Subject: IWG USA Today Letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 26 Feb 1997 00:35:10 -0500 (EST)

The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 3 congregations, 6 religious
organizations and 37 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.

February 25 , 1997

USA Today
1000 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington,VA  22229

Dear Editors:

On February 24 you reported that the Kendall
Presbytery of Burley, ID had voted to bar homosexuals
from holding church office.  This was not an isolated
vote by the Kendall Presbytery.  The "Fidelity and
Chastity" amendment is being voted on by all 171
presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and will
become part of the Presbyterian Book of  Order if it
is passed by a majority.  While you quoted the
amendment accurately, your summary was incorrect. 
Whatever the motivations of those who supported
passage of the amendment may be, it actually bars from
church office anyone who has sexual relationships
outside of mixed-gender marriages, regardless of their
sexual orientation -- it makes no mention of
homosexuality at all.  We understand your difficulty
summarizing in one sentence a seemingly simple
amendment fraught with so many levels of
discrimination, prejudice, faulty assumption and moral
ambiguity.

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.