http://www.massresistance.com/docs/gen/11d/torah_declaration/index.html

Especially the list of “mental health professionals” signed on. Know any of them?

The document itself contains several statements I believe on the evidence to be false. I’m interested in the mental health professionals who appear to believe such phlogiston.

p.s. Still trying to trace that Academic – most Uni administrations are closed at the moment.

Emily and Throbert can you help me out here? I have an understanding, which is probably more of a misunderstanding, that the Torah for very far right Jewish groups takes a very minor place as compared to the Talmud.

I would defer to Emily on this since she’s Jewish and I’m not, but as far as I know, it’s not true at all that highly conservative Jews place more weight on the Talmud than on the Torah — after all, the whole point of the Talmud is to help illuminate and explain the Torah. I think it might be more correct to say that some liberal schools of Judaism, and particularly Reform Judaism, tend to de-emphasize Talmudic study in comparison to traditionalist right-wing Jews.

It seems to me, with my limited understanding, that this emphasis on the Torah by the creators and signers of this document is being used only as an enticement or gateway to Christian groups.

On this point, however, I’m sure you’re correct — since the Torah (i.e., the first five books of the Bible) is considered by Christians to be divinely inspired and authoritative, but the Talmud is not.

Then again, since the point of this effort was to attack homosexuals specifically by appealing to the prejudices of conservative heterosexuals, the signatories might have wished to avoid drawing attention to the fact that the Talmud condemns solo masturbation by males (including straight guys) far more explicitly than the Torah does, and almost as harshly as Leviticus condemns anal sodomy between two men.

Granted, the Talmud doesn’t advocate the death penalty for male JO, but one Talmudic passage recommends that:

“in the case of a man, the hand that reaches below the navel should be chopped off.”

(The Talmudic prohibition on masturbation is based on the story of Onan spilling his seed on the ground — thus female masturbation isn’t serious enough a sin to be worthy of amputation, because no seed is spilled.)

P.S. Just try reading that Mass Resistance statement again, but mentally substitute “masturbation” for every reference to “homosexuality”, e.g.:

The Biblical understanding that no one is “born gay a bologna-spanker” coincides with mental health experts who are not intimidated by political correctness. The only Torah-approved course of action with regard to homosexuality Portnoy’s complaint is psychological therapy coupled with repentance…