Subject: IWG USA Today - Jimmy Creech
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 20 Mar 1998 23:13:32 -0500 (EST)

The following went out on IWG letterhead listing 12 congregations and
organizations and 53 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.

March 15, 1998

USA Today
1000 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington,VA  22229

Dear Editors:

In his letter of March 16, the Rev. James Gibson
stated that Jimmy Creech was on trial for
"disobedience to the order and discipline of the
United Methodist Church."  He goes on to suggest that
Rev. Creech and his supporters should leave the
church if they do not believe in a God who said, "Do
not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is
detestable."  First of all, Rev. Creech was found to
have performed a ceremony for two women, not two men,
so the Leviticus passage is not applicable; and
secondly, a jury of his peers, according to the rules
of the denomination, found that by performing this
ceremony he had not violated the order and discipline
of the United Methodist Church.  To many Christians,
any supposed Biblical prohibition against same-gender
relationships is neither clear nor consistent with
the rest of the Biblical message, and the jury in
Rev. Creech's case found that the supposed
denominational prohibition against ceremonies
celebrating those relationships was not clear or
consistent with the rest of the church's Discipline.

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.