Subject: IWG Philadelphia Inquirer Religious Liberty Letter
From: Interfaith Working Group <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 5 Jun 1999 23:27:34 -0400 (EDT)

June 5, 1999

The Philadelphia Inquirer
PO Box 8263
Philadelphia, PA 19101

Dear Editors:

	Linda Chavez demonstrates yet again that she has
no understanding of religious liberty, religious
diversity, or basic civility and respect.  Despite
what Ms. Chavez may think, the United States'
tradition of religious liberty--formalized in Article
Six and the First Amendment of the Constitution and
later extended in the Fourteenth Amendment--is not to
permit religious dissent.  We don't have dissenters in
this country because we don't have an official
religion.  The free exercise of religion is possible
in this country precisely because we don't have an
established religion, and to remain free we must make
sure that free exercise is not allowed to create even
the appearance of an established religion.    
	Two-thousand people reciting the Lord's Prayer at
a government-sponsored event (a public school
graduation) as a protest against Constitutional
protection for the religious minority are setting an
example that neither those students nor any other
American should be asked to follow.  Those graduates
may be going off to colleges and universities where
they suddenly find themselves in the religious
minority, wishing they had the protection that was
being protested.  
	The protesters have a constitutionally-guaranteed
right to free exercise, at any time and at almost any
venue that they choose, but they chose to do it at a
time when the minority is forced to either sit
silently or join in, and they did it for no apparent
reason other than to demonstrate their superior
numbers.  It is bad enough when adults set such an
appalling example for their children, but it is even
worse for a nationally-syndicated columnist to suggest
that such behavior is in the spirit of the
Constitution and should be emulated by others.

Sincerely,
Barbara Purdom     Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators

The above letter went out on IWG letterhead listing 17 congregations and
organizations and 65 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.