I’m inclined to disagree with signing.
It says:
“Christians confess that God alone is Lord of the conscience. Immunity from religious coercion is the cornerstone of an unconstrained conscience. No one should be compelled to embrace any religion against his will, nor should persons of faith be forbidden to worship God according to the dictates of conscience or to express freely and publicly their deeply held religious convictions. What is true for individuals applies to religious communities as well.”
Let’s be realistic. Both Catholics and Reformers once killed ‘heretics’ with great glee...or at least sought them out for killing. The Anglican Church, the Catholic Church, Calvin in Geneva, Luther in Germany - Christianity has had great experience with ‘state churches’. “No one should be compelled to embrace any religion against his will, nor should persons of faith be forbidden to worship God according to the dictates of conscience or to express freely and publicly their deeply held religious convictions”?
Hypocrisy.
Homosexuality is sin. So is adultery. So is fornication. I guess I’m a little bit bothered by focusing on one issue - homosexual marriage. Will these signers refuse to marry non-christians, or those who live together before marriage? Do they advocate using the power of the state to prevent fornication, or adultery? Easy divorce has probably done more harm to marriage than homosexual marriage.
Are these religious leaders going to call for pulling kids out of school, to avoid indoctrination?
It seems to me this is just an easy way to take a stand on issues that have little to do with the sins of their members...
I think back to Evangelists such as William Wilberforce who was the primary figure behind the abolition of the British Slave Trade. He was sound in doctrine, sound in theology, and very Christ-centered in all he did—yet he was willing to take on a major mission with secular, temporal implications.
I don’t know what believers in Germany could have or could not have done in terms of “fight against” the Nazi atrocities.
While I understand that evangelicals have placed way too much emphasis on “the culture war” at the expense of preaching Christ and the Gospel, I don’t see a reason to go the other extreme. One is not automatically diluting the Gospel by standing up for the rights of the unborn side by side with those of other faiths.
With that line of thinking, no believing Christian should have worked with Deists and agnostics to craft the US Constitution.
***
Here’s how Mohler addresses it:
While the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions.
Further:
Because the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as a union of husband and wife, and the freedom of conscience and religion are foundational principles of justice and the common good, we are compelled by our Christian faith to speak and act in their defense.