http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09331/1016679-455.stmChristian leaders vow to resist gay marriage, abortion
Friday, November 27, 2009
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Several Pittsburghers are among 150 Christian leaders to sign "The Manhattan Declaration," which opposes abortion and gay marriage and pledges civil disobedience if governments try to force cooperation with either.
"[W]e will not be intimidated into silence or acquiescence or the violation of our consciences by any power on earth, be it cultural or political, regardless of the consequences to ourselves," said the statement signed by 14 Catholic bishops and cardinals and a broad range of evangelical Protestants and Orthodox clergy, including Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America.
Those with local ties included Bishop David Zubik of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh; Archbishop Robert Duncan of the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh; James Towey, president of St. Vincent College; and former Pittsburghers Archbishop Donald Wuerl of the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and the Rev. Patrick Reardon, pastor of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago.
Politically, the evangelical signers range from conservative broadcaster James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, to pacifist Ronald Sider, founder of Evangelicals for Social Action and author of "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger."
"It was important to have a large group that crossed many of the old lines to signal to the society that we cannot go down this road," said Archbishop Duncan, one of 40 participants in a drafting session Sept. 28 in New York City.
He cited concerns about a United Methodist facility in New Jersey that lost its tax-exempt status because the church wouldn't rent it for a gay wedding, and about efforts to require health workers to perform abortions.
"If the state chooses to pass laws that Christians cannot observe without issues of conscience, then that state will have a vast community of religious leaders who will pay whatever price necessary, whether it's the loss of our tax status or going to prison ourselves," he said.
Bishop Zubik appreciated the diversity of participants.
"Sometimes leaders in the Catholic Church get criticized for standing up for issues that are important to us, and those issues get labeled as Catholic issues. They're not. They're human rights issues," he said.
The effort was organized by Robert George, a Catholic constitutional scholar at Princeton University and Timothy George, an evangelical historian and dean of the Beeson Divinity School in Alabama, along with Charles Colson, the Nixon White House aide convicted in the Watergate conspiracy who later founded a ministry to prisoners. They released the 4,700-word text last Friday and hope to gather 1 million signatures. From Monday to Wednesday afternoon, signatures grew from 43,000 to 112,000 at
http://manhattandeclaration.org/.Mr. Towey, a director of the White House Office for Faith-Based Initiatives under President George W. Bush, said there was no disagreement about principles at the drafting session.
"The tone of the message was what was discussed the most -- how forcefully to say something ... There was an effort to make sure this didn't look like it was partisan," he said.
The section labeled "Life" criticizes President Obama for saying he wants to reduce the number of abortions while also dropping restrictions on abortion. But it continues that responsibility for "the culture of death" belongs to both political parties. It includes genocide, labor exploitation and racial discrimination as life issues.
"We see these travesties as flowing from the same loss of the sense of the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life that drives the abortion industry," it said.
The marriage section decries heterosexual promiscuity and infidelity. It says that churches often failed to provide good models and clear teaching.
"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," the declaration said. "Yet it is critical that the impulse be resisted, for yielding to it would mean abandoning the possibility of restoring a sound understanding of marriage."
D. Michael Lindsay, a sociology professor at Rice University in Texas and author of "Faith in the Halls of Power," said the spectrum of signers, careful arguments and concern for religious liberty set the Manhattan Declaration apart from prior efforts.
"Evangelicals are trying to find their political voice in a post-George W. Bush era. I think this does more to help them get their political bearings and name their real priorities than anything that has happened over the past year," he said.
"I don't think it will necessarily get the attention of the White House because this isn't a constituency that the president has much likelihood of swaying. But it is likely to speak to members of Congress, particularly Republicans who are in a bit of soul-searching about the future of their party."
Not all Christian churches support the declaration's positions.
"This statement doesn't speak for me. In my tradition, no one can speak for me except for me," said the Rev. Doug Patterson, pastor of Smithfield United Church of Christ, Downtown, where gay couples are welcome.
Because of that individual freedom, he doesn't quarrel with the concern for religious liberty.
"I have respect for any organization or any religious leader who says that this is so far against my understanding of my faith that I would much rather go to prison than give in," he said.
Read more:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09331/1016679-455.stm#ixzz0YA5pn2Gc
