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The Manhattan Declaration: Hypocrites United
By Daniel Vojir (about the author) Page 1 of 2 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Daniel Vojir - Writer
The
Christian Right has arrogantly come up with their own Nicene Creed.
However, the Nicene Creed only states a belief of God, Jesus and the
Holy Ghost, while the Manhattan Declaration states a whole host of
beliefs not the least of which is that the holiest of all actions is
hypocrisy. I'm certain that better writers and more intelligent people
have attacked it by now as a blathering piece of BFD. So this post is,
by its timing, anti-climactic.
But it is this kind of bloviating
sanctimoniousness that drives people to respond anyway, because after
reading it, one is prompted to react with "Do Something!"
So
here is my take, such as it is. Sorry about the length, but when
dealing enormous amounts of hot air, it takes an equal length of
writing to respond to them.
Preamble
Christians
are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God's word, seeking
justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with
compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.
While fully acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian institutions and communities in all ages [In other words, they don't intend to address the topic of pedophile priests or ministers],
we claim the heritage of those Christians who defended innocent life by
rescuing discarded babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly
denouncing the Empire's sanctioning of infanticide. We remember with
reverence those believers who sacrificed their lives by remaining in
Roman cities to tend the sick and dying during the plagues [Like the onslaught of AIDS?], and who died bravely in the coliseums rather than deny their Lord.
After
the barbarian tribes overran Europe, Christian monasteries preserved
not only the Bible but also the literature and art of Western culture. [And for almost 1000 years, kept them all for themselves.]
It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery: Papal edicts in the
16th and 17th centuries decried the practice of slavery and first
excommunicated anyone involved in the slave trade; evangelical
Christians in England, led by John Wesley and William Wilberforce, put
an end to the slave trade in that country. [American Christians, however, were rather split at the time, weren't they?]
Christians under Wilberforce's leadership also formed hundreds of
societies for helping the poor, the imprisoned, and child laborers
chained to machines.
In
Europe, Christians challenged the divine claims of kings and
successfully fought to establish the rule of law and balance of
governmental powers, which made modern democracy possible. [Of course, Christians allowed Europeans a breather after 782 wars in 800 years â€" all sanctioned by Christians] And in America, Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. [And that, my friends, is the last you will read about women's rights in this polemic] The
great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians
claiming the Scriptures and asserting the glory of the image of God in
every human being regardless of race, religion, age or class. [Take that, Southern Baptists!]
This
same devotion to human dignity has led Christians in the last decade to
work to end the dehumanizing scourge of human trafficking and sexual
slavery, bring compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa, and
assist in a myriad of other human rights causes â€" from providing clean
water in developing nations to providing homes for tens of thousands of
children orphaned by war, disease and gender discrimination. [Their "devotion to human dignity" skipped 1981 to 1999 simply because people with AIDS were anathema. Period.]
Like
those who have gone before us in the faith, Christians today are called
to proclaim the Gospel of costly grace, to protect the intrinsic
dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good. In being
true to its own calling, the call to discipleship, the church through
service to others can make a profound contribution to the public good.
Declaration
We,
as Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christians, have gathered,
beginning in New York on September 28, 2009, to make the following
declaration, which we sign as individuals, not on behalf of our
organizations, but speaking to and from our communities. We act
together in obedience to the one true God, the triune God of holiness
and love, who has laid total claim on our lives and by that claim calls
us with believers in all ages and all nations to seek and defend the
good of all who bear his image. We set forth this declaration in light
of the truth that is grounded in Holy Scripture, in natural human
reason [Quite a jump from Scripture to "natural human reason"]
(which is itself, in our view, the gift of a beneficent God), and in
the very nature of the human person. We call upon all people of
goodwill, believers and non-believers alike, to consider carefully and
reflect critically on the issues we here address as we, with St. Paul,
commend this appeal to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.
While
the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern
for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially
troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the
disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution
of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce,
is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable
ideologies: [Well, at least they admit we're fashionable!]
that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely
jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to
compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions.
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 . [This means freedom to be Christian ONLY.]
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. ["ecclesial differences" â€" Why is it that organized religion only bonds together when hey are AGAINST something?
They can agree on base generalities like "peace," but when dogma â€" the
absolute heart of the church â€" is necessary, they agree to disagree â€"
and hope that the bottom won't fall out from underneath their
congregation's base.] 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. 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.
****
Life
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10
Although
public sentiment has moved in a pro-life direction, we note with
sadness that pro-abortion ideology prevails today in our government.
The present administration is led and staffed by those who want to make
abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and who want to
provide abortions at taxpayer expense. [Whether
or not they like it, people are paying for abortions through their
insurance premiums. The "taxpayer expense" is really a singular jab at
Planned Parenthood.] Majorities in both houses of
Congress hold pro-abortion views. The Supreme Court, whose infamous
1973 decision in Roe v. Wade stripped the unborn of legal protection,
continues to treat elective abortion as a fundamental constitutional
right, though it has upheld as constitutionally permissible some
limited restrictions on abortion. The President says that he wants to
reduce the "need" for abortion--a commendable goal. But he has also
pledged to make abortion more easily and widely available by
eliminating laws prohibiting government funding, requiring waiting
periods for women seeking abortions, and parental notification for
abortions performed on minors. The elimination of these important and
effective pro-life laws cannot reasonably be expected to do other than
significantly increase the number of elective abortions by which the
lives of countless children are snuffed out prior to birth. ["Pro-life"
is a misnomer. It should be "pro-birth." Would pro-lifers ever put
their money where their mouth is and help to SUPPORT those children
after birth? There are still a few "maternity hospitals" left (I was
born in one), but they are not adequately supported by any faith-based
organizations. One solution: provide a box to check on the taxpayer's
1040 that states: "I stand pro-life. I want my tax return to benefit
(fill in blank with name of legitimate social non-profit) so that a
child may be fed, sheltered, clothed and educated according to the
standards set by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare." ]
Our commitment to the sanctity of life is not a matter of partisan
loyalty, for we recognize that in the thirty-six years since Roe v.
Wade, elected officials and appointees of both major political parties
have been complicit in giving legal sanction to what Pope John Paul II
described as "the culture of death." We call on all officials in our
country, elected and appointed, to protect and serve every member of
our society, including the most marginalized, voiceless, and vulnerable
among us.
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.[ No such word, but it has probably been used time and again on "birther"\"teabagger" signs.] As predicted by many prescient persons, the cheapening of life that began with abortion has now metastasized. [Only
recently did Christians value the life of a child born out of wedlock:
it was until about 1920 that birth certificates of such children were
stamped "illegitimate."] For
example, human embryo-destructive research and its public funding are
promoted in the name of science and in the cause of developing
treatments and cures for diseases and injuries. The President and many
in Congress favor the expansion of embryo-research to include the
taxpayer funding of so-called "therapeutic cloning." This would result
in the industrial mass production of human embryos to be killed for the
purpose of producing genetically customized stem cell lines and
tissues. [Now
the conspiracy theories start. This statement is wild supposition of
the Pat Robertson kind. And science fiction has absolutely no place in
a manifesto such as this.] At the other end of life, an
increasingly powerful movement to promote assisted suicide and
"voluntary" euthanasia threatens the lives of vulnerable elderly and
disabled persons. Eugenic notions such as the doctrine of
lebensunwertes Leben ("life unworthy of life") were first advanced in
the 1920s by intellectuals in the elite salons of America and Europe.
Long buried in ignominy after the horrors of the mid-20th century, they
have returned from the grave. [This
invites a wild analogy: so many of us have our pets "put to sleep"
because we don't want them to suffer anymore. Yet good "Christians"
will force our loved ones to suffer and have no say at all about the
continuance of their lives.] The only difference is that
now the doctrines of the eugenicists are dressed up in the language of
"liberty," "autonomy," and "choice."
We
will be united and untiring in our efforts to roll back the license to
kill that began with the abandonment of the unborn to abortion. We will
work, as we have always worked, to bring assistance, comfort, and care
to pregnant women in need . and to those who have been victimized by
abortion, even as we stand resolutely against the corrupt and degrading
notion that it can somehow be in the best interests of women to submit
to the deliberate killing of their unborn children. [While
the incident may have involved another country, I feel I must remind
Chuck Colson that the last Magdalene Laundry was closed in the early
1990s. He's portraying all Christians as self-effacing saints.] Our
message is, and ever shall be, that the just, humane, and truly
Christian answer to problem pregnancies is for all of us to love and
care for mother and child alike.
A
truly prophetic Christian witness will insistently call on those who
have been entrusted with temporal power to fulfill the first
responsibility of government: to protect the weak and vulnerable
against violent attack, and to do so with no favoritism, partiality, or
discrimination. The Bible enjoins us to defend those who cannot defend
themselves, to speak for those who cannot themselves speak. And so we
defend and speak for the unborn, the disabled, and the dependent. What
the Bible and the light of reason make clear, we must make clear. [Equating the Bible with reason?]
We must be willing to defend, even at risk and cost to ourselves and
our institutions, the lives of our brothers and sisters at every stage
of development and in every condition.
Marriage
The
man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she
shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man." For this reason a
man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and
they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:23-24 
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