Every person has a right to serve his country, gays included. All have a right to serve their country openly without hiding who they are. It’s kind of odd that so many heterosexuals who are not prepared to make that kind of sacrifice, refusing to enlist in the military and preferring instead to live as armchair warriors, are condemning those with a patriotic passion to fight for freedom.

The other day a woman called my radio show on WABC 770AM in NYC to
argue with me. She was adamantly against the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.’
She said a homosexual lifestyle was dirty and against the Bible. I asked her
whether she had children of military age and whether they, as good, clean,
heterosexuals would enlist in place of the gays whom she would ban. She
responded, “They are doing other things to serve their country.” I thought so.

Homosexuality is a religious sin. The Bible makes that much clear.
But it is not a moral sin. Rather than being like the moral (and religious) sin
of adultery, in which lying, deception, and injury to an innocent party are
committed, homosexuality is an infraction between G-d and man. In that sense it
is akin to lighting a fire on the Sabbath, an act strictly forbidden by the
Bible. No moral sin has taken place, but it is forbidden on religious grounds.

I am a Rabbi and I take the words of the Bible seriously. But I will
not call gay men and women names, I will not become a homophobe, and I will not
make the error of mistaking sins that are deeply unethical, like ‘Do Not
Steal,’ with those that are simply irreligious, like gay men living together.

On the same radio show a member of the military called in and said,
having served with homosexuals in the military under ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,’ he
too was opposed to the reversal of the ban. ‘Too many gay men hit on me in the
showers and the barracks, and were pretty aggressive about it, for me to think
that they should ever be allowed to serve openly in the military. It will only
make things worse.” To be sure, I don’t agree with the sentiment. I have worked
with gay men and have become very close to many of them and they have yet to
hit on me even once. Granted, I am about five-foot-six, have a bushy beard, and
have a monopack rather than a six-pack. But jokes aside, even if I disagree
with the sentiment I respect the veteran offering the opinion because he
actually served. He fought, he sacrificed, and he has earned the right to a
strong opinion on the matter. I believe his opinion is flawed in that it is
probably more of an argument for the complete and utter separation of men and
women in the military than it is against the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.’
Still, he is a veteran and has earned the right to be strongly heard. The rest
of us, however, who have, for the most part, put personal considerations like
fear of injury or love of making a little bit more money that what’s on offer
in the military ahead of giving our country a few years of our lives, and
perhaps life itself, should perhaps be a little bit more humble about elevating
our opinions on a par with those who have enlisted.

In general, America has become homosexual-obsessed. In nearly every
election cycle it’s all-gay’s-all-the-time. Rather than talking the need for
values in American life, like greater spirituality and less materialism, we’re
talking incessantly about gay marriage. We have a 50 percent divorce rate.
We’ve got about half of all teens having heterosexual sex at ages where they
are absolutely not ready for that kind of adult experience and it is deeply
injurious to their ability to later create bonds of intimacy. But do we ever
talk about this stuff? Nope. Because the breakdown of marriage, many contend,
is all due to gay marriage. But if we straight people were just a little bit
more honest with ourselves we would have to confess that we’ve done a pretty
good job of ruining marriage on our own without any outside help, thank you
very much. There is no need for easy scapegoats.

The Bible uses the word ‘abomination’ approximately 122 times. True,
it uses it for homosexual sex, but it does so also for envy, jealousy, and
arrogance. Perhaps, at times, we religious heterosexuals are guilty of allowing
our principles to spill over into outright homophobia, which is a sin against
G-d and might just constitute something of an abomination itself. For all are
G-d’s children, and all try their best, amid a fallible nature, to serve G-d
and country as best they can.