the time of its founding – in fact that was a basis of the founding of this branch of liberal Judaism. Anyone who assumes that the word ‘Jewish’ or ‘synagogue’ tells you anything about whether a person or group adheres to a traditional Biblical and Godly view is being naive. Sadly, the truth is frequently the opposite.
There are many lovely people who are Reform Jews and we’re quite sure that some Reform Temples do good work in their neighborhoods, perhaps running food banks or other such charities. Personally, however, we prefer to give our charitable dollars to places with whose values we agree. We can’t imagine why anyone would act differently.
Be a good steward,
Rabbi Daniel and Susan Lapin
