Subject: IWG Manchester letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 Jul 1997 23:05:11 -0400 (EDT)

The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 10 congregations and religious
organizations and 43 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 17, 1997

Richard Lessner
Manchester Union Leader
Box 9555
Manchester,  NH  03108

Dear Mr. Lessner:

Your editorial about NOW and Promise Keepers was so
riddled with problems that we hardly know where to
begin.  First, the oppression of the transgendered is a
very real and serious problem in this society, caused
by needless enforcement of strict gender roles and an
inability to deal rationally with people who do not fit
into those classifications.  The point of Promise
Keepers is to a) conquer the country for Christ, and b)
make men "better, more responsible and loving husbands
and fathers," (as you put it) through gender
stereotyping.  Many of us who believe in religious
liberty, including some very conservative Christians,
are understandably taken aback by an organization so
bent on the imposition of a single religious ideology
at the expense of local religious institutions.   And
those of us who favor a gender-neutral society do not
believe that gender stereotyping is the best way to
make men more responsible and loving.

But above all, we object to your characterization of
people who disagree with you as "the secular left." 
There are both religious and areligious people opposed
to the   Religious Right.  What is the point of
continuing this fiction that all religious people think
alike?  A quick perusal of any newspaper in the country
shows that American religious institutions are in a
state of turmoil over gender issues.  If you really
find it necessary to editorialize in favor of Promise
Keepers and against NOW and People for the American Way
that's your privilege, but keep your facts straight.

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.