Bearing Witness - Parashat Va-et'chanan

Within the next week, the National Organization for Marriage (Discrimination) will be making three stops within the State of Minnesota as part of their nationwide tour of intolerance and discrimination. The National Organization for marriage, as Michael Crawford has noted in his article Avoiding NOM's Trap, written for the Huffington Post, has even gone so far as to claim that denying others access to marriage is an outgrowth of the civil rights movement. You read that correctly, they are claiming that denying others their rights is the logical next step of the civil rights movement. At their rally in Trenton, New Jersey, NOM President Brian Brown made an attempt to link his discriminatory cause to the civil rights movement and to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“What if Martin Luther King, Jr. would have listened to those who tried to silence and tell him that his faith has no place in the public square — that he should be silent?,” Brown told The Star-Ledger. “You are a part of a new civil rights group — a civil rights group dedicated to protecting the most fundamental and basic institution known to mankind: marriage.”

Fortunately, Outfront Minnesota, Minnesota's pro-LGBT equality group is responding here in Minnesota and has organized events around each of NOM's stops in the North Star State. Join Outfront for 3 Days of Action for Equality and stand up for LGBT equality in Minnesota. Join Outfront and other pro-equality groups in the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday, July 28 at 12:00 noon to stand up for love.

This week's Torah portion, Va-et'chanan, includes the words of the Shema (Deut. 6:4):

Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad.

Hear O Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eternal Alone.

In the image above, just as in the text of the Torah, the last letter of the word 'shema' and the last letter of the word 'echad' are written larger than the other letters. These two letters, ayin and dalet, spell the word eid, meaning witness. The text of the Shema teaches us to bear witness to God's unity and to the fact that we are all creating the the image of God.

Stand up for love. Stand up for equality. Bear witness to God's image in each and every person. Show up and lend your pro-equality and pro-love voice of faith to the debate. Let's show NOM whose side God is really on.