Home › Forums › Decaffeinated Coffee › Protesting Same-Gender Marriage in New Jersey › Reply To: Protesting Same-Gender Marriage in New Jersey
Karagnostic – homosexual relations are explicitly forbidden to gentiles. See Rambam Hilchot Melachim uMilchamot 9:5. If I’m not mistaken they could possibly even be chayav mitah.
Also check out Rashi on Bereshit 6:2, and the Meam Loez towards the end of Bereshit and his discussion of Sodom in Vayeira. Keep in mind these sources are discussing non-Jews.
writersoul – it doesn’t make a difference if the majority of society accepts this as ok or that there isn’t much chance of being able to make a difference. That’s the whole point of hishtadlus – you do whatever is in your ability and you leave the rest up to Hashem. It’s not ok to say, “the economy is in a slump with record levels of unemployment and parnassa is just too hard so I’m going to give up.” You have to do whatever hishtadlus you can to make a living in addition to then trusting Hashem will provide you with whatever is fitting. Even if the job market stinks you still have to write up a resume and at least give it a try. Here too – Hashem has granted you the hishtadlus options of voting and using your right to free speech to try and influence the public. Even though the odds are slim in your favor and it’s up to Hashem at the end of the day, why not at least do what you can seeing as He has given you a chance? Nobody is expecting you to start up a one man revolution but at least do something.
This is perhaps the underlying point I was trying to get across in my comment but perhaps I should have just come out and said it m’furash: people have the opportunity to take some sort of steps hishtadlus-wise but they don’t. They instead make the claims that either it’s not really so bad (or even bad at all) or there’s no point to trying to do anything. However this is entirely untrue, it IS that bad and you DO have the chance to do SOMETHING even if you don’t have a great chance of succeeding. However people lie to themselves because it is much more comfortable than facing the truth that Hashem put something in the Torah and I could frankly care less about it. Perhaps this isn’t the case with everyone but I have a strong feeling it applies to many if not most.
what’s in a name – nobody is advocating going in to people’s private bedrooms and monitoring what goes on there… don’t be ridiculous. What we are speaking about here is the government legally sanctioning a type of public relationship which inherently implies societal acceptance if not approval. As a member of that society with a chance to put in your two cents, by choosing to go with the flow you are using your voice to support such behavior. You yourself have expressed you don’t understand why some people feel it is so important but the fact of the matter is the Torah is very clear on this issue – you don’t have a problem with the opinions of some frum Jews, you have a problem with the Torah.