But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. - 1 Corinthians 15:20

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Featured Article:
The Manhattan Declaration

The Manhattan Declartion was released in the fall of 2009. It can be found at: manhattandeclaration.org

What Is It?

The document focuses on life, marriage and religious liberty.

Sanctity of Human Life: The Declaration states: “A culture of death inevitably cheapens life in all its stages and conditions by promoting the belief that lives that are imperfect, immature or inconvenient are discardable. As predicted by many prescient persons, the cheapening of life that began with abortion has now metastasized.”

Traditional Marriage: The document professes: “To strengthen families, we must stop glamorizing promiscuity and infidelity and restore among our people a sense of the profound beauty, mystery, and holiness of faithful marital love... The impulse to redefine marriage in order to recognize same-sex and multiple partner relationships is a symptom, rather than the cause, of the erosion of the marriage culture.”

Religious Liberty: The document declares: “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.”

Who Wrote It?

The document is the collaborative effort of religious leaders of the Catholic, Evangelical and Protestant persuasion. The late Chuck Colson served as a driving force behind its development along with the members of its drafting committee, Robert P. George and Timothy George. Notable signatories to the Declaration include Dr. James Dobson, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Tony Perkins and Rev. Chuck Swindoll.

Why Was It Written?

According to Eric Teetsel, director of the Manhattan Declaration Project: “My job is to grow a movement of Catholic, Orthodox, and Evangelical Christians committed to life, marriage, and religious freedom.”

As such, the Declaration seeks to address social ills within the context of the Christian community. It acknowledges theological differences among the Christian community while also seeking to tie that community together on the three previously-stated issues.

While looking to increase social awareness in the Christian community it appears the organizers included an additional agenda to affect public policy. Recently the Declaration was submitted as an amicus brief (literally, a “friend of the court” treatise) to the U.S. Supreme Court in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Who Might Sign It?

The issues favoring pro-life positions, traditional marriage and religious freedom invite strong convictions – and considerable passion. Those favoring the conservative statements contained within the Declaration tend to feel equal passion to sign onto the document and to also question those who have not yet done so.

Indeed, if the Declaration was merely presented as a simple petition favoring the protection of life and defending traditional marriage and religious freedom, I too would have difficulty understanding the reasons why anyone would not want to sign it.

Why Might a Person Not Sign It?

The Declaration appears to have a confused purpose. If its intent focused solely on igniting the Christian community with an increased level of social awareness, then it must be examined in its entirety as a religious statement. As such, the document weakly touches on some issues which might lead to misunderstanding.

Two areas of concern stand out:

1) The image of God. The document echoes what is sometimes called the “broad” understanding of the image of God. It denotes the special nature of man above all other life created by God. Scripture does speak in that manner, but Scripture also talks about the image of God as the state of holiness and righteousness: lost at the fall into sin and regained only through faith in Christ (Colossians 3 and Ephesians 4). What is stated in the Declaration about the image of God is not wrong – just not completely right.

2) The work of Christ. The document declares, “...just as Christ was willing, out of love, to give Himself up for the church...” This statement reflects wording used in Paul’s discussion of marriage in Ephesians 5. It fails, however, to reflect the full teaching that Christ died not only for the Church but for the sins of the world. Again, what is stated is not wrong – just not completely right.

As a religious statement, the Declaration’s lack of precision in these two areas is problematic. Because we confess that Christ died for the sins of the world – for ALL people – to restore the image of God lost because of sin, it would be difficult to defend such general statements in this regard.

Submitting the document as an amicus brief raises an additional concern. Once the Declaration became a tool for social change its first appeal should have been to natural law. While rightly reflecting the testimony of God’s Word on these issues, its foremost feature should have been the historical positions on these issues.

Because affecting social change in the civil realm does not appear to have been the initial intent of the document it is not as strong or effective in its expression of natural law on these matters.

So, What To Do?

Some might think our criticism involves being so doctrinally perfect that we become practically useless. Perhaps, but physicians would demand “perfect” statements in a medical document. Engineers also would be as exacting. So also when it comes to deeply religious people when a document talks about religion.

The Manhattan Declaration commendably seeks to raise the moral conscience of America. If such petitions could accomplish that we would favor it. As a unified “Christian” statement, however, it is inadequate and lacks the precision and clarity to warrant our unqualified support.

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