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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, 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, 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. 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. 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. And in America, Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. 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.

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 – from providing clean water in developing nations to providing homes for tens of thousands of children orphaned by war, disease and gender discrimination.

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 (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; 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.

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. 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. Many in the present administration want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and want to provide abortions at taxpayer expense. 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. 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. As predicted by many prescient persons, the cheapening of life that began with abortion has now metastasized. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

Our concern is not confined to our own nation. Around the globe, we are witnessing cases of genocide and “ethnic cleansing,” the failure to assist those who are suffering as innocent victims of war, the neglect and abuse of children, the exploitation of vulnerable laborers, the sexual trafficking of girls and young women, the abandonment of the aged, racial oppression and discrimination, the persecution of believers of all faiths, and the failure to take steps necessary to halt the spread of preventable diseases like AIDS. 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 and the movements for assisted suicide, euthanasia, and human cloning for biomedical research. And so ours is, as it must be, a truly consistent ethic of love and life for all humans in all circumstances.

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

This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:32-33

In Scripture, the creation of man and woman, and their one-flesh union as husband and wife, is the crowning achievement of God’s creation. In the transmission of life and the nurturing of children, men and women joined as spouses are given the great honor of being partners with God Himself. Marriage then, is the first institution of human society—indeed it is the institution on which all other human institutions have their foundation. In the Christian tradition we refer to marriage as “holy matrimony” to signal the fact that it is an institution ordained by God, and blessed by Christ in his participation at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. In the Bible, God Himself blesses and holds marriage in the highest esteem.

Vast human experience confirms that marriage is the original and most important institution for sustaining the health, education, and welfare of all persons in a society. Where marriage is honored, and where there is a flourishing marriage culture, everyone benefits—the spouses themselves, their children, the communities and societies in which they live. Where the marriage culture begins to erode, social pathologies of every sort quickly manifest themselves. Unfortunately, we have witnessed over the course of the past several decades a serious erosion of the marriage culture in our own country. Perhaps the most telling—and alarming—indicator is the out-of-wedlock birth rate. Less than fifty years ago, it was under 5 percent. Today it is over 40 percent. Our society—and particularly its poorest and most vulnerable sectors, where the out- of-wedlock birth rate is much higher even than the national average—is paying a huge price in delinquency, drug abuse, crime, incarceration, hopelessness, and despair. Other indicators are widespread non-marital sexual cohabitation and a devastatingly high rate of divorce.

We confess with sadness that Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage and to model for the world the true meaning of marriage. Insofar as we have too easily embraced the culture of divorce and remained silent about social practices that undermine the dignity of marriage we repent, and call upon all Christians to do the same.

To strengthen families, we must stop glamorizing promiscuity and infidelity and restore among our people a sense of the profound beauty, mystery, and holiness of faithful marital love. We must reform ill-advised policies that contribute to the weakening of the institution of marriage, including the discredited idea of unilateral divorce. We must work in the legal, cultural, and religious domains to instill in young people a sound understanding of what marriage is, what it requires, and why it is worth the commitment and sacrifices that faithful spouses make.

Multiple partner relationships is a symptom, rather than the cause, of the erosion of the marriage culture. It reflects a loss of understanding of the meaning of marriage as embodied in our civil and religious law and in the philosophical tradition that contributed to shaping the law. 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 and, with it, the hope of rebuilding a healthy marriage culture. It would lock into place the false and destructive belief that mar the impulse to redefine marriage in order to recognize same-seriage is all about romance and other adult satisfactions, and not, in any intrinsic way, about procreation and the unique character and value of acts and relationships whose meaning is shaped by their aptness for the generation, promotion and protection of life. In spousal communion and the rearing of children (who, as gifts of God, are the fruit of their parents’ marital love), we discover the profound reasons for and benefits of the marriage covenant.

We acknowledge that there are those who are disposed towards homosexual and polyamorous conduct and relationships, just as there are those who are disposed towards other forms of immoral conduct. We have compassion for those so disposed; we respect them as human beings possessing profound, inherent, and equal dignity; and we pay tribute to the men and women who strive, often with little assistance, to resist the temptation to yield to desires that they, no less than we, regard as wayward. We stand with them, even when they falter. We, no less than they, are sinners who have fallen short of God’s intention for our lives. We, no less than they, are in constant need of God’s patience, love and forgiveness. We call on the entire Christian community to resist sexual immorality, and at the same time refrain from disdainful condemnation of those who yield to it. Our rejection of sin, though resolute, must never become the rejection of sinners. For every sinner, regardless of the sin, is loved by God, who seeks not our destruction but rather the conversion of our hearts. Jesus calls all who wander from the path of virtue to “a more excellent way.” As his disciples we will reach out in love to assist all who hear the call and wish to answer it.

