It’s hard to speak against the homogenizing and stultifying effects of a system that is, after all, run by the government and thus hag-ridden with special interests, without being accused of disrespecting its employees. Maybe it would be safer if I just linked to a fable, Anthony Esolen’s “If Teachers Were Plumbers.”
Just in case anyone was still under the bizarre delusion that the Southern Poverty Law Center had something to do with poverty, this item should set the record straight (if “setting something straight” is permitted locution in this context):
The Southern Poverty Law Center announced yesterday that it has filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit in state court in New Jersey on behalf of 6 plaintiffs seeking equitable relief and damages for fraud against an organization that offers “conversion therapy” to gay men. Defendant is JONAH, Jews Offering New Alternatives for Healing. The complaint (full text) in Ferguson v. JONAH, (NJ Super Ct., filed 11/27/2012) alleges various violations of New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act. The Daily Beast reports in depth on the lawsuit.
I would take issue with Professor Friedman’s characterization of the Daily Beast report as “in depth.” Protracted superficiality seems more like it. It will be interesting to see little details the Daily Beast didn’t mention, so far as I noticed, like whether JONAH charges fees, claims to be a counseling service rather than a sort of parasynagogue, and such.
Without expressing an opinion on whether same-sex attraction can be cured (aware that “cure” may have offensive connotations), or about whether SPLC or the Daily Beast are even in the ballpark on Orthodox Jewish belief about same-sex attraction, I will venture the opinion that Christianity holds no promise of lifetime cure, but instead promises that
there hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also provide a way of escape that ye may be able to bear it.
I Corinthians 10:13 (King James Version). And that ain’t chopped liver (once more, if such expression is permitted here).
Some timely advise on The New Conservatism – written, be it noted, nearly 6 years ago because movement conservatism hasn’t learned a damn thing in the interim. (H/T Mark Mitchell)
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Tipsy Teetotaler ن 