Why I Won't Sign the Manhattan Declaration
© Seth Kniep, 2009. All rights reserved.
The Manhattan Declaration is no doubt sincerely motivated by a high view of marriage, life, and religious freedom. These values are honorable and good and I thank God for them.
But the reason I won't sign the Manhattan Declaration has nothing to do with the fact that Roman Catholics were on the board that drafted it (does that mean I couldn't be on the board of a company with men and women of different beliefs?) but because moral reform without Jesus is a soaring plane that just lost its engine.
The reason I will not sign the declaration is because it misrepresents the gospel of Jesus Christ. It tries to transform society. But the gospel transforms individual people, one by one, and people are what make up society.
Without Jesus Christ at the foundation of all we as Christians do, we not only waste precious hours fighting for face change with no heart change, but we tell the world that we are more concerned about defending our values and pushing our beliefs than we are loving them and sharing the life of Jesus with them.
I would rather spend ten minutes in a pub buying a dude's drink, hearing his story, and telling him about the amazing holiness of Jesus than lobbying against a liberal politician, inadvertently telling the whole world that my religion is a plastic cover for a political agenda.
Yes, Jesus too embraced the values of heterosexual marriage, sanctity of life, and religious freedom, and some of these principles even popped up in His teaching. But they were not the thrust of what He stood for. He did not enter earth to reform society but to engage people with Himself, transforming and helping them one by one, even at the cost of His own life. Without Jesus, promoting and preserving these conservative values swaps the idols of sexual autonomy, convenience, and tolerance with the idols of heterosexual marriage, family, and democracy. The first three idols are not an ounce worse than the last three.
If Jesus is not the Son of God who lived and died and rose, then the three values that the Manhattan Declaration stands for don't even make sense. It's empty moralism and will quickly snub unbelievers for the cause of promoting conservative values. In fact, I'd be a fool to expect my neighbor who doesn't believe in Jesus to value these three things the way I do, and I have absolutely no intention of trying to convince him to do so.
Let me tell you a story. My wife and I befriended a woman who didn't like the Bible, dropped the f-bomb like fighter pilots in an air war, aborted her own child, birthed two children by two men she never married, sampled the drug scene, and whose best friend was a lesbian (although she herself was not).
Not once did we tell her to change her values. Not once did we ask her to stop cussing, believe the Bible, or embrace heterosexual marriage. God Himself said, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil" (Jer 13:23). And again, "There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God" (Rom 3:11). All we did was try to help her see, feel, and hear the kingdom of God and its king, Jesus.
By God's grace—not our skills or strategy—God opened her heart to Jesus, she gave her life to Him, and funny thing, all those conservative values the Manhattan Declaration wants to change the world with are now her values today. But she got them the right way: through Jesus.
What people need is not more conservative values, because conservative values are empty promises when standing by themselves. What people need is to know the reality, holiness, and mercy of Jesus Christ. Let them encounter Him. He can help them. You can't. I can't.
The more we try in our power and by our signatures, joint ventures, and witty politics to transform our government and resurrect a Christian heritage, the more we will drive unbelievers away from the cross of Jesus Christ. What we want people to encounter is none but Jesus Christ. And if they are going to stumble over something, let it not be out self righteous efforts, but Jesus. He's the only One worth stumbling over.
But the reason I won't sign the Manhattan Declaration has nothing to do with the fact that Roman Catholics were on the board that drafted it (does that mean I couldn't be on the board of a company with men and women of different beliefs?) but because moral reform without Jesus is a soaring plane that just lost its engine.
The reason I will not sign the declaration is because it misrepresents the gospel of Jesus Christ. It tries to transform society. But the gospel transforms individual people, one by one, and people are what make up society.
Without Jesus Christ at the foundation of all we as Christians do, we not only waste precious hours fighting for face change with no heart change, but we tell the world that we are more concerned about defending our values and pushing our beliefs than we are loving them and sharing the life of Jesus with them.
I would rather spend ten minutes in a pub buying a dude's drink, hearing his story, and telling him about the amazing holiness of Jesus than lobbying against a liberal politician, inadvertently telling the whole world that my religion is a plastic cover for a political agenda.
Yes, Jesus too embraced the values of heterosexual marriage, sanctity of life, and religious freedom, and some of these principles even popped up in His teaching. But they were not the thrust of what He stood for. He did not enter earth to reform society but to engage people with Himself, transforming and helping them one by one, even at the cost of His own life. Without Jesus, promoting and preserving these conservative values swaps the idols of sexual autonomy, convenience, and tolerance with the idols of heterosexual marriage, family, and democracy. The first three idols are not an ounce worse than the last three.
If Jesus is not the Son of God who lived and died and rose, then the three values that the Manhattan Declaration stands for don't even make sense. It's empty moralism and will quickly snub unbelievers for the cause of promoting conservative values. In fact, I'd be a fool to expect my neighbor who doesn't believe in Jesus to value these three things the way I do, and I have absolutely no intention of trying to convince him to do so.
Let me tell you a story. My wife and I befriended a woman who didn't like the Bible, dropped the f-bomb like fighter pilots in an air war, aborted her own child, birthed two children by two men she never married, sampled the drug scene, and whose best friend was a lesbian (although she herself was not).
Not once did we tell her to change her values. Not once did we ask her to stop cussing, believe the Bible, or embrace heterosexual marriage. God Himself said, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil" (Jer 13:23). And again, "There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God" (Rom 3:11). All we did was try to help her see, feel, and hear the kingdom of God and its king, Jesus.
By God's grace—not our skills or strategy—God opened her heart to Jesus, she gave her life to Him, and funny thing, all those conservative values the Manhattan Declaration wants to change the world with are now her values today. But she got them the right way: through Jesus.
What people need is not more conservative values, because conservative values are empty promises when standing by themselves. What people need is to know the reality, holiness, and mercy of Jesus Christ. Let them encounter Him. He can help them. You can't. I can't.
The more we try in our power and by our signatures, joint ventures, and witty politics to transform our government and resurrect a Christian heritage, the more we will drive unbelievers away from the cross of Jesus Christ. What we want people to encounter is none but Jesus Christ. And if they are going to stumble over something, let it not be out self righteous efforts, but Jesus. He's the only One worth stumbling over.