Subject: IWG Rapid City Letter Date: Tue, 8 Oct 1996 23:59:04 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Purdom The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 2 congregations, 5 religious organizations and 37 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. Visit the web page at http://www.libertynet.org/~iwg/. October 8, 1996 Letters Editor Rapid City Journal Box 450 Rapid City, SD 57709 Dear Editors: Greg Mix does not understand that many religious bodies do not define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and that until DOMA passed, the Federal Government and many states didn't either. DOMA is codified discrimination on the basis of gender and religion. It is not equal protection under the law, and it is clearly unconstitutional. This is why such "radical left wing extremist groups" as the Interfaith Working Group, the Pacific Congress of Quakers, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and the California Council of Churches support the legal recognition of same-sex marriage. Whether marriage discrimination is overturned in Congress, in the state-houses or by the Supreme Court is not the question. It is morally and legally wrong, and it will be overturned. Sincerely, Barbara Purdom Christopher Purdom Interfaith Working Group Coordinators