Editing Reconstructionist Judaism (section)

==Beliefs==
In practice, Kaplan's books, especially ''The Meaning of God in Modern Jewish Religion'' and ''[[Judaism as a Civilization]]'' are ''de facto'' statements of principles.  In 1986, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association (RRA) and the Federation of Reconstructionist Congregations and Havurot (FRCH) passed the official "Platform on Reconstructionism". It is not a mandatory statement of principles, but rather a consensus of current beliefs.<ref>See the FRCH Newsletter, Sept. 1986, pages D, E.</ref> Major points of the platform state that:

{{Blockquote|Judaism is the result of natural human development. There is no such thing as divine intervention; Judaism is an evolving religious civilization; [[Zionism]] and [[aliyah]] (immigration to Israel) are encouraged; Reconstructionist Judaism is based on a democratic community where the laity can make decisions, not just rabbis; The Torah was not inspired by God; it only comes from the social and historical development of Jewish people; The classical view of God is rejected. God is redefined as the sum of natural powers or processes that allows mankind to gain self-fulfillment and moral improvement; The idea that God chose the Jewish people for any purpose, in any way, is "morally untenable", because anyone who has such beliefs "implies the superiority of the elect community and the rejection of others."}}

Most Reconstructionists do not believe in [[revelation]] (the idea that God reveals his will to human beings). This is dismissed as [[supernatural]]ism. Kaplan posits that revelation "consists in disengaging from the traditional context those elements in it which answer permanent postulates of human nature, and in integrating them into our own ideology...the rest may be relegated to archaeology".{{sfn|Kaplan|1994|p=}}

Many writers have criticized the movement's most widely held theology, [[religious naturalism]]. [[David Ray Griffin]] and [[Louis Jacobs]] have objected to the redefinitions of the terms "revelation" and "God" as being intellectually dishonest, and as being a form of "conversion by definition"; in their critique, these redefinitions take [[non-theistic]] beliefs and attach [[theistic]] terms to them. Similar critiques have been put forth by Rabbis [[Neil Gillman]],<ref>''Sacred Fragments'', p.&nbsp;200</ref> [[Milton Steinberg]],<ref>''Milton Steinberg: Portrait of a Rabbi'' by Simon Noveck, Ktav, 1978, p.&nbsp;259–260M</ref> and Michael Samuels.<ref>''The Lord Is My Shepherd: The Theology of a Caring God'', 1996</ref>

Reconstructionist Judaism is [[egalitarian]] with respect to [[gender roles]]. All positions are open to all genders; they are open to lesbians, gay men, and transgender individuals as well.