Defining Marriage

The issue of a Constitutional Definition of Marriage has become a hot topic, again. I thought you might like to know where the Conservative Movement stands on the matter. In 2003 The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism adopted a Resolution, that says:

The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism views the application of equality as a standard which cannot be eroded by any other determinant, race, religion or history. Our Faith Members are not unfamiliar with discrimination and worse.....we will reject it, however garbed and rationalized, will fight for equality and will be determined in our stance by genuine equality, neither discrimination per se nor discrimination garbed in the dress of double standards.

All Americans are entitled to equality under the civil laws of the United States. Marriage being both a religious and a civil status, The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism does not support any action by the federal government or by any state or local government that discriminates and denies equal protection of the civil laws to gay and lesbian Americans who seek to have relationships recognized when they fall within the bounds of the civil law. Where the civil law recognizes certain rights and obligations as following from a relationship created under the civil laws, those rights and obligations should not be denied to any two Americans seeking to create such a civil relationship.

The federal government of the United States has no authority to define the religious elements of a marriage for any religious group. While our scholars may debate the status, rights and obligations under Jewish law of various individuals who seek to conform their lives to Jewish law, no matter what Jewish law may or may not provide concerning marriage, there is no reason for Congress to seek to pass a Constitutional amendment, which limits or discriminates against the civil or legal rights of any individual or group.