Legal Question in Family Law in Illinois

Sexual morality varies greatly over time and between cultures. A society's sexual norms � standards of sexual conduct � can be linked to religious beliefs, or social and environmental conditions, or all of these. Sexuality and reproduction are fundamental elements in human interaction and society worldwide. Furthermore, "sexual restrictions" is one of the universals of culture peculiar to all human societies.[1] Accordingly, most religions have seen a need to address the question of a "proper" role for sexuality in human interactions. Different religions have different codes of sexual morality, which regulate sexual activity or assign normative values to certain sexually charged actions or thoughts.

The views of religions and religious believers range widely, from holding the belief that sex and the flesh are negative, to the belief that sex is the highest expression of the divine. Views on sexuality may not even be shared among adherents of a particular sect. Some religions distinguish between sexual activities that are practiced for biological reproduction (sometimes allowed only when in formal marital status and at a certain age), and other activities practiced for sexual pleasure as immoral.

A 2005 summary of various studies found that rates of sexually transmitted diseases, abortion, and early adolescent pregnancy are in fact lower in secular societies. [2] There are many possible reasons for this conclusion.

Abrahamic religions

Heterosexuality, and specifically procreation, is currently viewed as the ideal by some members of the Abrahamic religions. They sanction monogamous and committed heterosexual relationships within marriage. The Jewish Hebrew Bible prohibits adultery and heterosexual intercourse during the period of Niddah or menses.

Judaism

Main articles: Tzniut, Niddah, Yichud, Negiah, Jewish views of homosexuality, and Adultery#Rabbinic Judaism

In the perspective of traditional Judaism, sex and reproduction are the holiest of acts one can do, the act through which one can imitate God, "The Creator", and in order to preserve its sanctity there are many boundaries and guidelines. However, within the boundaries, there are virtually no outright strictures, and is in fact obligatory. It prohibits sexual relations outside of heterosexual marriage, maintains biblical strictures on relations within marriage including observance of Niddah, a prohibition on relations for a period including the menstrual period, and Tzniut, requirements of modest dress and behavior. Traditional Judaism views adultery, incest, and male homosexuality as grave sins. See Jewish views of homosexuality. Judaism permits relatively free divorce, with Orthodox Judaism and Conservative Judaism requiring a religious divorce ceremony for a divorce to be religiously recognized. More liberal branches of Judaism have adapted perspectives more consistent with contemporary general secular culture. Some Reform rabbis also perform homosexual marriages.[citation needed]

Orthodox

Main article: Tzniut

There are several levels to the observance of physical and personal modesty (tzniut) according to Orthodox Judaism as derived from various sources in halakha. Observance of these rules varies from aspirational to mandatory to routine across the spectrum of Orthodox stricture and observance.

A prohibition on dwelling on lascivious or immoral thoughts.

A prohibition on staring at members of the opposite sex, particularly at the reproductive anatomy.

A requirement to keep most of one's body clothed in respectable clothing.

A requirement to avoid the company of uncouth individuals and avoid frequenting places where an atmosphere of levity and depravity prevails.

A prohibition on looking at pictures or scenes that will be sexually arousing.

A prohibition on touching a person of the opposite sex, especially in a lingering arousing manner (shaking hands very quickly in greeting between sexes is a point of dispute, and depends on one's rabbi's halachic decision). See Negiah.

A prohibition on wearing the clothing of a member of the opposite sex.

A prohibition on looking at animals copulating.

A prohibition on erotically hugging (chibuk) or kissing (nishuk) one's spouse in public,

A prohibition on sexual contact or touching between spouses when the wife is a niddah ("menstruant") or has not immersed in a mikvah following the niddah period.

A prohibition on seclusion with a person of the opposite sex who is not a spouse or close relative (Yichud)

A requirement that men and women be separated during prayer, dancing, and on certain other occasions (Mechitza)

A prohibition on hotza'at zera levatala -- "secreting semen in vain" by men. There is no equivalent prohibition for women since there is no secretion. However, masturbation by women is considered by most Rabbis[citation needed] to be a lewd act and is thus included in the general commandment "And you shall be holy".

A prohibition on sex between men, or with any type of animal, or with a corpse.

Orthodox Judaism also maintains a strong prohibition on interfaith sexual relations and marriage.

Orthodox Jews tend to have a lower intermarriage rate than their Conservative and Reform counterparts. The 1990 National Jewish Population Survey indicated that of all the Jewish denominations, Orthodox Jews alone had a lower intermarriage rate in the 18-39 age category (3%) vs. the 40+ category (10%), compared with 37% vs. 10% for Conservative Jews, 53% vs. 10% for Reform Jews, and 72% vs. 39% for secular Jews.[3] A Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs report showed that Orthodox Judaism had doubled among synagogue-affiliated Jews in the United States, from 10% in 1990 to 21.8% in 2001, and that most of this growth was in the stricter Haredi Judaism as opposed to Modern Orthodox Judaism. It speculated that this trend may have been related to a general trend towards greater religious and social traditionalism, as well as due to earlier marriage and higher birth rates in Orthodox families consistent with more traditional sexual behavior.[4] Orthodox Judaism, alone of all the Jewish denominations, retains relatively mild traditional disabilities on divorce, including a Biblical prohibition on a Kohen (priestly descendant of Aaron) marrying a divorcee or a women who has engaged in certain types of sexual misconduct. These strictures, while observed, are generally regarded as matters of personal status rather than morality. An Orthodox bill of divorce is required for a divorce to be recognized.

