May 8, 2004

Jacey Eckhart
The Virginian-Pilot
PO Box 449
Norfolk, VA 23501-0449

Dear Ms. Eckhart:

We were deeply troubled by your May 4 column about marriage, 
gender, and religion.  A small but rapidly growing number of 
religious organizations, congregations and clergy from a wide 
variety of faith traditions have decided that there is nothing 
gender-specific in the word “marriage.”  Religious marriages for 
same-gender couples have been occurring around the country for the 
last thirty years.  Whether your religious beliefs include marriage 
for same-gender couples is immaterial.  This is a religiously free 
and religiously diverse country.  It is not the job of any level of 
government to enforce one religious definition of marriage on all 
of the people, and it is extremely disturbing when mainstream media 
commentators not only argue for state-enforced religious and sexual 
discrimination but refuse to even acknowledge the existence of people 
with different religious beliefs. We hope that you will offer a public 
apology to the married same-gender couples you have slighted and to the 
communities of faith that support them.


Sincerely,
Barbara Lamond Purdom      		
Christopher Purdom
Interfaith Working Group Coordinators