Saturday, March 20, 2004

Here's a pretty clear cut example of liberal bias in a NY Times article about the rabbi of a gay synagogue in NY. The article begins with this:

Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen awoke one morning to find she had turned into a criminal - at least in the eyes of some.

There are two ways to prove that this statement is incorrect. For one, the laws relating to gay marriage may be wrong (if that is your view), but someone who breaks the law is a criminal. Rabbi Cohen openly admits to breaking the law. That would make her a criminal. Period. Besides, the word "some" clearly indicates that few people would consider the gay marriage laws valid. The fact is that a large majority of the American population are against gay marriage.

Not only is the first sentence of the article wrong on principle, it's wrong on technicalities. The Manhattan District attorney mentions that presiding over a gay marriage on behalf of the state would be a civil issue, not a criminal one. So no matter how you look at it, the Rabbi isn't a criminal no matter how many marriages she performs.

In addition, the article makes the Rabbi look like a fool. Would the Rabbi of "one of the largest gay synagogues in the world" not have been aware of the issues surrounding gay marriage? So stupid that she didn't realize that she was breaking the law until she "turned into a criminal" upon awaking one day?

I'm going to give Rabbi Cohen the benefit of the doubt on this whole story. I'm sure she knew what she was doing, felt comfortable doing it and spent considerable thought in coming to her position. Good for her.

No comments: