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By Josh Jarman
With a bit of characterization and Jewish witticism, Rabbi Steven Greenberg made his point clear: You shouldn't use the Bible to pass judgment on others.
Greenberg shared this belief during a sermon yesterday at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on the campus of Ohio State University.
Greenberg, who was raised in Bexley and is in Columbus for five days, is America's first openly gay Orthodox rabbi. He spoke yesterday about homosexuality in the context of traditional faith as part of a lecture series sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. He will speak about same-sex marriage at 7 p.m. today at the church, 30 W. Woodruff Ave.
He wasn't saying that the Bible is not the revealed word of God. But according to Jewish tradition, he said, God gave that word to man and entrusted him to decipher it.
"No one can say, 'It says in the Scripture,' to ground any policy," Greenberg said. "All we can say is, 'My community says this.' "
After his sermon, he said it's important for people who use the Bible to support their agendas to claim personal responsibility for their interpretation.
"God has not hidden a single divine intent in any verse that my rabbi or your pastor understands," he said. "Instead, there are many meanings, and it is our job to figure out what they mean to our community."
That is important, he said, in the face of religious condemnation of homosexuality. Greenberg's book, Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition, tackles such persecution by rebutting the most common religious rationales forbidding same-sex relationships.
He acknowledges that his most thorny opponent is the admonishment of Leviticus 18:22: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is detestable."
But, he said, what is expressed today as lying with a man is not what the Bible was talking about. What Leviticus is describing are acts of violence meant to humiliate another man, Greenberg said.
His aim is to "mark a path" by which a person of faith can be committed to God and tradition and still be a self-evincing gay person. Even the most traditional of communities can make such reconciliations, he said.
The Rev. George Glazier, pastor of St. Stephen's, said Greenberg's presentation was welcomed by the congregation. The church's long association with OSU has made it one of the more progressive parishes in central Ohio, Glazier said, so a sermon by a rabbi who is also a gay man was not out of place.
Denise Williams, a four-year member of the church, said she appreciated the sermon's meaning.
When she heard Greenberg say that the Bible is not "truth with a capital T," "at first, I was like, 'What? We're in a church,' " she said.
"But after he went on and described what he meant, I understood. It was given to us to decipher."
Bounce back
With a bit of characterization and Jewish witticism, Rabbi Steven Greenberg made his point clear: You shouldn't use the Bible to pass judgment on others. Greenberg shared this belief during a sermon yesterday at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church on the campus of Ohio State University.
Greenberg, who was raised in Bexley and is in Columbus for five days, is America's first openly gay Orthodox rabbi. He spoke yesterday about homosexuality in the context of traditional faith as part of a lecture series sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. He will speak about same-sex marriage at 7 p.m. today at the church, 30 W. Woodruff Ave.
He wasn't saying that the Bible is not the revealed word of God. But according to Jewish tradition, he said, God gave that word to man and entrusted him to decipher it.
"No one can say, 'It says in the Scripture,' to ground any policy," Greenberg said. "All we can say is, 'My community says this.' "
After his sermon, he said it's important for people who use the Bible to support their agendas to claim personal responsibility for their interpretation.
"God has not hidden a single divine intent in any verse that my rabbi or your pastor understands," he said. "Instead, there are many meanings, and it is our job to figure out what they mean to our community."
That is important, he said, in the face of religious condemnation of homosexuality. Greenberg's book, Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition, tackles such persecution by rebutting the most common religious rationales forbidding same-sex relationships.
He acknowledges that his most thorny opponent is the admonishment of Leviticus 18:22: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; it is detestable."
But, he said, what is expressed today as lying with a man is not what the Bible was talking about. What Leviticus is describing are acts of violence meant to humiliate another man, Greenberg said.
His aim is to "mark a path" by which a person of faith can be committed to God and tradition and still be a self-evincing gay person. Even the most traditional of communities can make such reconciliations, he said.
The Rev. George Glazier, pastor of St. Stephen's, said Greenberg's presentation was welcomed by the congregation. The church's long association with OSU has made it one of the more progressive parishes in central Ohio, Glazier said, so a sermon by a rabbi who is also a gay man was not out of place.
Denise Williams, a four-year member of the church, said she appreciated the sermon's meaning.
When she heard Greenberg say that the Bible is not "truth with a capital T," "at first, I was like, 'What? We're in a church,' " she said.
"But after he went on and described what he meant, I understood. It was given to us to decipher."
Bounce back
