The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism's heated
opposition to the proposed "Federal Marriage Amendment" to
the U.S. Constitution is "yet another sad example of how far
the Reform movement has distanced itself from the faith of
our fathers," a spokesman for Agudath Israel of America
noted.
The proposed constitutional amendment, offered in the U.S.
Congress as a reaction to the growing militancy of liberal
activists, would define marriage as the union of a man and a
woman. The Reform movement's Religious Action Center's
Associate Director, Mark J. Pelavin, in a statement released
on July 12, asserted that the amendment "would defile the
Constitution" and enshrine "intolerance in a document which
protects the rights of all Americans." He went on to wonder
if "America's families and marriages and communities [are]
so fragile and shallow that they are threatened" by
contemporary liberal mores.
Mr. Pelavin dressed up his movement's views in religious
rhetoric: "We believe as a fundamental tenant [sic] of our
faith that all human beings are created in the Divine image,
as it says in Genesis 1:27, 'And G-d created humans
in G-d's own image, in the image of G-d, G-d created them;
male and female G-d created them'."
"That Biblical truth, however, is not at issue," countered
Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, Agudath Israel's executive vice
president for government and public affairs. "What is at
issue is the definition of marriage and the morality of
certain unions -- a subject on which the Torah is quite
explicit, if one only proceeds to Vayikra.
"Therefore, if the Torah and Jewish tradition are to inform
the reaction of Jewish groups here, they do so clearly and
strongly in support of this constitutional proposal.
"The question here is not one of intolerance of any person,"
the Agudath Israel leader added, "but rather of intolerance
of the redefinition of timeless moral truths. There are
numerous relationships that even the Reform movement is
presumably unwilling to legitimate at this point."
"Is it sad," he concluded, "that a group purporting to speak
in the name of Judaism seems to be more concerned with what
it imagines to defile the Constitution than with what
unarguably defiles the Torah."
