Declaration: Christians will hold to beliefs,
not abandon their Christian conscience
The Layman, November 20, 2009
Christian leaders from across the nation have released a 4,700-word declaration calling Christians “to adhere to their convictions” and informing civil authorities that the signers “will not – under any circumstances – abandon their Christian consciences.”
About the Manhattan Declaration
The Manhattan Declaration was drafted by Dr. Robert George, Dr. Timothy George and Chuck Colson and has been signed by more than 125 Orthodox, Catholic and evangelical Christian leaders. It was announced Friday at a 12 p.m. press conference in the Lisagor Room at the National Press Club.
Presbyterian signers include Carmen Fowler, president and executive editor of the Presbyterian Lay Committee; John A. Huffman Jr., senior pastor of St. Andrews Presbyterian Church in Newport Beach, Calif.; and Tim Keller, president of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, N.Y.
“We act together in obedience to the one true God of holiness and love, who has laid total claim on our lives and by that claim calls us with believers in all ages and nations to seek and defend the good of all who bear His image,” states the declaration.
The declaration speaks to the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife, and the rights of conscience and religious liberty.
“We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right – and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation – to speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence.”
Life
Beginning with Scripture – Genesis 1:27 and John 10:10 – the section on life reads: “Although public sentiment has moved in a pro-life direction, we note with sadness that pro-abortion ideology prevails today in our government. The present administration is led and staffed by those who want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and who want to provide abortions at taxpayer expense.”
It acknowledges President Barack Obama’s desire to “reduce the ‘need’ for abortion,” but the declaration also notes his pledge to make “abortion more easily and widely available by eliminating laws prohibiting government funding, requiring waiting periods for women seeking abortions, and parental notification for abortions performed on minors.”
The declaration states that the commitment to the sanctity of life is not a partisan matter, since members of both major political parties “have been complicit in giving legal sanction to what Pope John Paul II described as ‘the culture of death.’”
“We will be united and untiring in our efforts to roll back the license to kill that began with the abandonment of the unborn to abortion,” it says. “The Bible enjoins us to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to speak for those who cannot themselves speak. And so we defend and speak for the unborn, the disabled and the dependent. What the Bible and the light of reason make clear, we must make clear. We must be willing to defend, even at risk and cost to ourselves and our institutions, the lives of our brothers and sisters at every stage of development and in every condition.”
Marriage
The marriage section begins with Genesis 2:23-24 and Ephesians 5:23-34, then states that in Scripture, “the creation of man and woman, and their one-flesh union as husband and wife is the crowning achievement of God’s creation … Marriage then, is the first institution of human society – indeed it is the institution on which all other human institutions have their foundation.”
Unfortunately, the declaration says, over the past several decades marriage has suffered in the United States, and “We confess with sadness that Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage and to model for the world the true meaning of marriage. Insofar as we have too easily embraced the culture of divorce and remained silent about social practices that undermine the dignity of marriage we repent, and call upon all Christians to do the same.”
Symptoms of the erosion of the marriage culture, according to the declaration, include recognizing same-sex marriage and multiple partner relationships. The declaration acknowledges that there are those who are “disposed toward homosexual and polyamorous conduct and relationships, just as there are those who are disposed toward other forms of immoral conduct. … We, no less than they, are sinners who have fallen short of God’s intention for our lives.”
“We call on the entire Christian community to resist sexual immorality, and at the same time refrain from disdainful condemnation of those who yield to it. Our rejection of sin, though resolute, must never become the rejection of sinners. For every sinner, regardless of the sin, is loved by God, who seeks not our destruction but rather the conversion of our hearts. Jesus calls all who wander from the path of virtue to ‘a more excellent way,’” it says.
“And so it is out of love (not ‘animus’) and prudent concern for the common good (not ‘prejudice’), that we pledge to labor ceaselessly to preserve the legal definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman and to rebuild the marriage culture. How could we, as Christians, do otherwise?”
Religious liberty
Citing Isaiah 61:1 and Matthew 22:21, the declaration notes that the struggle for religious liberty has been long and arduous. Religious liberty is grounded in the character of God Himself, the God who is most fully known in the life and work of Jesus Christ,” says the declaration. “Thus the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the example of Christ Himself and in the very dignity of the human person created in the image of God – a dignity, as our founders proclaimed, inherent in every human, and knowable by all in the exercise of right reason.”
“It is ironic that those who today assert a right to kill the unborn, aged and disabled and also a right to engage in immoral sexual practices, and even a right to have relationships integrated around these practices be recognized and blessed by law – such persons claiming these ‘rights’ are very often in the vanguard of those who would trample upon the freedom of others to express their religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife.”
Examples in the declaration include:
- the effort to weaken or eliminate conscience clauses, compelling pro-life institutions and health care professionals to refer or even perform abortions.
- the use of anti-discrimination statutes to force religious institutions, businesses and service providers to comply with activities they judge to be immoral or go out of business.
“We believe in law and in the rule of law. We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral,” the dec
laration says.
But, the declaration ends with the statement: “Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.”
Those in agreement with the declaration can sign it by accessing the Web site. Organizers are hoping for more than one million signatures by Dec. 1.