Should a gay person support ‘traditional faith?’

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Following Channel 4 correspondent Benjamin Cohen’s analysis of being a gay Jew in the United Synagogue earlier today, PinkNews.co.uk reader Markus-Hayden Sutherland suggests boycotting anti-gay aspects of faith

It is sad to me that a person of faith supports, even indirectly, a movement that vilifies him.

There is something shameful about a person going to Synagogue on the high holy day of Yom Kippur to celebrate the day of atonement and learn how to forgive, and ask forgiveness for, the times that you’ve hurt or offended others or they’ve hurt and offended you, only to be hurt and offended by the service itself.

If you, and other gay Jews, continue to attend this Synagogue and support it with your time, talents and money, then what incentive is there for it to change?

Do you really believe that your walking out of the service during a particularly offensive liturgy is going to be an effective way to bring about change within this “Orthodox” Synagogue? I don’t.

Try taking your attendance, and your associated support to a Synagogue that better reflects your spiritual and personal understanding of Judaism. THAT and that alone will be an impetus for change within the Orthodox movement. When their Synagogues are empty and their financial contributions dry up, believe me, they will miraculously see the light on issues concerning Jewish gays.

As long as you fill a seat at this anti-gay Synagogue, you are passively endorsing their doctrine and giving them absolutely no incentive to reconsider their positions on certain dated, mistranslated and misunderstood passages from the Torah.

As a Christian, I have faced a similar conundrum with the fundamentalist faith of my upbringing. I finally found a church more in line with my understanding of the Christian faith AND its rich Judaic roots.

It’s time that gay people put their asses and their dollars (pounds) where THEIR faith is rather than where their parent’s faith is, or where their faith tradition is.

It’s the only way that we can encourage change.

Is it possible to balance homosexuality with traditional religion?

What do you think?

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