Over 150,000 Americans Sign Manhattan Declaration (Catholics, Evangelicals, Orthodox unite)

More than 150,000 people have so far signed the Manhattan Declaration, just a week after the document was unveiled.

And one of the document's drafters, Chuck Colson, hopes the number will soon reach a million so that Christians would put America on notice that they will not compromise their faith, no matter what.

Leaders from the evangelical, Orthodox and Catholic traditions released "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience" last week to stand firm on what they consider the three most foundational issues in society – the sanctity of life, the historic understanding of marriage, and religious liberty.

It serves as a proclamation to the nation's leaders that they will not abandon or compromise their conscience on the three issues and as a call to the Christian church to unite in upholding the truths as followers of Jesus Christ.

Jim Daly, president and CEO of Focus on the Family and who was among the leaders at the release, has called the document "a historic development within the American church."

"The document is a fresh and lively presentation, a renewed rallying cry to those who have been engaged in this historic effort of spiritual and cultural conversion," Daly stated in an e-mail Wednesday. "This is not a manifesto for culture war; it is a prescription for cultural change."

"This is a document that exhorts us to champion Christian truths in a Christian manner," he asserted.

Well-known evangelical pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., believes the document "falls far short of identifying the one true and ultimate remedy for all of humanity’s moral ills: the Gospel."

He also doesn't agree with playing down the differences between evangelicals and the other faith traditions involved, such as Roman Catholics, whom he considers "purveyors of different gospels."

"Instead of acknowledging the true depth of our differences, the implicit assumption (from the start of the document until its final paragraph) is that Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant Evangelicals and others all share a common faith in and a common commitment to the gospel’s essential claims," he stated.

Supporting the document would "tacitly relegate the very essence of Gospel truth to the level of a secondary issue," MacArthur argued. "That is the wrong way – perhaps the very worst way – for evangelicals to address the moral and political crises of our time."

Pre-eminet evangelical Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., also believes the Roman Catholic Church teaches doctrines that are unbiblical and doesn't sign documents between evangelicals and Catholics that attempt to establish common ground on theological issues.

But he added his name to the Manhattan Declaration, citing that the document is a limited statement of Christian conviction on three crucial issues and not a theological document.

"The Manhattan Declaration does not attempt to establish common ground on these doctrines," Mohler, president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, stated in a recent commentary. "We remain who we are, and we concede no doctrinal ground."

The Manhattan Declaration, which was drafted last summer, comes as Christians feel the sanctity of human life, traditional marriage and freedom of religion and conscience are under assault. The original signers have stressed, however, that it is not a political statement and that the document could have been released 10 years ago or even 10 years later.

The message emphasized in the document is the same message Christians have been proclaiming for centuries but this is the first time Catholics, Orthodox believers and evangelicals have rallied together behind it, Dr. Timothy George, one of three leaders who drafted the document, noted last week.

Though the church leaders hope the time will not come when they would be compelled to practice civil disobedience, they say if American laws impinge on their conscience in any way (i.e. forced to conduct an abortion procedure), then they will not comply with the law in order to honor their own conscience.

"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," the declaration states. "It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season. May God help us not to fail in that duty."

http://www.billoreilly.com/currentarticle

Faithfully Angry

By Bill O’Reilly for BillOReilly.com

Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009

It took a while—we’re talking decades—but finally, some American religious leaders say they are fed up. A few days ago, a faith-based group including New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan issued a scathing indictment of secularism in the USA entitled “The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience.”

The document, which includes input from protestants, Catholic and Orthodox Christians, basically says that Christian values are under siege in America and people of faith need to act aggressively to stem the tide. The Declaration goes so far as to encourage civil disobedience and uses Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a model for that.

So why now? Why are some Christians leaders coming out of the sacristy at this point in time?

The Declaration gives a strong hint that abortion is the lead issue. There is no question that the Obama administration and the media in general are ardently pro-choice... no surprise there. But the fact that so many Democratic Congresspeople are supporting public funding for abortions as part of health care reform has rocked the pro-life world. The issue is simple: Should a country that values sincere conscience require taxpayers who believe abortion is murder to pay for the life ending procedure? Obviously, millions of Americans say no.

The intensity of the debate is made crystal clear in the showdown between the Bishop of Rhode Island, Thomas Tobin, and Congressman Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Ted Kennedy. The bishop has ordered the congressman not to receive communion because of his support for abortion rights. Kennedy, like many pro-choice Catholics, falls back on personal belief versus public policy. He says that just because he takes a pro-choice position doesn’t mean he personally approves of abortion.

The bishop is having none of it.

On my television program, Bishop Tobin said flat-out that Kennedy has a moral obligation as a Catholic to fight against abortion. And if he doesn’t, his soul is in danger of damnation. Words don’t come stronger than that.

So it is apparent that some religious leaders are engaging in high stakes rhetoric, including condemning homosexual marriage. After abortion, gay nuptials dominate the Manhattan Declaration, and once again, the language is stark. The tract states that the drive for same-sex and multiple partner marriage is diminishing “true” marriage. “Marriage is made possible by the sexual complementarity of man and woman... no one has a civil right to have a non-marital relationship treated as marriage.”

The Christian manifesto concludes with a call to arms and, some believe, a direct arrow aimed at the Obama administration: “Unjust laws degrade human beings. They lack any power to bind in conscience. [Dr. Martin Luther] King’s willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring.”

So, with the stroke of a pen, the Christian writers have turned the tables on those who say gay marriage and unfettered abortion are civil rights and therefore should be constitutionally protected. Obviously, there is severe disagreement on that.

With polls showing that more than 80% of Americans believe in God, the question now becomes, will they rally behind the Manhattan Declaration? So far, the secular media has given it little attention and that might well continue. But even if the manifesto gets a full airing, are people of faith as upset as some of their leadership with secularism of America?

At this point, I simply don’t know.

Seems simple to me...

The Manhattan Declaration
A CALL OF CHRISTIAN CONSCIENCE

Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.

We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:
the sanctity of human life
the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
the rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well-being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them. We make this commitment not as partisans of any political group but as followers of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

One does not have to be ‘religious’ to sign on to this Declaration... Any government moving to force citizens to act in ways counter to their legitimately moral beliefs is a government that is morally bankrupt...

No one should be able to be forced by government to marry a couple who does not meet the moral standing of the person performing the marriage ...

No one should be able to be forced by the government to fill drug prescriptions that are designed to cause abortions when this act goes against the moral beliefs of the person who is charged to fill the prescription.

For the government to have the power to do this is sanctioning slavery — the government becomes the master - and the citizen becomes the slave who cannot willfully resist the power of the government - the slave master.

This applies across the board...

We have laws that allow ‘conscienous objector’ status in the military in time of war...

How does refusing to abort, refusing to marry same sex couples differ from the conscienous objector status allowed for a soldier in war time... Answer - there is no difference.

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