On September 9, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) temporarily blocked a court order that would have forced Yeshiva University, an Orthodox Jewish university in New York City, to recognize an LGBT+ student group as an official campus club. The university had argued that granting LGBT+ students official status would require it to endorse the group’s viewpoints.
Yeshiva University had filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Court after a New York State court ordered it to register the student group “Yeshiva Pride Alliance” at the start of the 2022 academic year. In its petition to SCOTUS, Yeshiva University raised a strong argument that requiring it to lend its name to an LGBT+ student group, even though a state court determined that New York anti-discrimination law required it to do so, violated its right to make “internal management decisions” [1] regarding its own interpretation of the Jewish faith.
Yeshiva University argued that it could not comply with the order because it violated the teachings of the Torah, and these are the values it imparts to its students:
“Yeshiva University says that its mission is to empower students to apply the values of the Torah in the modern world. In court documents, the university has outlined the ways in which Judaism shapes its curriculum and its student life.” [2]
“The school encourages students to attend a program of intensive religious study in Israel, and 80 percent do, it said. It also requires male students to spend between one and six hours a day studying the Torah, and requires that doors on campus be adorned with a mezuza, a small religious scroll.” [2]
The Supreme Court made a wise decision in this case because it protects the sincerely held religious beliefs of Americans from the LGBT+ dictatorship. This is a purely legal decision based on the First Amendment, with no ideological underpinnings. This is how our Constitution functions. It protects religious liberty and faith-based institutions from being persecuted for practicing their faith.
Praise God, there are still some religious groups that believe in and defend the Torah (God’s law). How different would our situation be today if every Seventh-day Adventist did the same? Unfortunately, far too many pastors, leaders, and institutions today have caved in to the LGBT+ lobby.
“The greatest want of the world is the want of men—men who will not be bought or sold, men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name, men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall” (Education, p. 57).
Sources
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/09/nyregion/yeshiva-university-lgbt-sotomayor.html
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Thanks for sharing this with us. Yes, God has his people everywhere to stand up especially in this last days for Him and His law!
We love people as they are but not the sin.
In Him Alone!
Rade
In a vision of the night I was shown distinctly that these sentiments have been looked upon by some as the grand truths that are to be brought in and made prominent at the present time. I was shown a platform, braced by solid timbers—the truths of the Word of God. Someone high in responsibility in the medical work was directing this man and that man to loosen the timbers supporting this platform. Then I heard a voice saying, “Where are the watchmen that ought to be standing on the walls of Zion? Are they asleep? This foundation was built by the Master Worker, and will stand storm and tempest. Will they permit this man to present doctrines that deny the past experience of the people of God? The time has come to take decided action.” – 1SM 204.1
The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place, what would result? The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be discarded. Our religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure. – 1SM 204.2
Who has authority to begin such a movement? We have our Bibles. We have our experience, attested to by the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. We have a truth that admits of no compromise. Shall we not repudiate everything that is not in harmony with this truth? – 1SM 205.1
The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place, what would result? The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be discarded. Our religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath, of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure. – SpTB02 54.3