Subject: IWG Inquirer Bishops/Haunted House Letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 22:42:44 -0500 (EST)

The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 10 congregations and religious
organizations and 49 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.

October 25, 1997

The Philadelphia Inquirer
PO Box 8263
Phila., PA 19101

Dear Editors:

	Your October 23 issue presented quite a contrast
in the comments from Joe Patrick Bean on the pastoral
message from the American Catholic Bishops on the one
hand, and Gwen Florio's article about Abundant Life
Christian Center's haunted house on the other. The
bishops urged compassion and understanding for sexual
minority teenagers; the haunted house, according to
Florio, "begins mildly enough, with a funeral for a
young man who has died of AIDS." A "devil character"
pointing at a coffin and screaming about an
"alternative lifestyle"  is hardly a "mild" experience,
especially for a closeted gay teenager.  It is exactly
this kind of nonsense that concerns the Catholic
Bishops.

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.