After I restarted this blog last week, I considered the possible things I could do that would help ensure both you and I would maintain at least a passing interest in this blog's continued existence. One way to improve the blog would come from my reading as much as I could everyday. Whether it be from newspapers, online news, novels, magazines, or online blogs, I would need to keep up-to-date on subjects that matter to me if I was going to have anything to express my opinion about or have discussions with you. Well I assure you that over the past four days my reading intake has spiked upward.
While surfing around the Jewish Blogosphere lately, it became readily apparent that the recent Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) Survey of Conservative Judaism's clergy and lay-leadership was a topic under heavy discussion. To misquote the Trilogy, "Many electrons died to bring us this information."
The teshuvot on the Halakhic Status of Gay Men and Lesbians caused a great deal of discussion on their own in December, but now it seems the JTS survey addressing these teshuvot is causing a stir as well. I've lost count of the various blog entries that link back to one or more of the articles appearing on The Jewish Week website that address various points raised in the survey.
Anything causing this much discussion warranted a closer look. Like everyone else, I read the online articles with interest and took note of the opinions expressed by the writers. I decided to do something that I’m not sure many of my fellow bloggers had done, I went to the sources. It took a little searching but I found the survey and the teshuvot in electronic form and took them home to read. I spent my entire night focused on these documents (okay, except for a brief break between 9 and 10 EST to watch “House”). I realized: 1) my eyes really hurt and I need to wear my reading glasses as prescribed, and 2) I am really surprised that more hasn’t been written about the JTS Survey. It brings up much more than just the Gay and Lesbian issue. So I decided to address some of the points brought up by the articles on “The Jewish Week” site and also some of the points in the survey that I think are interesting and warrant discussion.
I feel, however, trying to jam all of this into one post would be a little ridiculous. So, in order to address these points to my satisfaction, and to present them in a manner that hopefully will be easier to read, I am going to be writing about them over the next few days. You can consider today’s post to be an introduction and background for the upcoming posts.
While surfing around the Jewish Blogosphere lately, it became readily apparent that the recent Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) Survey of Conservative Judaism's clergy and lay-leadership was a topic under heavy discussion. To misquote the Trilogy, "Many electrons died to bring us this information."
The teshuvot on the Halakhic Status of Gay Men and Lesbians caused a great deal of discussion on their own in December, but now it seems the JTS survey addressing these teshuvot is causing a stir as well. I've lost count of the various blog entries that link back to one or more of the articles appearing on The Jewish Week website that address various points raised in the survey.
Anything causing this much discussion warranted a closer look. Like everyone else, I read the online articles with interest and took note of the opinions expressed by the writers. I decided to do something that I’m not sure many of my fellow bloggers had done, I went to the sources. It took a little searching but I found the survey and the teshuvot in electronic form and took them home to read. I spent my entire night focused on these documents (okay, except for a brief break between 9 and 10 EST to watch “House”). I realized: 1) my eyes really hurt and I need to wear my reading glasses as prescribed, and 2) I am really surprised that more hasn’t been written about the JTS Survey. It brings up much more than just the Gay and Lesbian issue. So I decided to address some of the points brought up by the articles on “The Jewish Week” site and also some of the points in the survey that I think are interesting and warrant discussion.
I feel, however, trying to jam all of this into one post would be a little ridiculous. So, in order to address these points to my satisfaction, and to present them in a manner that hopefully will be easier to read, I am going to be writing about them over the next few days. You can consider today’s post to be an introduction and background for the upcoming posts.
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