RELIGION / JOHN DART : Catching Up With Rabbis’ Views on Sex and the Christian Tagger

The top rabbinical body of Conservative Judaism has given final approval to a groundbreaking document holding that sexual relationships between unmarried men and women “can embody a measure of morality,” the first such statement by any major Jewish or Christian denomination.

The eighth draft of a wide-ranging essay written by Rabbi Elliot Dorff, rector of the University of Judaism in the Sepulveda Pass, was unanimously approved Jan. 24 by the executive council of the Rabbinical Assembly.

The document--”This Is My Beloved, This Is My Friend, a Rabbinic Letter on Intimate Relations”--will be published in booklet form in a few months, Dorff said.

Adoption of the document achieves what no other major Jewish or Christian denomination has been able to do: Speak as a body, in terms other than condemnation, to the increasing prevalence of sex between single men and women.

For example, amid firestorms of criticism, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America withdrew proposals that would have modified traditional stances against sexual activity by homosexual partners and unmarried heterosexual couples.

Rabbis in Conservative Judaism, however, avoided some of the most controversial issues by leaving to experts on Jewish law the ethical questions raised by gay and lesbian sex, on which the rabbis could not reach a consensus.

Nevertheless, even devoting much of the document to mature, committed, but unmarried heterosexuals was not easy, because Judaism--as the final document affirmed repeatedly--teaches that sexual activity should be confined to heterosexual marriage.

But Dorff added to the eighth draft of the document a principle he had repeated frequently in discussion and interviews:

“Jewish norms in sexual matters, like Jewish norms in other arenas, are not an ‘all or nothing’ thing. Certainly, failing to abide by Judaism’s command that we restrict sexual relations to marriage does not excuse one from trying to live by the concepts and values Judaism would have us use in all our relationships, including our intimate ones.”

Among those norms, the rabbinical letter said, are consensual sex, modesty, fidelity, honesty, health and safety.

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Chaka, the infamous tagger who sought to turn his life around at a tightly disciplined Christian camp in Lancaster last year, wielded spray-paint cans again this week--but for an evangelistic cause.

Daniel Ramos, 22--who still uses the name he painted on thousands of buildings, trains and utility poles before the law caught up with him--decorated a bus used by the L.A. International Church in Echo Park to bring children to church, said the Rev. JoJo Sanchez, Chaka’s mentor for the last 15 months.

The bus and a caravan of other vehicles will leave the Los Angeles area Monday for a conference of 7,000 Christians at the large First Assembly of God Church of Phoenix, Sanchez said.

“We will be telling people how kids are being reached for Christ, and Chaka will be one of our main characters in this project,” Sanchez said.

Yes, Chaka is sticking to his vow to reform and put his energies into Christianity instead of graffiti-painting, Sanchez said.

“He’s totally joyful, focused and fulfilling some of his dreams,” said the pastor, who heads Inner Cities Youth Ministries, based in Lancaster. “He graduated from the academy in December and now is our special projects coordinator.”

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The installation service Sunday in Granada Hills for Los Angeles Bishop Paul Egertson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America proceeded smoothly, with no reference to his advocacy of hot-button gay and lesbian issues.

Egertson, who has publicly supported ending his denomination’s ban on ordaining gay and lesbian clergy, disclosed last week that he had performed three wedding-like “union ceremonies” for gay couples at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, North Hollywood, which has a ministry to gays and lesbians. Egertson recognized that the denomination as a whole has specifically opposed such ceremonies.

Noted theologian and biblical scholar Krister Stendahl, who permitted same-sex blessings while he was bishop of Stockholm, delivered a sermon that made no reference to those issues.

A polished duet was sung during the service at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church by Shirley Egertson, the bishop’s wife, and Gregory Egertson, their oldest son, who was denied ordination by the denomination after he graduated from a seminary several years ago because he publicly stated he is gay.

Nearly 900 people attended the ceremony Sunday, including Catholic Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, who led an ecumenical delegation of church leaders. The service reflected a theme chosen by Egertson: A shepherd serving others.

In responding to his installation by the denomination’s presiding bishop, Herbert Chilstrom, and the assembled clergy and lay people, Egertson reminded them that in spite of the pomp and ceremony, “this is an installation, not a coronation. You crown kings; you install appliances.”