From: Interfaith Working Group Subject: IWG Wall Street Journal NY DP Date: Tue, 2 Jun 1998 22:45:54 -0400 (EDT) The following 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. June 1, 1998 Wall Street Journal 200 Liberty St. New York, NY 10281 Dear Editors: It is clear from Cardinal O'Connor's May 29 remarks that he has no appreciation for church-state separation or any understanding of the diversity of religious opinion regarding marriage. It is not the job of New York City to reinforce any church's religious teachings. New York state already recognizes marriages which the Roman Catholic Church does not, such as marriages including divorced people, yet this has not prevented the Roman Catholic Church from conducting religious marriages or convincing its members to get married. We hope the Cardinal is not serious in believing that any legislative body could cause marriage to not matter. At the City Council hearings in Philadelphia last month on the same-sex partners Domestic Partnership ordinances, five times as many clergy and religious organizations testified for the bills as against, including the local Episcopal and Lutheran Bishops, the American Jewish Congress, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Chestnut Hill (Phila.) Friends Meeting, Dignity/Philadelphia, two Reconstructionist rabbis, two Unitarian Universalist pastors, a Disciples of Christ minister, a Metropolitan Community Church minister, an Episcopal priest, and Methodist, Lutheran, and Baptist pastors. Ultimately, the number of religious people testifying against or on behalf of any legislation is beside the point. Mayor Guiliani and the city council are charged with doing what is best for the health and welfare of all people in New York; not forcing the religious tenets of some city residents on all of her citizens. Sincerely, Barbara Purdom Christopher Purdom Interfaith Working Group Coordinators -- 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.