We further acknowledge that there are sincere people who disagree with us, and with the teaching of the Bible and Christian tradition, on questions of sexual morality and the nature of marriage. Some who enter into same-sex and polyamorous relationships no doubt regard their unions as truly marital. They fail to understand, however, that marriage is made possible by the sexual complementarity of man and woman, and that the comprehensive, multi-level sharing of life that marriage is includes bodily unity of the sort that unites husband and wife biologically as a reproductive unit. This is because the body is no mere extrinsic instrument of the human person, but truly part of the personal reality of the human being. Human beings are not merely centers of consciousness or emotion, or minds, or spirits, inhabiting non-personal bodies. The human person is a dynamic unity of body, mind, and spirit. Marriage is what one man and one woman establish when, forsaking all others and pledging lifelong commitment, they found a sharing of life at every level of being—the biological, the emotional, the dispositional, the rational, the spiritual— on a commitment that is sealed, completed and actualized by loving sexual intercourse in which the spouses become one flesh, not in some merely metaphorical sense, but by fulfilling together the behavioral conditions of procreation. That is why in the Christian tradition, and historically in Western law, consummated marriages are not dissoluble or annullable on the ground of infertility, even though the nature of the marital relationship is shaped and structured by its intrinsic orientation to the great good of procreation.

We understand that many of our fellow citizens, including some Christians, believe that the historic definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a denial of equality or civil rights. They wonder what to say in reply to the argument that asserts that no harm would be done to them or to anyone if the law of the community were to confer upon two men or two women who are living together in a sexual partnership the status of being “married.” It would not, after all, affect their own marriages, would it? On inspection, however, the argument that laws governing one kind of marriage will not affect another cannot stand. Were it to prove anything, it would prove far too much: the assumption that the legal status of one set of marriage relationships affects no other would not only argue for same sex partnerships; it could be asserted with equal validity for polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous relationships. Should these, as a matter of equality or civil rights, be recognized as lawful marriages, and would they have no effects on other relationships? No. The truth is that marriage is not something abstract or neutral that the law may legitimately define and re-define to please those who are powerful and influential.

No one has a civil right to have a non-marital relationship treated as a marriage. Marriage is an objective reality—a covenantal union of husband and wife—that it is the duty of the law to recognize and support for the sake of justice and the common good. If it fails to do so, genuine social harms follow. First, the religious liberty of those for whom this is a matter of conscience is jeopardized. Second, the rights of parents are abused as family life and sex education programs in schools are used to teach children that an enlightened understanding recognizes as “marriages” sexual partnerships that many parents believe are intrinsically non-marital and immoral. Third, the common good of civil society is damaged when the law itself, in its critical pedagogical function, becomes a tool for eroding a sound understanding of marriage on which the flourishing of the marriage culture in any society vitally depends. Sadly, we are today far from having a thriving marriage culture. But if we are to begin the critically important process of reforming our laws and mores to rebuild such a culture, the last thing we can afford to do is to re-define marriage in such a way as to embody in our laws a false proclamation about what marriage is.

And so it is out of love (not “animus”) and prudent concern for the common good (not “prejudice”), that we pledge to labor ceaselessly to preserve the legal definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman and to rebuild the marriage culture. How could we, as Christians, do otherwise? The Bible teaches us that marriage is a central part of God’s creation covenant. Indeed, the union of husband and wife mirrors the bond between Christ and his church. And so just as Christ was willing, out of love, to give Himself up for the church in a complete sacrifice, we are willing, lovingly, to make whatever sacrifices are required of us for the sake of the inestimable treasure that is marriage.

Religious Liberty
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. Isaiah 61:1

Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. Matthew 22:21

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The end will come. Omega! “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let him that hears say, ‘Come.’ And let him that is thirsty come. And whosoever will, let him take the ‘Water of Life’ FREELY…He Who testifies of these things speaks out, “Surely I come quickly.” AMEN. Even so come, LORD JESUS. The GRACE of our LORD JESUS CHRIST BE WITH YOU ALL. AMEN.” Revelation 22:17,20,21.
[These quotations are from the last book of the Bible, the ending verses, recorded by John, the Apostle--a disciple of Jesus Christ, exiled for his faith by an earth ruler, and sent to the island of Patmos. John knew what resurrection power was about. He talked to the earth walking resurrected Jesus Who leaned close to John often to speak softly the Words of Life, "Because I live, you, too shall live." --the strong and steady words of the resurrected Christ. John acted uprightly, upset some, spoke out loud, lived out the faith that formed him. John knew Jesus and ministered to many. John knew the outcomes of love mixed mightily with power and love and super intelligence--JESUS! John is an example to us of believing through the tough stuff. He believed through it all, that-- "There is more...it is written."]
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Read the Manhattan Declaration in full below, or go to the website and read a summary. Also read it in a variety of languages.

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Handel put to music, “The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our LORD and of His Christ…” –from ‘Handel’s Messiah’, & one wise king stood!
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Follow that website’s links to Twitter and Facebook as well. God has a ‘big tent’ but a narrow way into a new place. Jesus is the Way, and why wouldn’t he know we need help. He’s been here, done that, lost His shirt, was accused unjustly, judged by the weak and the unwise of this world, persecuted for being perfectly right, pierced, beaten, nailed and bled out until He died. He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

[ It happens, you know, that government doesn't know its right hand from its left without help, without we the people who are being shepherded ourselves, gently, powerfully. We are effectively salt and light, if we will be still and remember who God is. He comes to each one and would abide in each one of us. He is the same. He never changes. Let Him start teaching you as you journey. RSVP. Standing invitation.]

