Want to feel good about
the future?
An Oregon teen is heating up the blogosphere after video footage of his incredible Bar Mitzvah speech in support of same-sex marriage surfaced.
In the clip, Duncan McAlpine Sennett, who reportedly became a Bar Mitzvah at Portland's Congregation Beth Israel, offers his d’var Torah analysis of the Bible chapter in Genesis covering Jacob’s marriage to Leah and Rachel, two sisters who also happened to be his first cousins, observing that "the definition of traditional marriage is nothing like what people think it is today."
He then adds, "I am a very, very strong supporter of equal rights and the freedom of men and women to marry whomever they love."
Sennett pointed out that opponents of marriage equality often cite the Bible. They obviously don't read it as closely as Sennett did. He noted that Leah and Rachel don't even have a say in whom they marry:
“Today, in the United States, marriage is very different,” he said in his speech. “No longer do the fathers arrange marriages, and women can marry whoever they want.”
“The traditional definition of marriage is nothing like what we think it is today.”
“The definition of traditional marriage has changed a lot since the days of the Torah,” Sennett said in his speech. “Why can’t it change just a little bit more so everybody can marry who they love?”
The video was posted on the Temple's website, along with its support of
Oregon United for Marriage.