JayMichaelson&ltjay@nehirim.orggt'
Sexuality/Gender

Traditional Marriage: One Man, Many Women, Some Girls, Some Slaves

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So, let’s see if I can total all this up. Traditional marriage is one man with multiple wives, multiple concubines, wives conquered in war and wives acquired in levirate marriage, possibly including girls under the age of ten, but definitely not including anyone of a different ethnic group, in an arranged marriage with disposition of property as its purpose. That seems very different from “one man, one woman,” does it not?

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Politics/Law

An End to the “Gentleman’s Agreement” on Israel?

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For decades, American politicians have had a “gentleman’s agreement” regarding Jerusalem, Israel, and American Jews. On the one hand, all mainstream politicians kowtow to the (right-leaning) Jewish institutional community and mouth platitudes about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel. On the other hand, once they get into office, they realize that to put these platitudes into practice would lead to diplomatic chaos—and so they do next to nothing.

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(A)theologies, Sexuality/Gender

Queer Repentance: On Not Surrendering to a Text, to Guilt, or to Habit

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Total surrender to heteronomous ethics is unhealthy, period. It may be prescribed by some, but it is also what leads to fundamentalism and religious violence. Gay people know this firsthand: to love oneself as a religious queer person requires interposing one’s own experience between oneself and the text. The text in its traditional reading cannot be correct, because it is incompatible with a notion of a loving God. But that truth is only known by allowing experience, conscience, and discernment to speak.

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Sexuality/Gender

Who Would Jesus Bully?

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In a move not widely reported outside of Michigan, the Michigan State Senate passed the country’s first pro-bullying bill on November 2. At first, it was an anti-bullying measure not unlike the laws passed in many other states. But under the perverse influence of a few far-right opportunists, legislators led by State Senator Rick Jones (R, of course) became convinced that the law would somehow persecute those noble enforcers of Christian—I’m sorry, “Judeo-Christian”—values in our nation’s high schools: bullies.

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