Subject: IWG Boston Globe marriage letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 12 Jul 1998 23:08:01 -0400 (EDT)

July 9, 1998

The Boston Globe
Box 2378
Boston,  MA  02107

Dear Editors:

The July 7 piece about marriage was a very confused
piece of writing.  There is more than one institution
called "marriage" in this country--fifty different
states and countless religious bodies give that name to
some form of relationship between two or more people. 
Some religious bodies recognize marriages that are not
accepted by most states, and all of the states
recognize marriages that are not accepted by some
religious bodies.  

A dictionary definition is simply not adequate for
sorting out this completely bewildering mess.  Some say
that marriage "by definition" only applies when both
people are of the same faith, and others say that
marriage is reserved for those who belong to a
particular faith.  Until just over thirty years ago in
some states, marriage was "by definition" only for two
people classified as being the same race, and in
certain states it was denied altogether to people of a
particular race.   

Lots of folks have learned to accept that the
government definition of marriage doesn't match their
own.  The government recognizes interfaith marriages
and remarriages after divorce.  It also refuses to
recognize religious marriages between people of the
same gender.  The latter, however, is not just a
question of semantics, but an issue of basic fairness. 
Unless the writer is going to argue that any marriage
that anybody objects to should just be called a
"union," he should stop harping on those that involve
two people of the same gender.

Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom     Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators

The above letter went out on IWG letterhead listing 15 congregations and
organizations and 58 clergy from 15 religious traditions. 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.

-- 

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.