Reform Judaism OKs Gay Rabbis : Religion: But a statement cautions homosexuals already serving synagogues to think twice before ‘coming out of the closet.’ It could ‘put their careers at risk.’

The progressive Reform branch of Judaism on Monday became the largest Judeo-Christian body to openly welcome gay and lesbian clergy as full-fledged members.

Delegates to the 101st annual convention of Reform Judaism’s Central Conference of American Rabbis overwhelming adopted the recommendation of a committee of rabbis even though the Bible and Jewish law says homosexual behavior is sinful.

“All Jews are religiously equal regardless of their sexual orientation,” entitling them to ordination and placement in synagogues that would accept them, a report by the committee said.

The report, released last month after four years of study, does not back homosexual weddings and declared that heterosexual, monogamous marriage is still the norm in Jewish life.

“It was a pretty narrow tight rope to walk, but I believe it was a mature statement made with integrity,” said Rabbi Joseph Glaser, executive vice president of the 1,550-member conference of rabbis. Glaser added that he did not know how many congregations would be willing to accept a homosexual rabbi.

The Reform branch of Judaism, with 1.3 million members nationally, is the largest and most liberal of the three major wings of American Judaism. Conservative Judaism, the next largest, steers a more moderate course in adapting Judaism to modern life. Orthodox synagogues, which strictly observe Jewish law, embrace about 10% of U.S. Jewry.

Biblical tradition calls homosexual behavior an “abomination,” but major Jewish and Christian denominations which tend to reexamine the Bible in the light of contemporary events have agonized over the question of accepting gays as clergy.

Only the small Unitarian Universalist Assn. and the tiny Reconstructionist Jewish movement have removed all bars to homosexual clergy. The 1.1-million-member United Church of Christ decided in 1983 that local units should not discriminate against gay and lesbian clergy candidates, and some openly homosexual ministers have been ordained.

Yet, the Reform statement is more sympathetic than the United Church of Christ resolution. The rabbis say that they are “aware of loving and committed relationships between people of the same sex” and that gay and lesbian rabbis “are serving their communities effectively, with dignity, compassion and integrity.”

Rabbi Samuel Karff of Houston, president of the rabbis’ conference, said that Reform advocates a “creative tension between Torah and life” that is between core biblical teachings and the realities of the contemporary world.

After the 17-member Reform Committee on Homosexuality and the Rabbinate made its recommendations public last month, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations condemned the recommendations, saying, “The entire idea is an abomination.”

Rabbis in Conservative Judaism, which takes a middle-of-the-road position among U.S. Jews and rivals Reform Judaism in size, endorsed civil rights and synagogue membership for homosexuals at their convention last month. But the issue of ordination has not been tackled.

By accepting the recommendation of the committee, the 500 Reform rabbis at the conference here endorsed the admissions policy of Reform’s Hebrew Union College that places no obstacles on candidates who have homosexual preferences, if they are otherwise qualified as seminarians. The four-campus Hebrew Union College had not put its policy in writing until the committee asked for it. Some overtly gay rabbi candidates could be rejected under the newly stated policy, however.

“Any individual who’s obsessive on one particular issue in a way that it would dominate their rabbinate is likely to be disqualified,” said Rabbi Lee Bycel, dean of Hebrew Union College’s Los Angeles campus.

Rabbi Allen Bennett of San Francisco said he may be the only openly homosexual cleric among Reform Rabbis, but he does not expect that dozens of other rabbis will declare their homosexuality now that the report has been adopted.

“They will have a sense of relief, but not a sense of security,” Bennett said. “Their jobs won’t be any more secure because of this statement.”

In fact, the statement cautions homosexual rabbis already serving synagogues or Jewish institutions to think twice before “coming out of the closet. The committee does not want to encourage colleagues to put their careers at risk.”

A handful of rabbis spoke against the recommendations during the debate Monday, citing either Scripture or traditional morality.

Referring to the Biblical condemnation of same-sex behavior in Leviticus 18:22, Rabbi Phil Berger of Oceanside, N.Y., said, “To the best of my knowledge, this (verse) has not been reinterpreted by any Jewish Biblical scholar. . . . Much of the behavior in our society needs correcting.”

Another opponent said the action will put Reform Judaism further at odds with Conservative and Orthodox Jews and will be divisive for many members of Reform congregations. “Someday we will turn around and find that we are leaders without people,” he said.

Rabbi Ronald Millstein of New York City said he disagreed with both the seminary admission policy and the statement that all Jews are religiously equal. “As persons they are equal, but not as Jews,” Millstein asserted.

But other rabbis favoring the change pointed to Reform’s proclivity to select what it believes are timeless Biblical truths and ignore strictures deemed inappropriate or harsh today.

The debate Monday ended with the remarks of a proponent of the report’s conclusions who said that Jews do not obey Scripture when it says adulterers should be stoned. “In our congregations, we put (adulterers) on our synagogue boards,” said Rabbi David Horowitz of Akron, Ohio.