On Gays and Justice

A just society rewards people based on their choices. That is why it’s okay to fire someone who is late to work, but it’s unjust to pass up for promotion a hard worker who is black.

What exactly makes this unjust? What is racism?

People who are black, female, and Hispanic all have one crucial thing in common with those who are male, and white: They didn’t have a choice in the matter. Hashem sent them into this world with a specific race, ethnicity, and gender.

To treat someone differently because of how they came into this world is to condemn a decision Hashem made. It is to mock their specific mission in life, and ultimately to demean the purpose of our own. Racism is not just unholy: it’s self-destructive.

Shouldn’t civil rights be extended to gays? Why should homosexuals be treated any different?

A man brought into this world black has the choice to conduct himself as he pleases. A just society will reward and punish him based on his choices – how he handles his G-d given physical identity. The same goes for a white man, or a woman. We see very clearly that people of all races and genders make tremendous decisions and become university graduates, captains of industry, and national leaders.

Gays, like the rest of us, were brought into this world with unique characteristics and challenges. Like the rest of us, they have choices. A just society rewards and punishes them based on these choices.

The Torah does not condemn a man for his lusts. It does, however, have strict laws prohibiting man from choosing to succumb to these lusts. We are commanded not to commit the sin of adultery, even though we are bombarded with images of women tempting us to think it. We are commanded not to commit the sin of theft, even though we ponder how so many thieves get away with their crimes, and how easy it could be to commit some ourselves. We are commanded not to express our hate through slander, gossip, or direct verbal abuse, even as those who do become powerful.

We are commanded not to commit any act of indecency with a member of the same sex. Even, if like adultery, theft, and hatred, some of us have an inborn lust for it.

That is what separates what gays want from other ethnic groups. The rights they seek – to get married, to be public about their private lives, to force society to see their deeds as no different from anyone else’s – are based on choices. A black man doesn’t decide his color so he asks for legal protection from injustice. A gay man can decide not to wear something perverse, and not to engage in actions that are worse.

Allowing a group of people, any group of people, license to perform acts of evil and depravity protects nobody. It is neither civil nor is it right.

Laws, both spiritual and physical, exist to keep us from doing bad, and to keep the world advancing towards a greater good. They are implemented to serve justice, which binds society into a cohesive unit, always collaborating towards a greater good for everyone. When laws are just the system works. When they are not, everything collapses.

It is up to us to remember that when it comes to choices, there is one, and only one law:

Trust in Hashem and do good. (Psalms 37:3)