So it’s official that gay marriage is okay throughout the United States of America. Thus ruled the Supreme Court 5 to 4.
Everybody’s still talking about this, rather heatedly. I’ve been asked why I’ve kept silent. Okay, silent no more.
I’ll take my chances on a lose-lose proposition.
Mostly, I feel that there is too much talk about this altogether. When I was a kid growing up in Montreal sex was taboo, straight or gay.
When I was a kid growing up in Montreal sex was taboo, straight or gay.
That’s like saying I’m straight and I’m proud. I am straight but not proud. What’s there to be proud about? That’s like saying I eat fish and I’m proud.
Personally, I never cared about your sexual preferences. I don’t judge you, you don’t judge me. That’s my motto. I spent four years in Greenwich Village where suddenly everybody was gay, so I was never in the business of approving or disapproving. Live and let live. That’s my motto.
I have relatives who are gay. That has never been a problem between us. Everybody has relatives who are gay. Who cares?
The problem comes about when we square or try to square the Culture with Scriptures. We know what the Bible says. The lenient congregations in both Judaism and Christianity have been accepting of gays for years. The Orthodox? Not so fast. Again, the Bible.
We call it the Torah and we, the traditionalists, like myself, believe that every word of it is Divine. Let me make this clear. We do not believe that the Torah is “divinely inspired.” We believe that the Torah was handed down to us “from the lips of G-d to the hand of Moses.”
This is absolute. So, personally, in perfect faith I accept the Torah’s verdict on homosexuality to be lasting and true. But hold on!
I also believe that gays, like my gay relatives, for example, deserve my full respect. How do I resolve this conflict?
I don’t. I simply understand that in life so many issues that confront us must and will remain unresolved.
Within a single lifetime we cannot answer every single question.
It’s up to us to live with opposing views and, in the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald, “still retain the ability to function.”
A day may come when everything will be sorted out. Mashiach (hopefully this afternoon) will tell us what we got right and wrong.
Meanwhile, life needs to be taken and shared as harmoniously as possible.
This leaves us with the Geezer question. This is the generation that is having trouble catching up with a generation galloping past them at blinding speed. They, the Geezers, well, they are trying but cannot seem to totally reconcile. Are they bigots? On behalf of the Geezers, I say, play fair. Don’t be so quick to judge.
Give them time to catch up. Generally they have accommodated themselves to your point of view, to your “new-fangled” culture. You asked them to like it and finally, reluctantly, they said okay we like it – but now you are asking them to love it, and this will take time.
Give them the time.
If you start calling them names because they are not joining you quickly enough, well then, now who’s guilty of being intolerant?
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. New from the New York-based novelist, The Bathsheba Deadline, a newsroom thriller ripped from the headlines. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller IndecentProposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
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