Subject: IWG Inquirer letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 1996 00:50:48 -0500 (EST)

The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 3 congregations, 5 religious
organizations and 36 clergy from 12 faiths and denominations. If you are in 
the general Philadelphia area and represent a congregation or religious 
organization or are clergy, let us know if you want to be added - all faiths 
are welcome. We will also be happy to help start similar organizations in 
other areas.

December 21, 1996

The Philadelphia Inquirer
PO Box 8263
Phila., PA 19101

Dear Editors:

	Chris Satullo's opinion on the correct response to
religious bigots who have been elected to school boards
was both a serious underestimation of the problem and a
trivialization of their religious beliefs.
	Anyone who has read the stories in the Inquirer
about Merrimack, NH and Elizabethtown, PA, should
realize that elected officials who sincerely believe
that school board policies must confirm to their own
religious beliefs can damage a community; they do not
require "magic powers," as Mr. Satullo so glibly put
it. They have the authority to pass policy.  In school
boards around the country we have seen policies
upholding one-father/one-mother families as the only
correct family structure, implementing fear-based sex-
education, forbidding the teaching of evolution or
mentioning homosexuality, and preventing schools from
offering counseling services.
	These policies do not occur in a vacuum; they are
authored by organizations like Focus on the Family,
Citizens for Excellence in Education and Concerned
Women for America.  These groups exist primarily to
disrupt public education and encourage its replacement
by religious schools.  They are driven not primarily by
hate but by a genuine desire to institute what they see
as a better model for society, and they have
considerable resources at their disposal.  Such people
should not be confused with bored teenagers who are
angry with the world and want to smash something.
	The correct response to such a threat is to fully
educate the public.  In an environment where media
attention is given only to those who make policy, who
can afford advertising, or who hold demonstrations and
wave signs, demonstrations are a necessary component
of information campaigns for minority organizations.

Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom     Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators