Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience

The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience is a manifesto issued by Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christian leaders to affirm support of "the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty". It was drafted on October 20, 2009 and released November 20, 2009, having been signed by more than 150 American religious leaders. On the issue of marriage, the declaration objects not only to same-sex marriage but also to the general erosion of the "marriage culture" with the spectre of divorce, greater acceptance of infidelity and the uncoupling of marriage from childbearing.

The Declaration's website encourages supporters to sign the declaration, and counts approximately 538,700 signatories as of April 23, 2013 (2013-04-23).

Drafting committee

The drafting committee includes evangelical leader Charles Colson, Princeton University law professor Robert P. George and Beeson Divinity School dean Timothy George.

Signatories

Notable signatories include:

• Salvatore Cordileone, Bishop of Oakland
• James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family
• Archbishop (now Cardinal) Timothy Michael Dolan, Archbishop of New York
• Robert Wm. Duncan, primate of the Anglican Church in North America
• Ligon Duncan, president of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
• Bishop Basil (Essey) of Wichita of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.
• Cardinal John Patrick Foley, Grand Master (now Grand Master Emeritus) of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
• Bishop Mark (Maymon), formerly of the Diocese of Toledo of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, now of the Orthodox Church in America
• Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
• Rev. Robert A. Sirico, president of Acton Institute
• Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council
• Jonah (Paffhausen), former primate Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America
• Cardinal Justin Francis Rigali, Archbishop (now Archbishop Emeritus) of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia
• Chuck Swindoll, chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary
• Joseph M. Stowell, III, president of Cornerstone University
• Robert B. Sloan, Jr., president of Houston Baptist University
• Timothy C. Tennent, president of Asbury Theological Seminary
• Archbishop (now Cardinal) Donald William Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington
• Ravi Zacharias, Christian apologetic, author, and lecturer

Excerpt

The Declaration summarizes itself as follows:

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. In this declaration we affirm: 1) the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every human being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, possessing inherent rights of equal dignity and life; 2) marriage as a conjugal union of man and woman, ordained by God from the creation, and historically understood by believers and non-believers alike, to be the most basic institution in society and; 3) religious liberty, which is grounded in the character of God, the example of Christ, and the inherent freedom and dignity of human beings created in the divine image.

Call to civil disobedience

The declaration vows civil disobedience if Christians feel that their rights to civil liberties of free exercise of religion and freedom of speech are being violated. It states :

We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right—and, more importantly, to embrace our obligation—to speak and act in defense of these truths. 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.

Through the centuries, Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required. There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Writing from an explicitly Christian perspective, and citing Christian writers such as Augustine and Aquinas, King taught that just laws elevate and ennoble human beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose ultimate source is God Himself.

One of the drafters, Princeton Law professor Robert George, stated, "We certainly hope it doesn't come to that. However, we see case after case of challenges to religious liberty," including laws which he claims would force health care workers to assist in abortions or pharmacists to carry abortifacient drugs or birth control. George continued, "When the limits of conscience are reached and you cannot comply, it's better to suffer a wrong than to do it."

Catholic Archbishop of Washington, Donald W. Wuerl's office was restrained about the issue of civil disobedience, indicating that the prelate was not calling on the faithful to "do anything specific".

In August 2012, the Manhattan Declaration's call to "civil disobedience" was cited in a lawsuit under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, in which the Beachy Amish-Mennonite Christian Brotherhood is accused of helping a Baptist woman kidnap to Nicaragua her daughter as part of a child custody dispute with her former lesbian partner. Liberty University School of Law was also a named defendant in the lawsuit, because of alleged instruction to law students that "the correct course of action for such a situation would be to 'engage in civil disobedience' and defy court orders".

Criticism

Some religious leaders and apologists have criticized and protested the Manhattan Declaration, calling its principles in general, and its opposition to same-sex marriage in particular, contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Catholic scholar Anthony Stevens-Arroyo wrote, "While two wars are being waged, with unemployment in double digits, the financial system of the world in suspense, these religious leaders declare that abortion, stem-cell use and same sex marriage override any other Gospel value. (You won't find Jesus saying anything about abortion or stem cells in the Gospel, but the Savior said a great deal about the homeless, the sick, and the hungry.) It's cheating to speak pious platitudes about Christianity and ignore Jesus' words."

Some discussed the document as a political strategy, regarding it as the religious right's effort to re-establish its relevance in the public square, but others noted that younger generations of evangelicals and Catholics were less likely to oppose same-sex marriage and more likely to prioritize economic issues over social, and that the document was thus unlikely to win them over. Stevens-Arroyo criticized fellow Catholics who signed the declaration for aligning themselves with evangelicals in what he described as opposition to the separation of church and state.

The declaration's invocation of Martin Luther King and of the principles of civil disobedience has also been questioned. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times, which described the co-option of King's legacy as "specious" and the declaration's goals as unrelated to civil rights, criticized the paranoid tone of the document, noting that the anecdotes it cited as examples of Christians' religious freedom being restricted were misleading or from outside the United States, and that strong legal and judicial protections already exist for people who do not wish to perform abortions or same-sex marriages.

Some evangelicals, such as Alistair Begg, and James R. White have taken exception to the declaration on the grounds of its ecumenism. R.C. Sproul did not sign the Declaration because he disagrees with the document's identification of Catholics and Orthodox as "Christians."

Apple app

In November 2010, after activists submitted a 7,000 signature petition arguing that the Manhattan Declaration app promoted bigotry and homophobia, Apple Computers removed the app from iPhones and iPads and then later from iTunes. Apple told CNN that the app had been removed because it "violates our developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people." The app was originally rated by Apple as a +4, meaning that it contained no material deemed objectionable.

Organizers of the Manhattan Declaration have contacted Apple and have resubmitted a modified version of the app. The new version lacks a "quiz" which, in the old version, asked questions about political issues and assigned a score based on a set of normative answers. In addition as of December 10, 2010, more than 45,000 have signed a petition to have it reinstated. Charles Colson voiced apprehension that the company's move could have negative implications for more Christian apps: "There is nothing in the Manhattan Declaration that is not rooted in Scripture. So if that becomes the offense then all the other apps would be subject to the same charge."

See also

• Christianity and abortion
• Christianity and homosexuality
• Christian views on euthanasia
• The Phoenix Declaration
• Westminster 2010

External links

• The Manhattan Declaration - Life, Marriage & Religious Liberty Website
• Manhattan Declaration & Signers