Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2000 23:19:59 -0500 From: Interfaith Working Group Subject: IWG Lancaster Mennonite Letter Letter March 6, 2000 Editor Sunday News 8 W. King Street Lancaster, PA 17603 Dear Editors: We were disturbed by many facets of Rev. Steve Butts’ comments (March 5) concerning the Open Letter signed by six-hundred forty-nine Mennonites. We were especially disturbed by the section in which he wrote that those who endorsed the statement “have bought the line of the radical advocates for homosexuality who want us to believe that a person is homosexual in the same way that he or she is of a particular race or gender.” He goes on to state that there are no celibate homosexuals. The implication that good people of faith have been somehow duped by outside radical advocates is ridiculous; some of the most dedicated advocates for equal rights for sexual minorities are religious people, especially those with a strongly-developed sense of justice motivated by love. Those that we know are advocates for people, not for their orientations and identities, although they believe that their orientations are just as legally, ethically, and morally valid as heterosexuals’, and should not matter. Having read the open letter carefully, there is no verbiage comparing orientation to “race and gender;” it is a criticism of the exercise of majority power for the purpose of exclusion, an exercise of power that has been used against many different kinds of people throughout history. Sexual orientation is defined by attraction, not by behavior; many gay, lesbian, and bisexual people have never have had a sexual relationship with a person of their own gender. The question facing society is whether we should be forcing consenting adults with minority sexual orientations to choose between heterosexual behavior or celibacy; or whether they should be allowed to form socially-recognized relationships with the person whom they have chosen, and who has chosen them, a right that is assumed by all heterosexuals and exercised by most. Sincerely, Barbara Lamond Purdom Christopher Purdom Interfaith Working Group Coordinators The above letter was sent on IWG letterhead listing 19 congregations and religious organizations and 64 clergy from 16 religious traditions. You can show your support by wearing an Interfaith Working Group shirt: http://www.iwgonline.org/clothes/ -- Interfaith Working Group PO Box 11706 Philadelphia, PA 19101 http://www.iwgonline.org/ iwg@iwgonline.org voice: 215-235-3050 fax: 215-232-0829