The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) is, I believe, the largest rabbinic public policy organization in America. It articulates and advocates for public policy positions based upon traditional Jewish thought.
Today the CJV sharply criticized the Trump Administration for re-nominating Chai Feldblum to the EEOC.
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Eastern Regional. Vice President of the CJV, explained:
Feldblum has been truly unfriendly to accommodation of religious views. The decision to renew her nomination seems jarringly discordant with the Trump Administration’s overall support for religious liberty.
In support of this statement, the CJV pointed out something I wasn’t aware of. In 2012, Feldblum was part of the EEOC when the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected its position that, as Chief Justice Roberts characterized it, “the Religion Clauses have nothing to say about a religious organization’s freedom to select its own ministers.”
The CJV also cited Feldblum’s now infamous statement that “the need to protect the dignity of gay people will justify burdening religious belief… I’m having a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win… in almost all cases the sexual liberty should win.” Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, Chairman of the CJV Rabbinic Circle stated: “The idea that everything must be subservient to the ‘dignity’ of homosexuals can easily be used to trample freedom of religion.”
In my view, that idea is already being used for this purpose. Chai Feldblum has done her part to make it happen.
Socially conservative Christian organizations have spoken out against the Feldblum re-nomination. I’m glad to see an important rabbinical organization doing so, as well.
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