More than 150 Christian leaders, most of them conservative evangelicals and traditionalist Roman Catholics, issued a joint declaration Friday reaffirming their opposition to abortion and gay marriage and pledging to protect religious freedoms.You can read the entire document for yourself at this link.
The 4,700-word document, called "The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience," sounds familiar themes from political and social debates over the health care overhaul and gay marriage battles.
While acknowledging that "Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage," the group rejects same-sex marriage. The declaration states that opening a legal door for gay marriage would do the same for "polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous relationships."
President Barack Obama's desire to reduce the need for abortion is "a commendable goal," but his proposals are likely to increase the number of elective abortions, the document contends.
"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," it says.
Obama has said he wants to strike a balance on abortion coverage in the health care overhaul.
The declaration also cites threats to health care workers' conscience clauses and anti-discrimination statutes it argues impinge on religious freedoms.
Signatories include 15 Roman Catholic bishops, including New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl; Focus on the Family founder James Dobson; National Association of Evangelicals president Leith Anderson; seminary leaders, professors and pastors.
An unprecedented "call of conscience"
Friday November 20, 2009
Categories: Ripped from the headlines
Time will tell if it will actually have any impact, but the significance of this piece of news can't be overstated:
Filed Under: Great links, In the news
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Advertisement
Search This Blog
Subscribe
About the Author
Deacon Greg KandraDeacon Greg Kandra is a Roman Catholic deacon serving the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York.
» Posts by Deacon Greg Kandra
Recent Posts
Categories
Recent Comments
- valerie Williams commented on Mother O and her sisters: I missed O
- fraggle commented on Mother O and her sisters: Yes, it wa
- Meggan commented on What's Oprah's take on nuns? : Interestin
- Diane Korzeniewski commented on A leading theologian on Medjugorje: Steve said
- DML commented on Planned Parenthood: treat 10-year-olds as"sexual beings" : Franklin,
- Franklin Jennings commented on Planned Parenthood: treat 10-year-olds as"sexual beings" : DML, No o
- DML commented on Planned Parenthood: treat 10-year-olds as"sexual beings" : Franklin,
- Mike Hayes commented on Be afraid. Be very afraid. : And wear y
- Mary Irving commented on A leading theologian on Medjugorje: This is an
- Franklin Jennings commented on Planned Parenthood: treat 10-year-olds as"sexual beings" : DML, I wa
Most Popular Posts
- U.S. Air Force creates Wiccan worship space:
- Vatican slams "Avatar" as "sentimental hokum":
- A leading theologian on Medjugorje:
- Killing for Christ? Bible verses inscribed in rifles:
- A modest proposal: move the March for Life:
- Women's groups protest pro-life Tebow Super Bowl ad:
- Roll the credits: Hollywood's Cardinal Mahony bowing out? :
- CBS rejects ad for gay dating service :
- Gay unions aren't monogamous? Really? :
- A Lutheran who became a Byzantine priest: "It was like a perfect marriage" :
I agree with DML. How dare Catholic bishops affirm what can be affirmed with any of our seperated brethren? Don't they know the only acceptable ecumenism is browbeating fundies into submission and sipping tea with mainliners?
More on this from FRC at http://www.lifenews.com/nat5693.html
Am I the only one worried about getting hooked up with the likes of James Dobson? Many of these folks don't believe that Catholics are Christians, and disagree with us on nearly every aspect of social teaching except abortion and marriage.
I'll take their declaration seriously when I see them walk away from the billions of dollars in government cheese they enjoy in the forms of tax exemptions and grants. It's sort of like the kid who says he's not going to have any more of his parents rules and is running away, but just until dinner time.
I also have to note the ludicrous warning that gay marriage would "open the door" to polyamory and incest. Those arrangements, particularly polyamory, already do exist and always will. I don't think there's a large subset of the population just waiting with baited breath to jump into those lifestyles the minute the church approve of gays or fail to issue their daily diatribe of hate.
Great - we now have the names and signatures of more than 150 bigots on a single document.
Alert the press...
Post a Comment
By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.