Our society’s moral decline is profoundly evident. This decline commenced with the sexual revolution of the 1960s, and there has been a race to the bottom ever since. How should Orthodox Jews, who take the teachings of the Torah as G-d’s eternal word, react to this morass?
My dear friend Rabbi Michael Broyde believes that we should cede the moral high ground. We should effectively declare defeat and hope thereby to preserve the right to practice our faith as we see fit (“Accommodation Is The Way Forward In America,” Jan. 13). Rabbi Broyde theorizes that Jews are best served when rights are expansive, regardless of our views concerning those rights. He further argues that Jews have no obligation to convince others to follow Torah law. And, he adds, we certainly have no right to try to force our views upon others.
Rabbi Broyde is correct on the latter point, but he is grievously wrong on the first two points. To reiterate: How has the United States come to its sorry moral state? While the aforementioned sexual revolution brought a medley of new views to the fore (some not bad, some devastating), Orthodox Jews and other faith groups were able to coexist with the new thinking. This was because basic moral teachings mostly remained unchallenged.
This changed around three decades ago, when gay-rights activists began promoting same-sex relationships as no different morally than male/female relationships. They did this by framing the issue not only as a moral one but as a civil-rights one.
A three-pronged battle followed: to legalize same-sex unions; to force businesses to offer services to gay couples, even when that service undermined the religious beliefs of the proprietors; and to teach children that there were all kinds of acceptable relationships and genders.
In the current article, Rabbi Broyde promotes accommodation as a practical desideratum. However, in The Jewish Press several years ago, he went much further, endorsing the righteousness of the Equality Act (“The Equality Act Is Good For The Jews,” July 3, 2019, issue). This proposed law would federalize legal protections for gay couples and for gender-bending individuals. If one declined to rent to a same-sex couple, or to photograph a same-sex “wedding,” or to bake a wedding cake with two men at the top holding hands, he would be violating federal law. This belies Rabbi Broyde’s claim, in the present article, that “no one is forcing us to do anything at all.”
Rabbi Broyde’s hand is clearly dealt: he believes that at least from the perspective of our laws, the moral foundation laid by Judaism and Christianity have no role. He ignores the fact that our founding fathers invoked their religious heritage as a moral underpinning of the United States. True, our country is founded upon the separation of church and state, but this principle only intends to prevent a particular religion from imposing itself upon us. By contrast, we have always believed that universal creeds do hold sway and that our laws must reflect these common beliefs. Included in this shared dogma is the fervent belief that marriage is between a man and a woman and that there are only two genders (a fact that even my three-year-old grandchildren know!).
Am I saying that the authorities should police private behavior? Absolutely not! To me, there is a vast difference between telling people how to act in their bedrooms and having the law give its imprimatur to deviant sexual behavior. I agree with Rabbi Broyde that government should not regulate how people comport themselves privately. Indeed, until recently, there were states that prohibited certain intimate acts between a man and a woman that are permitted (and may be required) in halacha. We do not wish a return to the status quo ante.
However, when immorality is ensconced in law, a line is crossed. Our Sages teach that the fate of the Generation of the Flood was sealed when society began to contract marriages between men. It was not the acts themselves, but the legal acceptance of the acts, that was the final straw.
Perhaps I can bring the point home better by focusing on adultery. In sixteen states (including Georgia and New York, where, respectively, Rabbi Broyde and I reside), adultery remains illegal. I suspect that no one will be arrested nowadays for committing adultery; however, society suffers a moral downgrade when adultery is decriminalized. Having the law on the books, albeit unenforced, gives weight to the notion that adultery crosses a moral line. The same should hold for homosexual acts.
How have the proponents of immorality advanced their cause? Knowing that without a critical-mass change of mindset their earthshaking ideas would falter, radicals have successfully infiltrated all levels of academia. They have used their positions to monopolize the educational conversation, teaching immorality to students, especially children, while excluding contrary views.
The resultant destruction of moral absolutes threatens the very fabric of our society. Rabbi Broyde fails to comprehend that if we do not speak out against this corrosion of values, we effectively become complicit.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, zt”l, created a campaign to influence (not to force!) non-Jews to observe the Seven Noahide Laws. He understood that we are a light unto the nations not only by how we behave, but by engaging with the larger human community. Moreover, it is not just non-Jews who have become swept up in the immoral storm. There are many Jews, including observant ones, who no longer understand that moral relativism is insidious and inherently illogical. Even if we don’t have the obligation to speak to non-Jews, we must certainly speak to Jews, especially those who are in a same-sex relationship.
Rabbi Broyde would also have us turn a blind eye to the “gender identity” movement. G-d created existential differences among us; blurring a critical distinction such as sex is nothing less than an attempt to destroy society as we know it. And it is not only the left that is guilty. When Fox News, which claims to be a paragon of virtue, invites Bruce Jenner, now known as Caitlin, to be a regular commentator, and addresses Jenner as a woman, Fox sends the message that gender fluidity is legitimate. (I may add that I recently tried to apply for life insurance as a woman. The provider laughed off my attempt to save money; evidently money trumps the right to a gender identity!)
The reason the radicals have succeeded is because they are more willing to fight for their beliefs than their opponents are prepared to fight for traditional morality. Generally battles such as these are won by the party more willing to go to the mat. It is high time that traditionalists mount a vigorous counterattack on destructive immorality. We must push for the Supreme Court to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that legalized same-sex marriage. We must side with governors such as Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin and Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who have battled against permitting women to use men’s bathrooms and vice versa. We should seek to defund programs in schools that promote immorality, and we should vote out woke school boards.
I know that Rabbi Broyde joins me in wanting G-d to continue to bestow His blessings upon our great country. Only by uniting to fight this good fight can we hope to turn the tide in favor of the moral tradition that has made the United States a shining city on a hill.
