Rabbi Marc Gellman:

“When you come right down to it, there are only four basic prayers. Gimme! Thanks! Oops! and Wow!”

Gellman was commenting to Connie Schultz of the Cleveland Plain Dealer for a column published today.

But when you’re a Christian Rightist, the rules of prayer change. A new rule applies: That of smiting the people whom you don’ t like.

Says Schultz:

Religion has become the weapon of choice for many people in this country, particularly the far right, and it’s alienating a growing number of Americans. A lot of us don’t buy into a version of God who picks sides, not between good and evil, but between Democrats and Republicans. We don’t believe God cherry-picks religions, either.

Excerpt from David Benkof:

In the process of writing Judaism and Homosexuality: An Authentic Orthodox View, the most important (really the only significant) full-length study of homosexuality and Jewish law, Rabbi Chaim Rapoport asked Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) if he could speak to some “success stories” – and he was unsatisfied with its meager response.

I have had much the same experience; while I have spoken to about two dozen JONAH men on the Internet, on the phone and in person, I have never encountered a single Jew who was gay (not bisexual) and became straight (not bisexual) due to the techniques recommended by JONAH. If its approach was effective, shouldn’t there be at least five or 10 men and women I could speak with who say that JONAH did for them what it claims to be able to do?