Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2000 00:21:10 -0500 From: Interfaith Working Group Subject: IWG NY Post marriage letter January 3, 2000 New York Post 1211 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036 Dear Editors: Your December 26 editorial completely misrepresented the separate institutions of civil and religious marriage. Civil marriage creates a nationally-recognized legal relationship between two otherwise unrelated consenting adults of different genders, regardless of their races or religions, and regardless of society's racial and religious sensibilities and prejudices. A growing number of individuals and religious institutions define marriage in such a way that the definition does not include gender, even though civil marriage laws in all states currently discriminate on the basis of gender. Civil marriage has no "religious or moral elements," and removing gender from legal definitions of marriage would not strip those elements from religious marriage or require religious institutions to recognize same-gender marriages. Sincerely, Barbara Lamond Purdom Christopher Purdom Interfaith Working Group Coordinators The above letter was sent on IWG letterhead listing 18 congregations and religious organizations and 63 clergy from 16 religious traditions. Read our introduction to religious liberty: http://www.iwgonline.org/liberty/ -- Interfaith Working Group PO Box 11706 Philadelphia, PA 19101 http://www.iwgonline.org/ iwg@iwgonline.org voice: 215-235-3050 fax: 215-232-0829