Spotlight on CLAL
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RABBI STEVE GREENBERG AT SUNDANCE
In January 2007, Rabbi Steve
Greenberg, Director of CLAL’s Diversity Project, went to the Sundance Film
Festival for the premiere of “For the Bible Tells Me So,” a new film which
explores the challenges Christian families with gay children face in their
relationship to the Church and their faith. The film attempts to confront
the religious right’s efforts to portray gays as being a disgrace against
God and nature, and to help people of faith to find new ways of looking at
Christian theology. Rabbi Greenberg, who is gay and Orthodox, also appeared
in the film with leading historians and religious figures, including Bishop
Gene Robinson and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
While at Sundance, Rabbi Greenberg joined a panel discussion on the use of
media to address the conflicts between faith, scripture, and homosexuality.
The members of the panel included actress Judith Light in a new film, “Save
Me,” about a Christian women who, in response to her gay son’s death, begins
an ex-gay (rehab) mission for young men. Light, a Jewish woman, said that
she would not have taken the role had she not really liked the character,
who despite her misguided mission is a person of deep faith, humility and
integrity. The panel agreed that it was time to reject the mutual
demonization of those on either side of the cultural debate, to listen to
each other better and to find ways to recognize complexity while standing in
and for our values.
Rabbi Brian Zachary Mayer, a Reform rabbi, pointed out in the film that the
biblical texts were written in their time, and not in the contemporary era.
“There are texts that say you should not wear wool and linen together, and
that when planting, you should not mix different seeds in the same furrow.
To follow one mandate and not the other is selective reading of the Bible.”
Rabbi Greenberg employed a less historical and more literary frame for
understanding the Leviticus text. Instead of thinking of ourselves as having
outgrown these and other biblical verses, he argues that there is ongoing
wisdom in them as long as we are able to read them in fresh ways.
Traditional methodologies of interpretation can be employed creatively to
find practical options that were not available to our forbears. This process
of “hiddush” of innovation from within the corpus of the tradition,
being neither wholly old nor wholly new, can help to alleviate the gridlock
of many conflicts of culture between religion and modernity.
Rabbi Greenberg suggested that the biblical and rabbinic texts against sex
between men are much more about violence and humiliation than about
perversity and desire. Sodom in the mind of the rabbis was famous for its
culture of cruelty and greed, its fear of loss and suspicion of the “other.”
Leviticus read in this light prohibits the use of sexual intercourse as a
means of degrading and humiliating others. In this context of violence and
domination, sex between men is truly abominable.
“For the Bible Tells Me So,” takes the conversation about homosexuality into
two relatively new places. First it actively addresses how the scripture
might be read or understood in other ways. Second, it addresses how families
grapple with their faith, while maintaining relationships with their gay
children. Going beyond the individual wrestling with his or her identity,
this film considers the conflicts that parents experience when their child
shares with them the secret of their gayness.
Discussing the film’s appeal to Jewish audiences, Rabbi Greenberg said,
“Jewish families struggling with these issues may want to see how others
deal with the feelings of loss and confusion. Parents often go through a
mourning of period when their kids come out of the closet and both parties
need to muster a good deal of patience and love to get through those first
weeks and months. While every family is different, this film can help all
sorts of families embark together on a journey of reconciliation and
understanding. And at very least, it is offers a dose of reassurance to the
many families dealing with this conflict that they are not alone and that
with time and patience, they can repair the breach and be all the stronger
and more loving for it.”
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