---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine
Date: Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 9:35 AM
Subject: re: The Marriage Ideal
To: letters@nytimes.com
To the Editor:
From: barry levine
Date: Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 9:35 AM
Subject: re: The Marriage Ideal
To: letters@nytimes.com
To the Editor:
Ross Douthout hasn't a scriptural leg to stand on when he invokes "Jewish and Christian beliefs about the order of creation" to privilege heterosexual monogamous marriage. The Hebrew bible clearly presents polygamy as the norm. European Jews only renounced polygamy in the beginning of the eleventh century c.e. Rabbi Gershon ruled this because the possibility of polygamy among Jews was considered scandalous among our Christian neighbors. As to Christian scriptures, it is written "It is better to marry than to burn". The ideal implied here is not heterosexual monogamy, but celibacy.
Barry Levine
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