From: Interfaith Working Group Subject: IWG Newsweek Ad Campaign Letter Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 09:02:12 -0400 (EDT) July 29, 1998 Newsweek 251 West 57th St. New York, NY 10019 Dear Editors: Thank you for Mark Miller's critical look at the $600,000 national ad campaign organized by Rev. D. James Kennedy that asserts that gay people can and should change their orientation. However, even if everyone could become heterosexual, the fact that Rev. Kennedy believes that everyone should be heterosexual should have no effect on how sexual minorities are treated by the government. Rev. Kennedy, like all of us, is a direct beneficiary of the Constitutional protection of religion, and very few people claim that one's adherence to a particular religion is biological, genetic, or otherwise innate. We treat all faiths and people of all faiths equally under the law. Since the only objections to same-gender sexual behavior seem to be religious in nature, and this is not a theocracy, and finally, there is not even religious consensus on the relative morality of homosexuality and heterosexuality, there is no good reason that sexual orientation should not be afforded the same legal protections as religious preference. 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.