Jesus died. He descended to Hell and retrieved the keys to death from the devil–formerly in charge of the keys to Hell. With full payment made for the sins of the world Jesus had the right to retrieve the keys, and become an Advocate for the willing who also want to escape from death and destruction. There is no better attorney for a human being than Jesus, Who created all things, and lived among us for 33 years. Our sins crucified the only begotten Son of God…He said it was for this reason He came to earth. “No man takes my life from Me. I lay it down. I could have called angels to free Me.” PAID IN FULL–sins carried away as far as the east is from the west, and while north and south become each other eventually, EAST AND WEST NEVER MEET, EXCEPT AT GOD’S GREAT JUDGMENT SEAT, says poet Rudyard Kipling. Sins gone. Powerful poetry and empowered people move across this planet, seeking to tell the good news of full payment for sin to the lost, to the deceived, to the dying– and to bring love and hope to the orphan and the widow and the rejected, the lonely, the disenfranchised and those who cry out from earth’s most wretched realms. God is not deaf. His RESPONSE TO OUR CALLS FOR HELP ARE WIRELESS. He is present and His timing is perfect. Sometimes He sends a friend of God to help another–sometimes He sends us. We can help one another. We will see Him later and be like Him, like He said. God cannot lie. He is TRUTH. Continue the journey!

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THE INVITATION: Each citizen of the world gets to RSVP!

“Come to me, if you’re tired!” ” I give bread to the hungry and to those who have no strength I give power.” “My mercy endures forever. Come to Me.”
“I am come that you may have LIFE, and have it MORE ABUNDANTLY…I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE, NO MAN COMES TO THE FATHER but through Me.” –Jesus

The struggle for religious liberty across the centuries has been long and arduous, but it is not a novel idea or recent development. The nature of religious liberty is grounded in the character of God Himself, the God who is most fully known in the life and work of Jesus Christ. Determined to follow Jesus faithfully in life and death, the early Christians appealed to the manner in which the Incarnation had taken place: “Did God send Christ, as some suppose, as a tyrant brandishing fear and terror? Not so, but in gentleness and meekness…, for compulsion is no attribute of God” (Epistle to Diognetus 7.3-4). Thus the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the example of Christ Himself and in the very dignity of the human person created in the image of God—a dignity, as our founders proclaimed, inherent in every human, and knowable by all in the exercise of right reason.

Christians confess that God alone is Lord of the conscience. Immunity from religious coercion is the cornerstone of an unconstrained conscience. No one should be compelled to embrace any religion against his will, nor should persons of faith be forbidden to worship God according to the dictates of conscience or to express freely and publicly their deeply held religious convictions. What is true for individuals applies to religious communities as well.

It is ironic that those who today assert a right to kill the unborn, aged and disabled and also a right to engage in immoral sexual practices, and even a right to have relationships integrated around these practices be recognized and blessed by law—such persons claiming these “rights” are very often in the vanguard of those who would trample upon the freedom of others to express their religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife.

We see this, for example, in the effort to weaken or eliminate conscience clauses, and therefore to compel pro-life institutions (including religiously affiliated hospitals and clinics), and pro-life physicians, surgeons, nurses, and other health care professionals, to refer for abortions and, in certain cases, even to perform or participate in abortions. We see it in the use of anti- discrimination statutes to force religious institutions, businesses, and service providers of various sorts to comply with activities they judge to be deeply immoral or go out of business. After the judicial imposition of “same-sex marriage” in Massachusetts, for example, Catholic Charities chose with great reluctance to end its century-long work of helping to place orphaned children in good homes rather than comply with a legal mandate that it place children in same-sex households in violation of Catholic moral teaching. In New Jersey, after the establishment of a quasi-marital “civil unions” scheme, a Methodist institution was stripped of its tax exempt status when it declined, as a matter of religious conscience, to permit a facility it owned and operated to be used for ceremonies blessing homosexual unions. In Canada and some European nations, Christian clergy have been prosecuted for preaching Biblical norms against the practice of homosexuality. New hate-crime laws in America raise the specter of the same practice here.

In recent decades a growing body of case law has paralleled the decline in respect for religious values in the media, the academy and political leadership, resulting in restrictions on the free exercise of religion. We view this as an ominous development, not only because of its threat to the individual liberty guaranteed to every person, regardless of his or her faith, but because the trend also threatens the common welfare and the culture of freedom on which our system of republican government is founded. Restrictions on the freedom of conscience or the ability to hire people of one’s own faith or conscientious moral convictions for religious institutions, for example, undermines the viability of the intermediate structures of society, the essential buffer against the overweening authority of the state, resulting in the soft despotism Tocqueville so prophetically warned of.1 Disintegration of civil society is a prelude to tyranny.

As Christians, we take seriously the Biblical admonition to respect and obey those in authority. We believe in law and in the rule of law. We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral. The biblical purpose of law is to preserve order and serve justice and the common good; yet laws that are unjust—and especially laws that purport to compel citizens to do what is unjust—undermine the common good, rather than serve it.

Going back to the earliest days of the church, Christians have refused to compromise their proclamation of the gospel. In Acts 4, Peter and John were ordered to stop preaching. Their answer was, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Through the centuries, Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required. There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Writing from an explicitly Christian perspective, and citing Christian writers such as Augustine and Aquinas, King taught that just laws elevate and ennoble human beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose ultimate source is God Himself. Unjust laws degrade human beings. Inasmuch as they can claim no authority beyond sheer human will, they lack any power to bind in conscience. King’s willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring.

Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s.

Drafting Committee
Robert George
Professor, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

Timothy George
Professor, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University

Chuck Colson
Founder, the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview (Lansdowne, VA)

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November 26th, 2009 | 1:28 pm

R. Hampton,
The Manhattan Declaration is a push-back by Christians and others who are tired of the leftist, secular and radical homosexual movement’s insistence on repealing our God given right to freedom of religion and conscience. We are villified in the press and on campuses, we are sued in the courts for not cowtowing to your demands. Why is it that you believe it is justified for you to deny us our rights?
Stop paying federal taxes; we are already funding abortion overseas. Abortion is murder whether it is done in America or Africa. If you live in a state where your taxes are used to fund abortion, or if your state demands that your church or business support, in any way, homosexual “marriage” or gay adoption, stop paying your state taxes. It is not right to allow only bishops, priests and religious to pay the price for standing up against this assault on our religious liberty. Our right to freely practice our faith and our freedom of conscience is our foundational liberty, and this is why it must be protected at any cost. If we allow the State to take that freedom away from us, our liberty is gone. All people, religious or not, will pay a very high price. It has happened too often in other countries in the past, it is happening today in countries around the globe. America is not so special that it cannot happen here. Indeed, it is happening here, and we must stop it. ###
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List of Religious & Organizational Leaders Signatories
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1. Dr. Daniel Akin
President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, NC)
2. Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola
Primate, Anglican Church of Nigeria (Abuja, Nigeria)
3. Randy Alcorn
Founder and Director, Eternal Perspective Ministries (EPM) (Sandy, OR)
4. Rt. Rev. David Anderson
President and CEO, American Anglican Council (Atlanta, GA)
5. Rev. Dr. Gordon L. Anderson
President, North Central University, Minneapolis, MN
6. Leith Anderson
President of National Association of Evangelicals (Washington, DC)
7. Most Rev. Samuel J. Aquila
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Fargo, ND
8. Carole K. Ardizzone
TV Show Host and Speaker, INSP Television (Charlotte, NC)
9. Kay Arthur
CEO and Co-founder, Precept Ministries International (Chattanooga, TN)
10. Dr. Mark L. Bailey
President, Dallas Theological Seminary (Dallas, TX)
11. Most Rev. Robert J. Baker, S.T.D.
Bishop of Birmingham, Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama
12. Most Rev. Craig W. Bates
Archbishop, International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church (Malverne, NY)
13. Gary Bauer
President, American Values; Chairman, Campaign for Working Families (Washington D.C.)
14. Joel Belz
Founder, World Magazine (Asheville, NC)
15. Rev. Michael L. Beresford
(Charlotte, NC)
16. Rev. Thomas V. Berg
President, Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person (New York)
17. Ken Boa
President, Reflections Ministries (Atlanta, GA)
18. Most Rev. Paul G. Bootkoski
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen, NJ
19. Dorinda C. Bordlee, Esq.
Executive Director and Senior Counsel, Bioethics Defense Fund (New Orleans, LA)
20. Joseph Bottum
Editor of First Things (New York, NY)
21. Pastor Randy & Sarah Brannon
Senior Pastor, Grace Community Church (Madera, CA)
22. Most Rev. Robert H. Brom
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, CA
23. Brian Brown
Executive Director, National Organization for Marriage (Princeton, NJ)
24. Steve Brown
National radio broadcaster, Key Life (Maitland, FL)
25. Most Rev. Robert A. Brucato
Retired Auxiliary Bishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, NY
26. Most Rev. Michael F. Burbidge
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, NC
27. Dr. Robert C. Cannada, Jr.
Chancellor and CEO of Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando, FL)
28. Galen Carey
Director of Government Affairs, National Association of Evangelicals (Washington, DC)
29. Dr. Bryan Chapell
President, Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis, MO)
30. Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver, CO
31. Timothy A. Chichester
Catholic Family Association of America
32. Timothy Clinton
President, American Association of Christian Counselors (Forest, VA)
33. Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Salina, KS
34. Terry Colafrancesco
President of Caritas of Birmingham
35. Most Rev. George W. Coleman
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Fall River, MA
36. Dr. Kenneth J. Collins
Professor of Historical Theology and Wesley Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, KY)
37. Chuck Colson
Founder, the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview (Lansdowne, VA)
38. Dr. Mark Coppenger
Managing Editor, Kairos Journal
39. Most Rev. Salvatore Joseph Cordileone
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, CA
40. Dr. Barry H. Corey
President, Biola University (La Mirada, CA)
41. Dr. Gary Culpepper
Associate Professor, Providence College (Providence, RI)
42. Jim Daly
President and CEO, Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs, CO)
43. Marjorie Dannenfelser
President, Susan B. Anthony List (Arlington, VA)
44. Rev. Daniel Delgado
Board of Directors, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference & Pastor, Third Day Missions Church (Staten Island, NY)
45. Patrick Deneen
Tasakopoulos-Kounalakis, Associate Professor, Director, Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy, Georgetown University (Washington D.C.)
46. Most Rev. Frank J. Dewane
Bishop of the Diocese of Venice in Florida
47. Most Rev. Nicholas DiMarzio
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn
48. Dr. James Dobson
Founder, Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs, CO)
49. Dr. David Dockery
President, Union University (Jackson, TN)
50. Most Rev. Timothy Dolan
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, NY
51. Dr. William Donohue
President, Catholic League (New York, NY)
52. Dr. James T. Draper, Jr.
President Emeritus, LifeWay (Nashville, TN)
53. Dinesh D’Souza
Writer & Speaker (Rancho Santa Fe, CA)
54. Dr. J. Ligon Duncan
Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, & President, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
55. Most Rev. Robert Wm. Duncan
Archbishop and Primate, Anglican Church in North America (Ambridge, PA )
56. Dr. Michael Easley
President Emeritus, Moody Bible Institute Chicago, IL)
57. Dr. William Edgar
Professor, Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia, PA)
58. Brett Elder
Executive Director, Stewardship Council (Grand Rapids, MI)
59. Rev. Joel Elowsky
Drew University ( Madison, NJ)
60. His Grace, The Right Reverend Bishop Basil Essey
The Right Reverend Bishop of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America (Wichita, KS)
61. Rev. Jonathan Falwell
Senior Pastor, Thomas Road Baptist Church (Lynchburg, VA)
62. Most Rev. Kevin J. Farrell
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas, TX
63. Most Rev. John C. Favalora
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami, FL
64. William J. Federer
President, Amerisearch, Inc. (St. Louis, MO)
