Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience
The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience is a manifesto of the Protestant, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders to support the pro-life movement, the right to freedom of religion (especially the toleration of civil disobedience against laws contrary to their basic understanding of life and marriage), as well as their opposition to other understandings of marriage except purely heterosexual couple relationships (currently expressed this more as opposed to same-sex marriage, since a faster legal situation has been observed as in polygamy, which currently enjoys little political support ). It was written on 20 October 2009 and published on 20 November 2009, after it had been signed by more than 150 American religious leaders.
The drafting committee consisted of evangelical leaders like Charles Colson and Professor Robert P. George, both from Princeton University, and Dean Timothy George of Beeson Divinity School of the. Are worth mentioning as a signatory on the Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Philadelphia Justin Francis Rigali, John J. Myers, Archbishop of Newark Roman Catholic and Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington Donald Wuerl. Next, signed Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president of Southern Seminary, President Ligon Duncan of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, President Leith Anderson of the National Association of Evangelicals and the primacy the Orthodox Church in America Jonah ( James Paffhausen ). To the list of signatories also include Peter Akinola, former Archbishop of the Church of Nigeria and Thomas C. Oden from the Institute on Religion and Democracy.
" The prominent Republican politician Mike Huckabee likened the declaration even with the 95 theses of Luther ." Vatican Radio said, with the final sentence of the Declaration: "We let ourselves be intimidated by any earthly power or silence when it comes to our conscience. We will give Caesar what Caesar is one, but we will not give Caesar what belongs to God! "Could" bring the experts for voters movements in Obama's team to again the calculator to make " and in the debate on health care reform at U.S. President Barack Obama voices heard.
Some evangelicals such as John MacArthur, Alistair Begg, and James R. White have refrained because of the ecumenical background of the declaration of a signature.
When network appearance of the Declaration, it is possible also to sign for visitors. In the first week 160,000 people and signed in December 2009, more than a quarter of a million signatories were counted. Users also a special Apple iPhone App were asked to sign the declaration; later, this app has been removed from the App Store.