Subject: IWG Inquirer letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 10:34:15 -0500 (EST)

The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 3 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.

January 21, 1997

The Philadelphia Inquirer
PO Box 8263
Phila., PA 19101

Dear Editors:

We greatly appreciated Cathy Young's critique of right-
wing charges that judges are legislating from the
bench.  In a diverse society not everyone sees
themselves as a minority, but when religion, race,
country of origin, political affiliation, marital
status, age, language, sexual orientation, and physical
and mental disability are taken into consideration,
almost everyone at some point in their lives depends on
Constitutional and judicial protection from the tyranny
of the majority.  Lately, conservative Christian
organizations have been highly selective in leveling
"legislating" charges against members of the judiciary,
depending upon the minority group receiving protection.

We were pleased that Young noted the increasing support
for same-gender marriage, a trend which has been
overlooked in mainstream media reports.  However, we
found her analysis of Roe v. Wade to be somewhat
superficial.  Balancing the rights of a person not yet
legally recognized as such by the state against the
legal rights of the person whose body they are
completely dependent on has not been a simple question
for either the religious or legal communities.

Sometimes the Supreme Court must answer questions which
were never remotely imagined by the framers of the
Constitution.  If every social and technological change
had been anticipated by the Constitution's framers, the
need for a Supreme Court would have been minimal.  This
year, for instance, the Court will be forced to decide
whether freedom of religion, speech, and the press are
applicable to the internet.  Referring to these
decisions as "legislating from the bench" or "making up
rights from thin air" implies that individual rights do
not extend beyond the technological and social
framework of the late 1700s.  Under such a system,
given the speed at which things are changing, very few
people would soon have any rights left at all.   

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.