From: Interfaith Working Group Subject: IWG Maui News letter Date: Thu, 3 Apr 1997 00:46:10 -0500 (EST) The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 9 congregations and religious organizations and 38 clergy from 13 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. April 2, 1997 Maui News 100 Mahalani Street Wailuku, HI 96793 Dear Editors: In his March 31 letter, Craig Rogers aptly demonstrates why the phrase "homosexual advocate" is problematic, while at the same time questioning why anyone would object to its use. Heterosexual supremacists would like us to believe that no heterosexual would ever accept a sexual minority as an equal human, and that the inferiority of non-heterosexuals is enforced by God, as anyone "vaguely familiar with the Bible" knows. The fact that there are heterosexuals who are intimately familiar with the Bible and who believe that sexual orientation is morally irrelevant means that no one person can claim to address homosexuality on behalf of all members of the sexual and religious majority. It would not have been unreasonable to say that a large but rapidly shrinking majority of Christians publicly state that they find homosexuality problematic, and that they believe that same-gender sexual behavior is contrary to the will of God. Any statement beyond that is simply too broad to be accurate. Sincerely, Barbara Purdom Christopher Purdom Interfaith Working Group Coordinators -- Interfaith Working Group Religious organizations, congregations iwg@libertynet.org and clergy supporting gay rights, http://www.libertynet.org/~iwg/ reproductive freedom, and the 215-235-3050 separation of church and state.