This Fall, a group of evangelical leaders got together, and on November 20th, 2009, they issued the Manhattan Declaration. In doing this, they were hoping to call Christians to action regarding what they regarding as some of the top issues that we as Christians must deal with. Before I offer my brief critique, let me give you an idea of what it says. As well, many of my thoughts came from a very well written article that I read recently (read it here). Here is the summery of the declaration, as quoted from their website (Read the whole declaration here):
“Christians, when they have lived up to the highest ideals of their faith, have defended the weak and vulnerable and worked tirelessly to protect and strengthen vital institutions of civil society, beginning with the family.
We are Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christians who have united at this hour to reaffirm fundamental truths about justice and the common good, and to call upon our fellow citizens, believers and non-believers alike, to join us in defending them. These truths are:
· the sanctity of human life
· the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife
· the rights of conscience and religious liberty.
Inasmuch as these truths are foundational to human dignity and the well being of society, they are inviolable and non-negotiable. Because they are increasingly under assault from powerful forces in our culture, we are compelled today to speak out forcefully in their defense, and to commit ourselves to honoring them fully no matter what pressures are brought upon us and our institutions to abandon or compromise them. We make this commitment not as partisans of any political group but as followers of Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”
While I do not deny the importance of many of the individual things they bring up, I have to disagree with the statement as a whole, for several reasons. First, they imply that, as Christians in the world today, these are the three big issues. These are the three things that should be on the top of our agenda. But are these really the most important things? As Christians who are called to sacrificially serve and love our world as the Body of Christ, are these what we should be most concerned about? I absolutely think that we must be engaged in our world, not just in a “spiritual” way but also in a real and tangible way. However, I think this must cover a wide and diverse spectrum of justice and love, not just three issues. We see throughout out the entire Biblical narrative that God is deeply concerned about justice and caring for the oppressed, and we must, as Christians in the world today, fight for that, wherever it may be found. We must not place a limit on or rank the issues that are important, especially when they are not explicitly stated in Scripture.
Second, the three things that they see as the top issues, when they unpack them in the Declaration, seem to do much more to support a right-wing political agenda then they do to seek out what the entire Biblical narrative and the history of our faith says should be the most important things for us as Christians. For instance, the first issue they bring up, the sanctity of life, seems to be almost solely about abortion. In the Declaration, four of the five paragraphs under the issue of the sanctity of life speak about abortion, and while the fifth one does manage to bring the issue to others things, it does little more than to list them as an afterthought. And the issue of capital punishment is strangely absent (because of course, the sanctity of life means the sanctity of life that we like. And what did Jesus say about loving our enemies?). If one of the top issues that Christians are to engage in is the protection of life, should it not be all life, wherever life is being threatened? If we are truly going to be pro-life, let us be anti-abortion, anti-capital punishment, and anti-war. I say this as someone that truly believes in the sanctity of life, because I believe that every human being is created in the image of God, and that not one of them is beyond the redemptive love of Jesus. So let us protect all life, and do so in real and tangible ways, not just with how we vote and what we say we believe.
Along that line, the other two issues are brought up in similar ways, with the dignity of marriage speaking to the current gay marriage debate, and the protection of religious liberty speaking to the supposed “war” against Christians and their ability to fight the other two issues. While I fully believe in both the protection of marriage and religious liberty, I disagree again on how narrowly defined these two things are. First, the protection of marriage seems to be solely about fighting gay marriage. Let’s not forget that a majority of divorces in this country occur within Christian marriages. Might we want to pull the log out of our own eye first? I just do not feel, in our broken and hurting world, and the gay marriage debate is one that we need to place at the top of our list, or the top half of any list that we might come up with.
Second, regarding religious freedom, I would agree more with their statement if it did not refer mainly to American Christians freedom to fight the first two issues in whatever way they want. The Declaration speaks of the “devaluing” of religious language in the media, the schools, and society as a whole, and how this is evil and must be fought. This does not seem to be religious liberty as much as an attempt to “Christianize” many of our believed institutions. Many, many places where Christianity has existed have had nothing resembling religious liberty, and Christianity has done just fine. Christianity does not need the endorsement, or even the consent, of a ruling political power to do what it does. In fact, the very nature of the Gospel will often put it in direct conflict with any ruling power, because the values of the Kingdom of God will always conflict with many of the values of any earthly kingdom, even if we attach that word which makes a horrible, horrible adjective: Christian.
Please do not get me wrong. I don’t think that the writers and signers of this Declaration meant something wrong by it, or were trying to simply issue a political document. I truly believe that many, if not most of them, did this based on deep Christian values and experience. And I do agree with some of it. I do believe that there are important things in this world that we as Christians must seek to engage and do so with the knowledge, experience, and values that we have found following Jesus. I just have a problem with narrowing them to such a degree, and failing to fully engage the issues they did include. I believe, and believe more so every day, that the Gospel is truly powerful and transforming for our world, and not simply in spiritual ways, but in deeply real and tangible ways. Let us seek how we might bring this Gospel to our world, and how we might do so not simply as individuals, but as the Body of Christ.
Grace and Love.
Luke
