Roy Lloyd: Rejecting Bigotry in Religion

Equality for gays and lesbians keeps inching forward in religion. 

The latest news is that Judaism's Conservative movement has established rituals for same-sex wedding ceremonies.  The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Conservative Movement Rabbinical Assembly has created wedding ceremonies based on its 2006 ruling favoring the establishment of committed and loving relationships among gay and lesbian Jews.  The Rabbinical Committee affirmed that same-sex marriages have "the same sense of holiness and joy as that expressed in heterosexual marriages."

Other religious bodies and traditions have hemmed and hawed about this.  They've been cowardly in taking a specific stand on admitting those who are gay into the ranks of the clergy or on endorsing same-sex marriages with appropriate religious acknowledgement.  I think that's sinful. 

I agree with Rabbi Aharon Kleinbaum of New York's Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, who says, "The Conservative Movement is rejecting religion based on bigotry." 

This is Roy Lloyd.

Originally presented as a commentary on Newsradio 1010 WINS in New York, NY.