The Manhattan Declaration
A Letter from Our Pastor
Earlier this year, I was invited to a meeting of prominent Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical church leaders in Manhattan, New York. The meeting's purpose was to gather together a diversity of leaders who would be potentially willing to make a statement together on prevalent issues in our culture such as life, marriage, and religious liberty.
We sat at round tables that day and discussed various ways to approach these issues in our culture from a biblical worldview. The outcome of the meeting was a document drafted primarily by Chuck Colson, Timothy George, and Robert George concerning a Christian response to the direction of our culture regarding life, marriage, and religious liberty. The document became known as the Manhattan Declaration, and it was released the week before Thanksgiving. The goal of the document was to present a unified voice from a diversity of church leaders regarding these issues and then to invite Christians across our country to affirm the document by signing it.
I want to let you all know that I was one of the original signatories of this document, and I want you to know why I signed it. The document ends with the following summary paragraph:
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.
I signed this document because I believe these issues are extremely important in our culture today, and the need for the church to be clear on them is paramount for the sake of both the church and the culture. I believe these issues will become even more prevalent in public debate and public policy in the days ahead, and as a result, we need a clear understanding, in our churches and as Christians, regarding how God's Word addresses them.
I also want to share with you my only hesitancy in signing this document. I do fear that in this document, we run the risk of blurring the lines between Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical understandings of the Gospel. Though this document does not purport that we are all unified on our understanding of the Gospel, simply lumping "Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christians" together is somewhat misleading. I want to be overwhelmingly clear that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, and my signing of this document is in no way intended to minimize or trivialize the significant differences which exist regarding the central meaning of the Gospel. With this said, however, I do believe it is important that we come together with others in our culture today to address cultural issues with unified resolve. I am extremely grateful for Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical leaders whom I met in Manhattan who are boldly taking a stand on these issues, in many cases at great cost to them in their lives and leadership.
I'll close with a quote from Martin Luther, a man to whom we are most certainly indebted when it comes to the defense of the Gospel.
"If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point."
May God give us grace in the days ahead to profess Christ where the battle rages both in the church and in the culture around us.
Your Grateful Pastor,
David
If you would like more information on the Manhattan Declaration or if you would be willing to sign this document, visit ManhattanDeclaration.org. On this website, you will be able to download and read the entire document as well as a summary of it, and you will be able to see the names of the over 150 church leaders who originally signed the document. I would also encourage you to read a wonderful summary of the document and its purpose on Al Mohler's Blog.