65. Fr. Joseph D. Fessio
Founder and Editor, Ignatius Press (San Francisco, CA)
66. Most Reverend Robert W. Finn
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, MO
67. Carmen Fowler
President & Executive Editor, Presbyterian Lay Committee (Lenoir, NC)
68. Commissioner Israel L. Gaither
National Commander, The Salvation Army
69. Most Rev. Victor Galeone
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine, FL
70. Maggie Gallagher
President, National Organization for Marriage (Manassas, VA)
71. Most Rev. James H. Garland
Bishop Emeritus, Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette, MI
72. Dr. Jim Garlow
Senior Pastor, Skyline Church (La Mesa, CA)
73. Steven Garofalo
Founder, National Apologetics Training Center (Charlotte, NC)
74. Dr. Robert P. George
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)
75. Dr. Timothy George
Dean and Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School at Samford University (Birmingham, AL)
76. Most Rev. Joseph J. Gerry, O.S.B., Ph.D.
Bishop Emeritus, Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, ME
77. Thomas Gilson
Director of Strategic Processes, Campus Crusade for Christ International (Norfolk, VA)
78. Dr. Jack Graham
Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church (Plano, TX)
79. Dr. Wayne Grudem
Research Professor of Theological and Biblical Studies, Phoenix Seminary (Phoenix, AZ)
80. Dr. Cornell “Corkie” Haan
National Facilitator of Spiritual Unity, The Mission America Coalition (Palm Desert, CA)
81. Most Rev. Joseph Hart
Bishop Emeritus, Roman Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne, WY
82. Fr. Chad Hatfield
Chancellor, CEO. And Archpriest, St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary (Yonkers, NY)
83. Most Rev. Edward L Haynes
Metropolitan Archbishop, Nicene Orthodox Church (Chattanooga, TN)
84. Alec Hill
President, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA
85. Dr. Dennis Hollinger
President and Professor of Christian Ethics, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, MA)
86. Dr. Jeanette Hsieh
Executive VP and Provost, Trinity International University (Deerfield, IL)
87. Dr. John A. Huffman, Jr.
Senior Pastor, St. Andrews Presbyterian Church (Newport Beach, CA) and Chairman of the Board, Christianity Today International (Carol Stream, IL)
88. Dr. Edith M. Humphrey
William F. Orr Professor of New Testament, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
89. Rev. Ken Hutcherson
Pastor, Antioch Bible Church (Kirkland, WA)
90. Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr.
Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church (Beltsville, MD)
91. Fr. Johannes L. Jacobse
President, American Orthodox Institute and Editor, OrthodoxyToday.org (Naples, FL)
92. Most Rev. Michael Jarrell
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Lafayette, LA
93. Most Rev. Daniel R. Jenky
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Peoria, IL
94. Jerry Jenkins
Author (Black Forest, CO)
95. Most Rev. Peter J. Jugis
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, NC
96. Camille Kampouris
Editorial Board, Kairos Journal
97. Emmanuel A. Kampouris
Publisher, Kairos Journal
98. Rev. Tim Keller
Senior Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (New York, NY)
99. Most Rev. Donald J. Kettler
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks, AK
100. Dr. Alveda King
Director of African American Outreach, Priests for Life
101. Most Reverend John F. Kinney
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud, Minnesota
102. Most Rev. Edward U. Kmiec
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, NY
103. Most Rev. Emmanuel Musaba Kolini
Primate, Anglican Church of Rwanda (Kigali, Rwanda)
104. Dr. Peter Kreeft
Professor of Philosophy, Boston College (MA) and at the Kings Collge (NY)
105. Most Rev. Joseph E. Kurtz
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, KY
106. Jim Kushiner
Editor, Touchstone (Chicago, IL)
107. Dr. Richard Land
President, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the SBC (Washington, DC)
108. Jim Law
Senior Associate Pastor, First Baptist Church (Woodstock, GA)
109. Dr. Matthew Levering
Associate Professor of Theology, Ave Maria University (Naples, FL)
110. Dr. Peter Lillback
President, The Providence Forum (West Conshohocken, PA)
111. Dr. Duane Litfin
President, Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL)
112. Rev. Edward M. Lohse, J.C.L.
Chancellor and Vocation Director, Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie, PA
113. V. Rev. Rodney H. Longmire, Jr.
Canon Missioner of the Diocese of the Central States, The Reformed Episcopal Church
114. Most Rev. Paul S. Loverde
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington, VA
115. Rev. Herb Lusk
Pastor, Greater Exodus Baptist Church (Philadelphia, PA)
116. Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer
Pastor, The Moody Church (Chicago, IL)
117. His Eminence Adam Cardinal Maida
Archbishop Emeritus, Roman Catholic Diocese of Detroit, MI
118. Most Rev. Richard J. Malone
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, ME
119. Gregory John Mansour
Bishop of Saint Maron of Brooklyn (Maronite), New York
120. Rev. Francis Martin
Professor of New Testament, Dominican House of Studies, Washington D.C.
121. Dr. Joseph Mattera
Bishop & Senior Pastor, Resurrection Church (Brooklyn, NY)
122. Phil Maxwell
Pastor, Gateway Church (Bridgewater, NJ)
123. Rt. Rev. Mark Maymon
Bishop of Toledo and the Midwest, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
124. Josh McDowell
Founder, Josh McDowell Ministry (Plano, TX)
125. Alex McFarland
President, Southern Evangelical Seminary (Charlotte, NC)
126. Most Rev. George Dallas McKinney
Bishop, & Founder and Pastor, St. Stephen’s Church of God in Christ (San Diego, CA)
127. Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns
Missionary Bishop, Convocation of Anglicans of North America (Herndon, VA)
128. Most Reverend Dale J. Melczek
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Gary, IN
129. Dr. C. Ben Mitchell
Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy, Union University (Jackson, TN)
130. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)
131. Dr. Russell D. Moore
Senior VP for Academic Administration & Dean of the School of Theology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY)
132. Bishop Robert C. Morlino
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison, WI
133. Richard J. Mouw
President, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, CA)
134. Thomas D. Mullins
Christ Fellowship Church, Palm Beach, FL
135. J. Todd Mullins
Christ Fellowship Church, Palm Beach, FL
136. Rt. Rev. Charles H. Murphy, III
Missionary Bishop of Rwanda and Chairman of the Anglican Mission in the Americas
137. Most Rev. John J. Myers
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, NJ
138. Most Rev. Joseph F. Naumann
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City, KS
139. David Neff
Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today (Carol Stream, IL)
140. Tom Nelson
Senior Pastor, Christ Community Evangelical Free Church (Leawood, KS)
141. Dr. Jerry Newcombe
Host/Senior Producer, Coral Ridge Ministries (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
142. Niel Nielson
President, Covenant College (Lookout Mt., GA)
143. Most Rev. John Nienstedt
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, MN
144. Nikolas T. Nikas, Esq.
President and General Counsel, Bioethics Defense Fund
145. Michael Novak
Author, Philosopher, & Theologian
146. Most Rev. Edwin F. O’Brien
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, MD
147. Dr. Tom Oden
Theologian, United Methodist Minister and Professor, Drew University (Madison, NJ)
148. Most Rev. Jerry Ogles
Anglican Orthodox Communion Worldwide (Enterprise, AL)
149. Marvin Olasky
Editor-in-Chief, World Magazine and provost, The Kings College (New York City, NY)
150. Rev. Neftali “Charles” Olmeda
Pennsylvania Chapter Director, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (Allentown, PA)
151. Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, AZ
152. Rev. William Owens
Chairman, Coalition of African-American Pastors (Memphis, TN)
153. Dr. J.I. Packer
Board of Governors, Professor of Theology, Regent College (Canada)
154. Metr. Jonah Paffhausen
Primate, Orthodox Church in America (Syosset, NY)
155. Most Rev. Richard E. Pates
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Des Moines, IA
156. Tony Perkins
President, Family Research Council (Washington, D.C.)
157. Eric M. Pillmore
CEO, Pillmore Consulting LLC (Doylestown, PA)
158. Dr. Everett Piper
President, Oklahoma Wesleyan University (Bartlesville, OK)
159. Todd Pitner
President, Rev Increase
160. Dr. Cornelius Plantinga
President, Calvin Theological Seminary (Grand Rapids, MI)
161. Dr. David Platt
Pastor, Church at Brook Hills (Birmingham AL)
162. Rev. Jim Pocock
Pastor, Trinitarian Congregational Church (Wayland, MA)
163. Fred Potter
Executive Director & CEO, Christian Legal Society (Springfield, VA)
164. Dennis Rainey
President, CEO, & Co-Founder, FamilyLife (Little Rock, AR)
165. Fr. Patrick Reardon
Pastor, All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church (Chicago, IL)
166. Bob Reccord
Founder, Total Life Impact, Inc. (Suwanee, GA)
167. Dr. Harry L. Reeder
Sr. Pastor, Briarwood Presbyterian Church (Birmingham, AL)
168. Most Rev. Kevin C. Rhoades
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, IN
169. His Eminence Justin Cardinal Rigali
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, PA
170. Rev. Eugene F. Rivers
Senior Policy Adviser to the Presiding Bishop, Chuch of God in Christ
171. James and Betty Robison
Founder and President, LIFE Outreach International (Fort Worth, TX)
172. Rev. Samuel Rodriguez
President, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference
173. Frank Schubert
President, Schubert Flint Public Affairs (Sacramento, CA)
174. David Schuringa
President, Crossroads Bible Institute (Grand Rapids, MI)
175. Tricia Scribner
Author (Harrisburg, NC)
176. Dr. Dave Seaford
Senior Pastor, Community Fellowship Church (Matthews, NC)
177. Alan Sears
President, CEO, & General Counsel, Alliance Defense Fund (Scottsdale, AZ)
178. Randy Setzer
Senior Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church (Lincolnton, NC)
179. Kelly Shackelford, Esq.
Chief Counsel, Liberty Legal Institute (Plano, TX)
180. Most Rev. Michael J. Sheehan
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Santa Fe, NM
181. Rev. Louis P. Sheldon
Founder and Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition (Anaheim, CA)
182. Most Rev. Michael J. Sheridan
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, CO
183. Dr. Ron Sider
Director, Evangelicals for Social Action (Wynnewood, PA)
184. Fr. Robert Sirico
Founder, Acton Institute (Grand Rapids, MI)
185. Dr. Robert Sloan
President, Houston Baptist University (Houston, TX)
186. Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth
Taskforce of United Methodists on Abortion and Sexuality/Lifewatch
187. Charles Stetson
Chairman of the Board, Bible Literacy Project (New York, NY)
188. Dr. David Stevens
CEO, Christian Medical & Dental Association (Bristol, TN)
189. John Stonestreet
Executive Director, Summit Ministries (Manitou Springs, CO)
190. Dr. Joseph Stowell
President, Cornerstone University (Grand Rapids, MI)
191. Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas
Editor, The Catholic Response
192. Dr. Sarah Sumner
Professor of Theology and Ministry, Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, CA)
193. Dr. Glenn Sunshine
Research Fellow of the Action Institute (Grand Rapids, MI)
194. Chuck Swindoll
Founder and Chairman of the Board, Insight for Living, Senior Pastor—Stonebriar Community Church (Frisco, TX),
Chancellor—Dallas Theological Seminary
195. Joni Eareckson Tada
Founder and CEO, Joni and Friends International Disability Center (Agoura Hills, CA)
196. Luiz Tellez
President, The Witherspoon Institute (Princeton, NJ)
197. Dr. Timothy C. Tennent
Professor, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, MA)
198. James R. Thobaben
Professor of Bioethics and Social Ethics, Asbury Theological Seminary
199. Dr. Greg Thornbury
Dean of the School of Christian Studies, Union University, Fellow at the Wilberforce Forum (Washington, D.C.)
200. Michael Timmis
Chairman, Prison Fellowship and Prison Fellowship International (Naples, FL)
201. Michael Timmis, Jr
Chairman of the Board, Ave Maria University (Ave Maria, FL)
202. Mark Tooley
President, Institute for Religion and Democracy (Washington, D.C.)
203. H. James Towey
President, St. Vincent College (Latrobe, PA)
204. Most Rev. Donald W. Trautman
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie, PA
205. Juan Valdes
Middle and High School Chaplain, Flordia Christian School (Miami, FL)
206. Most Rev. Allen Vigneron
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Detroit, MI
207. Most Rev. John G. Vlazny
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Portland, OR
208. Todd Wagner
Pastor, WaterMark Community Church (Dallas, TX)
209. Dr. Graham Walker
President, Patrick Henry College (Purcellville, VA)
210. Rev. William J. Waltersheid
Secretary for Clergy and Consecrated Life, Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg, PA
211. Most Rev. Michael W. Warfel
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Great Falls-Billing, MN
212. Fr. Alexander F. C. Webster, PhD
Archpriest, Orthodox Church in America and Professorial Lecturer, The George Washington University (Ashburn, VA)
213. George Weigel
Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, D.C.)
214. David Welch
Houston Area Pastor Council Executive Director, US Pastors Council (Houston, TX)
215. Most Rev. Thomas Wenski
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando, FL
216. Dr. James Emery White
Founding and Senior Pastor, Mecklenberg Community Church (Charlotte, NC)
217. Luder Whitlock
Excelsis (Orlando, FL)
218. Dr. Hayes Wicker
Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church (Naples, FL)
219. Don Wildmon
American Family Association
220. Mark Williamson
Founder and President, Foundation Restoration Ministries/Federal Intercessors (Katy, TX)
221. Parker T. Williamson
Editor Emeritus and Senior Correspondent, Presbyterian Lay Committee
222. Dr. Craig Williford
President, Trinity International University (Deerfield, IL)
223. Dr. John Woodbridge
Research professor of Church History & the History of Christian Thought, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL)
224. Don M. Woodside
Performance Matters Associates (Matthews, NC)
225. Dr. Frank Wright
President, National Religious Broadcasters (Manassas, VA)
226. Most Rev. Donald W. Wuerl
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
227. Paul Young
COO & Executive VP, Christian Research Institute (Charlotte, NC)
228. Dr. Michael Youssef
President, Leading the Way (Atlanta, GA)
229. Ravi Zacharias
Founder and Chairman of the Board, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (Norcross, GA)
230. Most Rev. David A. Zubik
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, PA

