Date: Sun, 15 Oct 1995 19:06:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Chris Purdom Subject: IWG letters on proposed life hearings 2 letters regarding the "Beginning of Life Hearings" proposed by Bob Casey and supported by Focus on the Family are being sent out on IWG letterhead (2 congregations, 4 religious organizations and 14 clergy). Senator Specter is firmly pro-Choice and currently pretty peeved at the Religious Right. Senator Santorum is much loved by the Religious Right, though he has displayed some capacity for reason on issues like AIDS funding. October 15, 1995 The Honorable Arlen Specter United States Senate 530 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Specter: Dr. James Dobson's Colorado-based Focus On the Family is asking their members to follow Bob Casey's lead and ask their senators and representatives to hold hearings on the question of when life begins. This would set a very bad precedent. Do not let this happen. This is yet another attempt by the Radical Religious Right to outlaw abortion in their ongoing campaign to control religious belief and scientifc "fact" through legislation, dragging Congress into areas where it was never intended to go. All religions and individuals have different notions of when life begins, and not everyone agrees that the question of abortion is at all related. Please let your fellow senators know that you have constituents who strongly believe that any such hearings would be extremely inappropriate. Perhaps if they persist in this nonsense you can threaten to hold hearings featuring archeologists and paleontologists to determine when life began on this planet. Barbara Purdom Christopher Purdom Interfaith Working Group Coordinators October 15, 1995 The Honorable Rick Santorum United States Senate 120 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Santorum: Dr. James Dobson's Colorado-based Focus On the Family is asking their members to follow Bob Casey's lead and ask their senators and representatives to hold hearings on the question of when life begins. This would set a very bad precedent. Do not let this happen. Congress should not be in the business of investigating religious belief or scientific facts; religious beliefs are highly individualistic and private in nature, and scientific discoveries are constantly producing new facts which supersede the old ones. All religions and individuals have different notions of when life begins, and not everyone agrees that the question of the legality or morality of abortion is at all related to this debate. We could just as easily be holding hearings on when and how life began on this planet (evolution clearly having the most physical evidence to support it) but that would be just as inappropriate. Yours in faith, Barbara Purdom Christopher Purdom Interfaith Working Group Coordinators -- Chris Purdom phone:610-993-1134 Development Team Leader email: purdom@tesi.com Tangram Enterprise Solutions homepage: http://www.tesi.com/~cpurdom/ Till the end of time. -O(+>