Subject: IWG Atlanta Journal letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 25 Jun 1997 23:18:50 -0400 (EDT)

The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 10 congregations and religious
organizations and 41 clergy from 14 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.

June 25, 1997

Ms. Martha Ezzard
The Atlanta Journal
72 Marietta Street NW
Atlanta, GA  30303

Dear Ms. Ezzard:

In your June 24 column you suggested that there was
room for constructive discussion between those opposed
to same-gender marriage ceremonies and those opposed to
discrimination against people who are attracted to
others of the same gender, and that it is actually
possible to hold both positions.  

Certainly it is within the legal rights of any
individual or religious institution to hold
discriminatory beliefs, including a belief that the
commitment of mixed-gender is superior in some way to
that of same-gender couples and thus more deserving of
"the traditional institution of marriage" (whatever
that is).  And if those beliefs are religiously based,
it is reasonable to act on them in a religious context.
The United Methodist denomination is no more compelled
to approve of same-gender marriages than any other
religious institution is required to approve of
interfaith marriages or marriages after a divorce.

Other institutions, however, are compelled to operate
from a broader and less discriminatory worldview. 
There is no question in our minds that a failure to
give equal recognition to the relationships of same-
gender couples is ultimately based on, and reiterating,
a belief that those relationships, and by extension
those involved in them, are inferior.  As long as one
institution, especially an institution as ingrained in
the culture and law as marriage, is denied to any
particular group, then society is both discriminating
and encouraging discrimination. 

Far from being an exception case, marriage is <the> case. 
Under the circumstances, until this question is finally
settled, determining the ownership of the University
chapel seems to be the only reasonable solution.

Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom     Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators

-- 

Interfaith Working Group                Religious organizations, congregations
[email-masked]                      and clergy supporting gay rights,
http://www.libertynet.org/~iwg/         reproductive freedom, and the 
215-235-3050                            separation of church and state.