The Manhattan Declaration

“When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?”  Psalm 11:3

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil...”  Isaiah 5:20

Have you heard of the Manhattan Declaration?  It has been around for awhile, but I’m afraid not very many Christians are aware of it.  But it could be one of the most important documents produced by the American church, in our lifetime.  It is a united Christian proclamation put together by a collaborative effort of every branch of the American Church; Evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox, and signed by over 140 leaders from every branch of Christianity.

The Manhattan Declaration (Released November 20, 2009) is a wake-up call—a call to conscience—for the church. It is also crystal-clear message to civil authorities that we will not, under any circumstances, stand idly by as our religious freedom comes under assault.

The Declaration begins by reminding readers that for over 2,000 years, Christians have borne witness to the truths of their faith. This witness has taken various forms—proclamation, seeking justice, resisting tyranny, and reaching out to the poor, oppressed, and suffering.  Having reminded readers about why and how Christians have spoken out in the past, the Declaration then turns to what especially troubles us today—the threats to the sanctity of human life, the institution of marriage, and religious freedom.

The Declaration isn’t a partisan statement. It acknowledges that since Roe v. Wade, “elected officials and appointees of both major political parties have been complicit in giving legal sanction to the ‘Culture of Death.’”  The result of this bipartisan complicity is an increasingly prevalent belief that “lives that are imperfect, immature, or inconvenient are discardable.” This lethal logic produces such evils as euthanasia and the “industrial mass production of human embryos to be killed” for their stem cells.

The response to this kind of assault on the sanctity of human life requires what the Manhattan Declaration calls the “gospel of costly grace.” This starts with the willingness to put aside our comfort and serve those whom the broader culture would deem outside the scope of its concern and legal protection.  The cost may be even higher. Christians may have to choose between the demands of what St. Augustine called the “City of Man” and the “City of God”—which, for the Christian, is really no choice at all.

This kind of principled non-cooperation with “secular left” won’t be easy—there are signs of a reduced tolerance for that most basic of American values, religious freedom; Christian organizations are losing tax-exempt status for refusing to buy in to homosexual “marriage.”  Some are going out of business rather than cave into immoral demands—such as placing children for adoption with homosexual couples. Conscientious medical personnel are being sued or fired for obeying their consciences.

Enough is enough. The Church must take a stand. And with the release of the Manhattan Declaration, that’s exactly what we are doing.  Check out the entire Declaration www.manhattandeclaration.org.

Thousands of people are logging on to read and sign the document.

When you sign this document you are telling the world that you stand for the sanctity of life and traditional marriage—and that you cherish your God-given freedom. 

May the Lord Bless us as we take this stand,

Pastor Roger

Adapted from an article by Chuck Colson, at www.breakpoint.org.