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http://www.facebook.com/ManhattanDeclaration?v=wall&ref=mf

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Consider. Yes, more and more Christians are pausing to remember who God is, and Whose we are. He doesn’t tire, or get weary of us. He is love and sends it to the just and the unjust. He is more than fair, he is merciful and kind and He’s knowlegeable. He lived here, too. He is ready. It’s our call whether we return to His very personal and available “SHEPHERDING”, or not. God didn’t make us robotic responders! We were created to choose and created in God’s very own image. Becoming Christians we have hope and we do change! “We are changing from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of God.” For some of us it takes a hundred years or more. For some of us we come to Him early. But we do come to Him from the ends of the earth. His love messaging never quits ‘texting’ us. You knew that. We get startled by His protection and His attention. He surprises us with some love notes written in creation, in a song, in a hand lifting us, in a dream, in a good grade demonstrating we can learn and know more. He reminds us who we are and WHOSE we could be. He gave me water, and my thirst for life with purpose and meaning is satisfied. I am His, and I’m being tuned to His frequency, so to speak. I belong to the Family of God. Reunion Coming. God transmits His love and I receive it and pass it on, mostly–with some misses–humanity is not divinity, if you know what I mean! God’s LOVE COMES to us WIRELESS! He did wireless first! –Rae
=============================================================The end will come. Omega! “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let him that hears say, ‘Come.’ And let him that is thirsty come. And whosoever will, let him take the ‘Water of Life’ FREELY…He Who testifies of these things speaks out, “Surely I come quickly.” AMEN. Even so come, LORD JESUS. The GRACE of our LORD JESUS CHRIST BE WITH YOU ALL. AMEN.” Revelation 22:17,20,21.
[These quotations are from the last book of the Bible, the ending verses, recorded by John, the Apostle--a disciple of Jesus Christ, exiled for his faith by an earth ruler, and sent to the island of Patmos. John knew what resurrection power was about. He talked to the earth walking resurrected Jesus Who leaned close to John often to speak softly the Words of Life, "Because I live, you, too shall live." --the strong and steady words of the resurrected Christ. John acted uprightly, upset some, spoke out loud, lived out the faith that formed him. John knew Jesus and ministered to many. John knew the outcomes of love mixed mightily with power and love and super intelligence--JESUS! John is an example to us of believing through the tough stuff. He believed through it all, that-- "There is more...it is written."]
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Read the Manhattan Declaration in full below, or go to the website and read a summary. Also read it in a variety of languages.

