Subject: IWG CDA Letters
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Jul 1997 23:35:57 -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.

July 3, 1997

Philadelphia Daily News
PO Box 7788
Phila., PA 19101

Dear Editors:

Your coverage of the Communications Decency Act
decision was reasonable and balanced, but the front
page hype and pictures concentrating on pornography
were sensationalistic at the expense of being
accurate.  Contrary to William Devlin's opinion, this
case had nothing to do with pornography and everything
to do with the undefined phrase "indecency" which
seems to cover anything anybody objects to.  The day
after the Supreme Court struck down the CDA, police in
Oklahoma raided private homes and confiscated copies
of the Academy Award winning German film The Tin Drum
because it violates Oklahoma obscenity laws. With a
national scope and much broader wording applied to
every individual's email and web pages, what kind of
chaos would have occurred under the Communications
Decency Act?

Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom     Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators

July 3, 1997

The Philadelphia Inquirer
PO Box 8263
Phila., PA 19101

Dear Editors:

Thank you for your thorough coverage of the Supreme
Court ruling on the Communications Decency Act.  We
were particularly glad to see the profile of AIDS
activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya, which reinforced the fact
that regardless of what the CDA's supporters claimed,
it was a ban on "indecency" (which seems to cover
anything anybody objects to) and not just pornography. 
We found it highly ironic that the next day's Inquirer
carried a story about police in Oklahoma raiding
private homes to confiscate copies of the Academy
Award-winning German film The Tin Drum because it
violates Oklahoma obscenity laws.  With a national
scope and much broader wording applied to every
individual's email and web pages, what kind of chaos
would have occurred under the Communications Decency
Act?

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.