A Conservative Rabbi's Case for Marriage Equality

The following opinion piece by Rabbi Jan Uhrbach ran on March 18 as part of the Washington Post’s “On Faith” series. Today we are featuring a portion of that piece on the ACLU’s Blog of Rights. You can read it in its entirety here.

I’m a rabbi, so I support marriage equality.

My support of marriage equality is an expression of my faith. It arises from fundamental principles found in the Hebrew Bible and the rabbinic tradition, among them, that each human being is made in the divine image, that affording full dignity to every person is a religious obligation, and that we are commanded to pursue social justice. It arises from the Biblical injunction that it is “not good” for a person to be alone, and that the opportunity to create a family is an essential aspect of our humanity, and of our obligation to express, as fully as possible, the image of God reflected within.

Of course, not everything we do reflects the divine, and not every relationship should be sanctified as a marriage. Where a relationship is abusive, unhealthy or demeaning – or where love and trust are absent – it would be a travesty to sanctify that relationship in the name of God. But where two people love each other, support and nurture each other’s growth and well-being, and seek through marriage to publicly acknowledge and sanctify their mutual commitment and the presence of God within their relationship – to my mind it is a travesty to withhold that acknowledgment and sanctification. Gender simply has nothing to do with it.

I’m a Conservative rabbi, so I support marriage equality.

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