A Conversation With... Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum and Bishop Gene Robinson

Sharon Kleinbaum, rabbi of New York's largest LGBT synagogue, leads Judaism's national dialogue on the issues of gay rights and social justice. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay Bishop in the Episcopal Church, has been at the center of the Church's heated debate on homosexuality. The rabbi and the bishop discuss their spiritual journeys, faith, religion, and politics.

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• Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum
• Bishop Gene Robinson
• religion
• gay
• sexuality
• lesbian
• LGBT
• faith
• episcopal
• Jewish
• Judaism
• theology
• social justice

[sharkiethepoet]

Rabbi Sharon is a remarkable woman.

[DrGaellon]

That's my rabbi! She's fantastic.

[hineni53]

You can't tell a bird not to fly and a fish not to swim. It's their nature and one cannot change it.

[ronshala22]

Sharon Kleinbaum is AWESOME! And the conversation between Bishop Robinson and Rabbi Kleinbaum is a gem of understanding and spiritual generosity.

[Matthewcoakley08]

@IanLoewen And on that note when the bible does deal with homosexual acts it deals with them in the context of either occult worship (Leviticus & Deutoronomy), or pedophilia (Romans & Corinthians), or violent rape (Sodom) it never once deals with them in the context of loving monogimous relationships. That's what I'm intrested in, loving, one on one relationships.

[Matthewcoakley08]

@IanLoewen Now furthermore the book of Corinthians was written to an ancient people whose entire claim to fame was the fact that they boasted to having the largest Temple and selection of Temple prostitutes in the Ancient World. Men could pay to have sex with young boys, to essentially rape them, as a form of worship. I, like Paul, am against this as well.

[Matthewcoakley08]

@IanLoewen But if you go to any biblical translator of scholar they will tell you that they don't know what that word truely means. It's translation is lost to history. So we really cant say what it could be. It's simply a recent tradition that it mean "homosexual"

[Matthewcoakley08]

@IanLoewen But I'll address the issue of this passage. The word used for "homosexual" is arsenokoitai. There was no word for "homosexual" until around the late 1800s just before the turn of the century, largely because there was no such thing as sexual orientation until the late 1800s. Up until this time that word was translated as ifeminent, soft, sodomite (another word made up by the church, particularly Thomas Aquinas)

[Matthewcoakley08]

@IanLoewen New your second point 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. First of all this does not come from the Gospels, therefore has nothing to do with Jesus. This comes from Paul, who by the way was regarded as a heretic by much of the Early Church Fathers, Peter, James, John, Matthew, and others. It wasn't until about the third century that he and his teachings became accepted.