Subject: IWG Inquirer Istook Coverage
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 7 Jun 1998 23:25:50 -0400 (EDT)

June 5, 1998

The Philadelphia Inquirer
PO Box 8263
Phila., PA 19101

Dear Editors:

We greatly appreciated your in depth and balanced
coverage of the defeat of the Istook Amendment.  We
wonder, however, why you did not feel that an attempt
to amend our religious freedom, even an attempt that
failed by sixty-six votes, was not worthy of front page
coverage or any pre-vote publicity.   Philadelphians
have an active and historical interest in the First
Amendment.  We are a religiously diverse people, living
in the first city in a colony that was founded on the
principle of religious liberty, and the city where the
United States Constitution was ratified.  Yet anyone
who relies on the Inquirer for coverage of the issues
could easily have missed the fact that a freedom we all
take for granted was being seriously challenged in
Congress.  It is difficult to blame the public for
being apathetic if the press fails to convey a sense of
urgency or importance to critical debates.   

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.