A priest, a minister, and a rabbi walk into a bar.
It's not a joke, the minister tells the bartender.
"No, we're serious," says the minister. "Seriously against limiting Minnesotans' freedom to marry."
The three religious leaders—Shir Tikvah's Rabbi Michael Latz and the heads of two St Paul churches—are part of a new TV commercial put together by Minnesotans United for All Families, the main group organizing against the marriage amendment. The amendment, on the ballot this November, would write a ban on same-sex marriages into the state constitution. The state already has such a law on the books but proponents say an amendment is needed to prevent potential future repeal efforts.
Minnesotans United is seeking to cast the issue as a struggle to protect the freedom of same-sex Minnesotans and churches that want to bless same-sex unions. Previous campaigns against same-sex marriage bans like California's Proposition 8, failed after appealing to values of equality.
Shir Tikvah is one of many houses of worship refusing to sign new marriage licenses until same-sex couples can legally wed, and has been very active in local struggles for LGBT rights.
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Will Bildsten
9:32 am on Thursday, August 9, 2012
I find it interesting, considering Judaism is oldest Abrahamic faith and that the Torah is quite conservative, that it tends to be Jewish people who are the most supportive of modern values. All of my Jewish friends are socially liberal and very open-minded, while a significant portion of my fellow Christians tend to keep more of an old fashioned view on issues. It's great that people all beliefs are coming together against the amendment.
James Sanna
10:03 am on Thursday, August 9, 2012
I'm sure others can explain this better than I can, but here's how Rabbi Latz put it to me: there's a concept in Judaism called "Tikun Olam," roughly translated as "healing/repairing the world." I'm sure there are different interpretations of that concept, but Latz said he and his congregation take it as a call to work for justice in the world.