Subject: IWG Orlando Sentinel Letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 1997 23:46:33 -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.

March 26, 1997

Orlando Sentinel
633 N. Orange Ave.
Orlando, FL  32801

Dear Editors:

Supporters of the Presbyterian Church USA's "Fidelity
and Chastity Amendment" and other similar initiatives
in other denominations consistently portray these
debates as conflicts between morality and immorality;
between those who stand up for what they believe and
those who do not think the church "can maintain any
standards of personal morality for its ordained
leadership," as Dr. J. Howard Eddington recently
asserted in your paper.

This is, however, a complete mischaracterization of the
disagreement.  It is not over whether we should have
standards, or whether we should enforce them, but over
what the standards should be, and how we interpret the
scriptures that guide our understanding.  In most of
these debates the most profound differences are over
whether a moral system should make distinctions on the
basis of gender, and whether the focus should be on
appearance or on intent.

It is difficult for anyone to make a rational decision
on which system is best, if we cannot even agree on
what the points of contention are.

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.