By THERESA TAYLOR
Staff Writer
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 1, 2011
The Sydney and Beatrice Albert Interfaith Lecture on Marriage: An Interfaith Discussion, met at the Hubbard Interfaith Sanctuary on Monday, October 24 at 7:30 p.m. While marriage in general was certainly a theme, the questions on nearly everybody’s mind centered on same-sex marriage in the post weeks since the passage of New York’s Marriage Equality Act. This panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Peter Zaas, who is a professor of religious studies at Siena College.
In the Jewish religion, Rabbi Beverly Magidson explained, the first command of the Torah is to be fruitful and multiply, and that has been taken to be an obligation, however, it is one that is only required of men and not women, because you cannot command someone to do something that endangers themselves, and, in the ancient world, both pregnancy and childbirth were quite dangerous. However, the rabbi stated that she felt it was safe to say that most women have a natural desire to have children. While in the Orthodox tradition, it is expected that one will get married, there are those who are asexual by nature. Scientific evidence brings us to different places than where the Bible takes us.
In the Orthodox faith, homosexual relations were viewed as forbidden and unclean, in keeping with kosher law, just as it was a sin for a man to marry a woman, divorce her, and then marry her again. However, Jewish reformers supported gay rights, especially after the Stonewall riots, and traditional Orthodox values became balanced by the new, reformed ones. The view of homosexuality as an inherent trait, rather than a lifestyle choice, helped to change reformers’ views.
Magidson, of the Daughters of Sarah Nursing Home, added that, “Whatever [someone’s] sexual orientation, even in the Orthodox world, there is a call that while we don’t agree with homosexuality, we think nobody should be physically attacked for being gay, for being lesbian; nobody should be stigmatized and nobody should be harmed. A role of the interfaith community is to talk to one another and listen to one another.”
Hudson Valley Professor Jai Misir, a Hindu, spoke on the subject of hate crimes directed at the LGBT community. Misir said that he believes that, “We have to speak up… nonviolence is love; we believe that we should love each other. We have that spark of divinity within us. The one thing that we all have is the soul, a supreme love that we are a part of,” adding that by not loving one another, we move away from the truth that is God. As far as same-sex marriage from the Hindu perspective, it is accepted since, “We don’t love with the body.” Marriage is viewed as the, “union of spirits, and a spirit is not male or female.” Hinduism also believes that it is Karma that brings people together.
Misir went on to cite the famous quote by the poet Walt Whitman, “In the faces of women and men, I see God.” Hindus support marriage equality, and were part of the civil disagreement during California’s same-sex marriage ban.
The Reverend Christopher DeGiovine, representing the Catholic tradition, said interfaith marriage does not present a problem for Catholics. However, there are different dispensations that you need to get from the diocese in order to marry someone from outside the faith, since marriage is a sacrament, the union of two people. DeGiovine added that Catholicism has traditionally accepted the single life, where one is committed to pursuing God and holiness, as an alternative to being married.
Speaking on issues regarding the Catholic Church and the LGBT community, DeGiovine said that, “The Catholic Church does not teach that because you are gay, you are going to hell. It teaches that, similar to the Muslim tradition, that you have a particular state in life from which you are being invited to live…a very sacrificial life in this world, and that is to refrain from sexual behavior. The difficulty then becomes ‘How does one society continue in that difficult distinction: that you are respected but invited to live a very difficult life?’ Unfortunately, the culture has not allowed even the most conservative Christian tradition to speak that kind of acceptance and tolerance and compassion of the LGBT community; to tell them that they are beloved of God.”
In regards to violence and hate crimes against the LGBT community, DeGiovine said, “I think it’s very important that members of the interfaith community speak out against violence against any human being.”
When asked what he would say to someone from the LGBT community who feels abandoned by their faith, DeGiovine said that, “This has happened many times and it always breaks my heart. I try to explain what it is that is not said by the Catholic tradition to this person, but at the end of the day, if the distinction between the physical and the spiritual expression of love is not satisfactory, I would say to them that there is also the possibility that God is asking you to be a prophet in the Catholic community.”
Islamic Iman Mokhtar Maghraoui said that loving mercy and merciful love encompasses Muslim beliefs, as well as knowing the divine better, and in turn, finding tranquility and serenity, particularly in the natural relationship and wombly love enjoyed between husband and wife.
The Muslim position on gay marriage is that if there’s tranquility and love between two people, then this loving relationship between two souls and spirits is bound on a level beyond that of space and time, so that a physical relationship has no meaning. Two men can love each other in a spiritual sense, and do not need to come together sexually. A physical manifestation is not natural, therefore it would be harmful.
“To be honest with you,” said Maghraoui. “I have still not encountered that experience within my community. If it were to happen, we would see that the person was counseled, reminding them of the important meaning of love on a spiritual level. Their feelings don’t have to be actualized in a physical way, and we would remind them of the consequences of actualizing that [homosexual] love.”
However, Muslims view marriage with someone of a different tradition as acceptable, as long as the other person is a Christian or a Jew, or else that marriage is not permitted. As far as Muslim marriage in general, it doesn’t have to be in a Mosque as long as two parties consent, and there are witnesses, and it complies with the values of Islam.
The theme of this twentieth year of the lecture series was tolerance in spite of one’s religious differences. While traditions remain divided, it was a chance for a much needed conversation on the views regarding the laws of marriage equality and same-sex people of faith.