Conservative

Conservative Judaism, consistent with its general view that Halakha (Jewish law) is a binding guide to Jewish life but subject to periodic revision by the Rabbinate, has lifted a number of strictures observed by Orthodox Judaism. In particular, in December 2006, Conservative Judaism's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards adopted responsa presenting diametrically opposed views on the issue of homosexuality. It adopted an opinion restricting a prior prohibition on homosexual conduct to male-male anal sex only, which it declared to be the only Biblical prohibition, declaring all other prohibitions (e.g. male-male oral sex or lesbian sex) rabbinic, and lifting all rabbinic restrictions based on its interpretation of the Talmudic principle of Kevod HaBriyot ("human dignity"). While declining to develop a form of religious gay marriage, it permitted blessing lesbian and gay unions and ordaining openly lesbian and gay rabbis who agree not to engage in male-male anal sex.[5] It also adopted two traditionalist opinions, an opinion upholding all traditional prohibitions on homosexual activity, also adopted as a majority opinion,[6] and a minority opinion urging homosexuals wishing to live as religious Jews to seek treatment.[citation needed] The approach permits individual rabbis, congregations, and rabbinical schools to set their own policy on homosexual conduct. It reflects a profound change from a prior blanket prohibition on male homosexual practices. It acknowledges a sharp divergence of views on sexual matters within Conservative Judaism, such that there is no single Conservative Jewish approach to matters of sexuality. Conservative Judaism currently straddles the divide between liberal and traditional opinion on sexual matters within contemporary American society, permitting both views.[7]

Conservative Judaism has maintained on its books a variety of modesty requirements and prohibitions, including a requirement that married women observe the laws of Niddah (refraining from sex during and shortly after their menstrual period and immersing in a Mikvah prior to resuming relations) and a general prohibition on non-marital heterosexual conduct. On the same day as the CJLS released its homosexuality responsa, it released multiple opinions on the subject of Niddah including a responsum lifting certain traditional restrictions on husband-wife contact during the niddah period while maintaining a prohibition on sexual relations. The permissive responsum on homosexuality used the Conservative movement's approach to Niddah as an analogy for construing the Biblical prohibition against male homosexual conduct narrowly and lifting restrictions it deemed Rabbinic in nature. The responsum indicated it would be making a practical analogy between an approach in which male homosexual couples would be on their honor to refrain from certain acts and its approach to Niddah:

We expect homosexual students to observe the rulings of this responsum in the same way that we expect heterosexual students to observe the CJLS rulings on niddah. We also expect that interview committees, administrators, faculty and fellow students will respect the privacy and dignity of gay and lesbian students in the same way that they respect the privacy and dignity of heterosexual students.

The responsum enjoined young people not to be "promiscuous" and to prepare themselves for "traditional marriage" if possible, while not explicitly lifting or re-enforcing any express strictures on non-marital heterosexual conduct.[5].

Even before this responsum, strictures on pre-marital sex had been substantially ignored, even in official circles. For example, when the Jewish Theological Seminary proposed enforcing a policy against non-marital cohabitation by rabbinical students in the 1990s, protests by cohabiting rabbinical students resulted in a complete rescission of the policy.

Conservative Judaism formally prohibits interfaith marriage and its standards currently indicate it will expel a Rabbi who performs an interfaith marriage. It maintains a variety of formal strictures including a prohibition on making birth announcements in synagogue bulletins for children on non-Jewish mothers and accepting non-Jewish individuals as synagogue members. However, interfaith marriage is relatively widespread among the Conservative laity, and the Conservative movement has recently adapted a policy of being more welcoming of interfaith couples in the hopes of interesting their children in Judaism, and is considering relaxing some of its strictures.

Conservative Judaism, which was for much of the 20th century the largest Jewish denomination in the United States declined sharply in synagogue membership in the United States the 1990s, from 51% of synagogue memberships in 1990 to 33.1% in 2001, with most of the loss going to Orthodox Judaism and most of the rest to Reform. The fracturing in American society of opinion between increasingly liberal and increasingly traditionalist viewpoints on sexual and other issues, as well as the gap between official opinion and general lay practice vis-a-vis the more traditionalist and liberal denominations, may have contributed to the decline.[8].

Reform and Reconstructionist

Reform Judaism and Reconstructionist Judaism do not observe or require traditional sexuality rules and have welcomed non married and homosexual couples and endorsed homosexual commitment ceremonies and marriages.

Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism are more tolerant of interfaith marriage, and many rabbis in both communities will perform one. Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism also do not require a religious divorce ceremony separate from a civil divorce.

It has been speculated that the more tolerant attitudes of Reform and Reconstructionist Judaism towards both sexual diversity and interfaith marriage may have contributed to the rise in their popularity during the 1990s, from about 33% of affiliated households to 38%, making it pass Conservative Judaism as the largest Jewish denomination in the United States.[8]