US rabbis using faulty statistics urge Israeli government against gay adoptions

When we see highly intelligent people lie with statistics, we cannot know if that is a matter of stubbornness (just wanting to prove being right), laziness (having made no effort to really read the research), business (having no time to delve into the study), incompetence (being greatly self-important but really having no trouble testifying about stuff they know nothing about) or pure deceit (knowingly trying to mislead).

Let’s give these neo-conservative rabbis the benefit of the doubt, but then which of the above options should we pick? Let’s settle on that they made an honest mistake. We’ll now see how they are mistaken – in many ways. Not to convince them; rather that we will not be misled.

1. The study itself says itself in its conclusion that: “This study is intended to neither undermine nor affirm any legal rights concerning [gay marriage and same-sex parenting].”

2. This study investigated broken-up families with a possibly gay partner and compared them to non-broken-up families, explicitly stressing having at the time no planned gay/lesbian families to include.

3. This study admits that the greater incest “in lesbian-parent families” probably comes from the ex-husband before their separation.

Also: reporting incest is more influenced by the self-awareness and psychological fitness of the victims than by its actual occurrence. A low disclosure may very well reflect intimidation and repression of victims. This is especially reasonable to assume because in this study only a ridiculously low 2% of the children from “the ideal” families report incest. We know from therapies that the percentage is much higher (most sexual abuse happens in the home) – don’t kid yourself.

4. There is no study that confirms any findings of this study, so five years after publication, we can doubt all the results. This study writes itself that its findings also disagree with all previous studies.

5. This study was heavily criticized, like: here, here, here and here!

6. This study actually claimed to compare: A. adults raised by other-sex married couples who stayed together, to: B. broken-up families of which at least one parent ever had a same-sex relationship no matter what length until the kid left home, with: C. another five categories of strictly heterosexual pairs of parents who not had stayed together.

The questionable statistics then show how the children of A. do so much better. Yet, one may not conclude that therefore children in the A. setting are better off than those in the B. setting. Why not? In this supposedly statistically high-quality representative sample group A. and C. are equally large (919 and 914 subjects). That means that for 50% of children their parents’ the marriages did not hold. So it’s completely inaccurate to compare B. to A. It should compare B. to A.+C. or better: B. to C. Even if the conclusions of this study would be valid that A. is better than B., half of the children in A. end up in the not so rosy C.

7. This study is faulty in so many way, or let’s say “not ideal,” that no far-reaching conclusions can ever be drawn. For starters, it’s based on self-reporting on hindsight – a double statistical nightmare.

8. This study mentions all kinds of nuances and reservations all through its text but in the conclusions they have all disappeared. So throughout it seems very reasonable … until the bottom line – NARTH-quality.

9. There are many studies that report fine parenting by gay households and to cherry pick this study because it suits one, does not speak of integrity. Cherry picking is the primordial sin of statistics.

This is all extra disappointing because one of the rabbis mentioned here, spoke out against anti-gay bullying. Yet, another of the three rabbis mentioned is on the editorial board of Jewish Action magazine, which only twice published anything about homosexuals, one (promoting cures for gays) even more hostile than the other (about gays in Hollywood threatening our normal youths – as recent as in December 2014). Also the last rabbi mentioned has written about homosexual orientation, for everyone to see that he knows a lot about Judaism but nothing about homosexuals.

What a disgrace of the Divine when religious Jews sing in the choir of fundamentalist Christians, whether it is assailing Evolution Theory, defending re-orientation therapy or attacking gays and lesbians as parents. This is what Orthodox Jews are about – Evangelicals’ lap dogs?

When your intuition tells you that these rabbis probably have no leg to stand on and are just defending an impossible and untenable position, listen to your intuition!

Most of these hundreds of rabbis are just camp followers who don’t know the first thing about homosexuals or are scared to open their mouth. The recent curbing, gagging and humiliation of Rabbi Dweck was no doubt intended to keep them all intimidated. So far, it’s working.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. He has written a lot about Psychology (including Sexuality and Abuse), Medicine (including physical immortality), Science (including basic statistics), Politics (Israel, the US, and the Netherlands, Activism - more than leftwing or rightwing, he hopes to highlight reality), Oppression and Liberation (intersectionally, for young people, the elderly, non-Whites, women, workers, Jews, LGBTQIA+, foreigners and anyone else who's dehumanized or exploited), Integrity, Philosophy, Jews (Judaism, Zionism, Holocaust and Jewish Liberation), the Climate Crisis, Ecology and Veganism, Affairs from the news, or the Torah Portion of the Week, or new insights that suddenly befell him. * Chronologically, his most influential teachers are his parents, Nico (natan) van Zuiden and Betty (beisye) Nieweg, Wim Kan, Mozart, Harvey Jackins, Marshal Rosenberg, Reb Shlomo Carlebach, and, lehavdil bein chayim lechayim, Rabbi Dr. Natan Lopes Cardozo, Rav Zev Leff, and Rav Meir Lubin. This short list doesn't mean to disrespect others who taught him a lot or a little. One of his rabbis calls him Mr. Innovation [Ish haChidushim]. Yet, his originalities seem to root deeply in traditional Judaism, though they may grow in unexpected directions. In fact, he claims he's modernizing nothing. Rather, mainly basing himself on the basic Hebrew Torah text, he tries to rediscover classical Jewish thought almost lost in thousands of years of stifling Gentile domination and Jewish assimilation. (He pleads for a close reading of the Torah instead of going by rough assumptions of what it would probably mean and before fleeing to Commentaries.) This, in all aspects of life, but prominently in the areas of Free Will, Activism, Homosexuality for men, and Redemption. * He hopes that his words will inspire and inform, and disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. He aims to bring a fresh perspective rather than harp on the obvious and familiar. When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. And so was his honesty. Bullies and con artists almost instantaneously envy and hate him. He hopes to bring new things and not just preach to the choir. * He holds a BA in medicine (University of Amsterdam) – is half a doctor. He practices Re-evaluation Co-counseling since 1977, is not an official teacher anymore, and became a friendly, powerful therapist. He became a social activist, became religious, made Aliyah, and raised three wonderful kids. Previously, for decades, he was known to the Jerusalem Post readers as a frequent letter writer. For a couple of years, he was active in hasbara to the Dutch-speaking public. He wrote an unpublished tome about Jewish Free Will. He's a strict vegan since 2008. He's an Orthodox Jew but not a rabbi. * His writing has been made possible by an allowance for second-generation Holocaust survivors from the Netherlands. It has been his dream since he was 38 to try to make a difference by teaching through writing. He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1