Subject: IWG Kansas "different" letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 1999 23:01:31 -0400 (EDT)

April 12, 1999

The Kansas City Star
1729 Grand Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64108

Dear Editors:

Thank you for publishing Rhonda Chriss Lokeman's April
11 column.  We too wondered why Matthew Shepard was
singled out by the prosecutor as "different," as
though no potential juror could possibly relate to
him.  We are all different.  We have different beliefs
and different experiences.  We shouldn't require any
special reminders that the law protects all of us
equally.  But we know that identifiable differences
can be an excuse for oppression and violence. We
believe that since religion has too often been a
divisive force in society, that people of faith do
have a "particular responsibility" to set a good
example by working with others who have different
beliefs, and standing with those who are oppressed.

Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom     Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators

The above letter went out on IWG letterhead listing 17 congregations and
organizations and 61 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
http://www.libertynet.org/iwg           and clergy supporting gay rights,
[email-masked]                      reproductive freedom, and the 
voice: 215-235-3050  fax: 232-0829      separation of church and state.

Sunday May 16, 1999 5pm. Marching In the Light: IWG Benefit Concert. Old
First Reformed Church. 4th and Race, Philadelphia, PA.  See the web page.