Jews Lead!

It looks as if the Conservative Jewish Movement is about to sanction gay rabbis and same-sex unions, following the Reform Jewish Movement's lead. Money quote:

Rabbi Kula, author of "Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life," said the move toward liberalisation among Conservatives "is not something that came down from the top. It came from Jews in the pews ... Jews who had homosexual children and wanted them to be rabbis."

Rabbi Gerald Zelizer of Neve Shalom, a Conservative congregation in Metuchen, New Jersey, a former president of the Rabbinical Assembly who is a contributing columnist for USA Today, said in an essay in that newspaper this year that he backed the 1992 position but now had a different view.

"Conservative Judaism has always taught that we must upgrade our biblical understanding with new scientific knowledge. Contrary to the biblical assumption that gayness is a sinful choice, our best knowledge today indicates that it is as determined and irrevocable as blue or brown eyes ..." he wrote.