From: Interfaith Working Group Subject: IWG Miami Herald Reclaiming America letter Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1998 23:16:59 -0400 (EDT) August 12, 1998 Miami Herald 1 Herald Plaza Miami, FL 33132 Dear Editors: We are stunned that an organization called the Reclaiming America Center spends $600,000 on ads all around the country saying they want a national debate about sexual orientation, and the print media (the direct beneficiaries of this spending largesse), rather than doing real investigative journalism, fall all over themselves to join in the requested debate. Instead, some basic questions should have been asked, such as: Reclaiming America for Whom? Reclaiming America by what means? Reclaiming America to what end? Exactly what was the original claim, and how was it lost? How about some basic investigative journalism on how an organization like Exodus (which has long claimed to be apolitical) allowed its name to be put on ad from organizations which worry about almost nothing but politics? Given that D. James Kennedy is based in Florida, and appears regularly on television, your readers might also find it instructive to understand what other sorts of informational campaigns Rev. Kennedy has announced on his recent Coral Ridge Ministries telecasts. The real fact which Janet L. Folger is trying to obscure is that definitively resolving the causes of homosexuality is immaterial to whether people get equal treatment under the law. The current national debate over what constitutes equal treatment is slowly being lost by the organizations who put their names on the ads in question. Sincerely, Barbara Purdom Christopher Purdom Interfaith Working Group Coordinators The above letter went out on IWG letterhead listing 16 congregations and organizations and 59 clergy from 16 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 iwg@libertynet.org and clergy supporting gay rights, http://www.libertynet.org/iwg/ reproductive freedom, and the 215-235-3050 separation of church and state.