This
is a battle we can win. True, this bill has not been stopped - as long
as we've been derelict in not properly fighting it. That fact is no
reason to buy the lie that this is a losing battle. It's clearly not, if
we'd only intelligently engage. When the Orthodox community puts its
efforts into a worthy cause for the right reasons, we generally see
wonderful surprises. To dub it a losing battle before beginning to
really fight is a line of thinking that - if similarly applied in 1939 - would naturally have resulted in most WWII survivors speaking German today.
° What To Do:
We
just need to properly alert the public, in time, that this legislation
is not about saving innocent kids. Rather, it is all about
*legitimizing* harmful choices, choices to flaunt unhealthy conduct,
acts branded by the Torah as "abomination" (VaYikra 18:22, 20:13).
Q) How bad really is it, from a Torah perspective?
A)
Sodomy is the ONLY sin specifically branded "abomination" within the
individual enumeration of sins, in VaYikra, Chapter18 (at the end of
which all of those acts are branded "abominations"). Accordingly, the
act of sodomy rises to the level of an "abomination among abominations"
- the most depraved of them all - as explained by the Maharal on the
Gemara Chullin 92b.
It is no wonder then that
our Sages exhort us (in the name of Rabbi Yossi) that recognition of
same-sex marriages triggered the annihilation of Civilization via the
Great Flood (VaYikra Rabbah 23:9, on VaYikra 18:3). This needs some
explanation. From a Torah perspective, social recognition of sin, and -
how much more so - legislating sin - is far worse than individual
commission of sin.
The Chassam Sofer (d. circa 1840,
Pressburg, in "Toras Moshe," Ber. 6:13) explains that societal
justification of sin perpetuates that sin, thereby closing the door to
the prospect of repentance, leaving society as hopelessly lost. Society
recognizing same-sex marriage is perhaps the ultimate vindication of the
sin of sodomy (see B'nayahu, Chullin, ibid.) Thus, cause for the
destruction of the world.
Consequences: Crime Doesn't Pay:
Our
Sages add (ibid.; Tanchuma Ber., end; Bamidbar Rabbah 9:33) that
rampant immorality prompts Divine punishment in the form of
"Andarlomusia" (loosely translated as "Retribution of Mass-
Destruction") - the mass-killing of bad people along with good ones*
(something we've experienced a lot since March).
*
[It's crucial to explain the flawlessness of Divine Justice here. There
is unwavering Justice in every single punishment that G-d delivers. In
most cases, good people avoid severe punishment for their sins, out of
immense Divine Compassion, providing more than ample time for
repentance. However, in extreme circumstances, G-d holds His Compassion
back - perhaps because its continuity would result in irreparable harm -
allowing Divine Justice a freer reign.]
Q) But How Can We Oppose "Inclusion"?
A) "Inclusion" Of Harmful Sin Encourages It:
To
be effective in pushing back against the outbreak of such anti-moral
legislation internationally, we must debunk the pervasive myth that
"inclusion, welcoming, tolerance" et. al. is per se good, or even
innocuous. Inclusion and tolerance are NOT morally neutral. When
specific categories of willful, hazardous conduct are enumerated in
legislation [e.g, "sexual orientation," which perforce includes those
who flaunt their commission of aforementioned sins with impunity] - then
"inclusion" and tolerance et. al. are actually an endorsement by the
State of those acts/sins. It's important to emphasize that this
endorsement (to an extent, even prior to actual passage) encourages
conduct which is physically harmful as well:
"Sell Them 'Liberty' - and Give Them Death:"
° This pro-LGBT legislation poses a physical threat to youth by encouraging dangerous practices, as evidenced by the CDC itself (https://www.cdc.gov/std/stats18/msm.htm). Undeniably, LGBT-identifying
persons are at grave risk - physically, psychologically, and
spiritually - but not from Biblical opponents of the LGBT agenda -- but
rather from the very advocates of the LGBT "lifestyle."
Corona vs. STDs:
° The plague of Corona highlights
the lethal hypocrisy of the Left. They go to extremes in the name of
protecting people from the spread of the Corona. However, when it comes
to homosexual acts - known to spread multiple diseases - they're
actively proselytizing them to youth. When it comes to promoting the
regressive agenda, lives don't matter.
Indoctrination is NOT Education:
°
Moreover, this bill goes even further than legitimizing sodomy: it
advances state-mandated LGBT indoctrination of high school youth.
Furthermore,
if we learned anything from the recent years of LGBT advocacy, it's
that such advocacy encourages youth to experiment with these sins.
Thereby, it's aided and abetted LGBT recruitment of youth (at taxpayer
expense, no less).
At the recent virtual Aguda Convention, Rav
Aharon Feldman Shlit"a (Yeshivas Ner Yisroel) noted [in his artful
demolition of a primary LGBT argument] that encouraging such
"perversions" by teaching about LGBT role models is precisely the source
of the problem (of reportedly peaking suicide rates of LGBT
identifying youth) - by no means its solution.
Rav Yosef B. Soloveitchik OB"M refers to the desire by some people to commit a (moral) crime and feel good about it too. {https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4Ag-nYSfrk}
Passing A4454 would be far worse, requiring that the schools
themselves encourage impressionable high school kids to sin - and feel
good about it.
Additionally, this type of legislation also encourages unbridled shamelessness about these sins. Shamelessness is
a character trait that leads to the dissolution of society, inasmuch as
in absence of the foundational human trait of shame, brazen theft and
discord become rampant. Shamelessness becoming pervasive was another
factor in the annihilation of civilization in the Flood (see Chassam
Sofer, Droshos, vol. 2, 293a, "Bamidbar," quoted in Toras Moshe ibid.,
note 4).
°°°
°
In summary, we need to put NJ Senators on defense here: *teaching*
children tolerance, inclusion and welcoming of sinful acts clearly
legitimizes said acts in their eyes, and for society. State
legitimization of such misconduct (1) constitutes an open rebellion
against G-d (Rashi Ha'azinu 32:16); (2) runs counter to welcoming,
including and tolerating of religious students; (3) is psychologically
abusive and medically dangerous for kids; (4) is patently fraudulent -
via marketing indoctrination as Education; and (5) thus extends well
beyond the educational mandate of the government.