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Handel put to music, “The kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our LORD and of His Christ…” –from ‘Handel’s Messiah’, & one wise king stood!
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Follow that website’s links to Twitter and Facebook as well. God has a ‘big tent’ but a narrow way into a new place. Jesus is the Way, and why wouldn’t he know we need help. He’s been here, done that, lost His shirt, was accused unjustly, judged by the weak and the unwise of this world, persecuted for being perfectly right, pierced, beaten, nailed and bled out until He died. He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

[ It happens, you know, that government doesn't know its right hand from its left without help, without we the people who are being shepherded ourselves, gently, powerfully. We are effectively salt and light, if we will be still and remember who God is. He comes to each one and would abide in each one of us. He is the same. He never changes. Let Him start teaching you as you journey. RSVP. Standing invitation.]

Jesus died. He descended to Hell and retrieved the keys to death from the devil–formerly in charge of the keys to Hell. With full payment made for the sins of the world Jesus had the right to retrieve the keys, and become an Advocate for the willing who also want to escape from death and destruction. There is no better attorney for a human being than Jesus, Who created all things, and lived among us for 33 years. Our sins crucified the only begotten Son of God…He said it was for this reason He came to earth. “No man takes my life from Me. I lay it down. I could have called angels to free Me.” PAID IN FULL–sins carried away as far as the east is from the west, and while north and south become each other eventually, EAST AND WEST NEVER MEET, EXCEPT AT GOD’S GREAT JUDGMENT SEAT, says poet Rudyard Kipling. Sins gone. Powerful poetry and empowered people move across this planet, seeking to tell the good news of full payment for sin to the lost, to the deceived, to the dying– and to bring love and hope to the orphan and the widow and the rejected, the lonely, the disenfranchised and those who cry out from earth’s most wretched realms. God is not deaf. His RESPONSE TO OUR CALLS FOR HELP ARE WIRELESS. He is present and His timing is perfect. Sometimes He sends a friend of God to help another–sometimes He sends us. We can help one another. We will see Him later and be like Him, like He said. God cannot lie. He is TRUTH. Continue the journey!

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THE INVITATION: Each citizen of the world gets to RSVP!

“Come to me, if you’re tired!” ” I give bread to the hungry and to those who have no strength I give power.” “My mercy endures forever. Come to Me.”
“I am come that you may have LIFE, and have it MORE ABUNDANTLY…I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE, NO MAN COMES TO THE FATHER but through Me.” –Jesus

“I am the Light that lights every man who comes into the world… Not everyone comes to the Light, because then both good and evil deeds become visible. Come to Me, learn of Me for I am meek and lowly of heart and you will find REST FOR YOUR SOULS. Ask of Me and I will give you ETERNAL LIFE.” –Jesus, God with us! “It is Written!” [The Bible describes the beginning and the end, and it is not hidden in the halls of Congress by control freak handlers like our deformed death care dire documents. At least in America we can read, and know the Author of ALL THAT'S GOOD AND RIGHT. One caveat--when you read the Holy Spirit of God will be available to 'TEACH YOU ALL THINGS'...if you ask for wisdom and understanding. You're created in God's image! Enjoy having a perfect Teacher and Helper.]