Our pastor at Westminster Chapel spent an entire sermon recently in support of the Manhattan Declaration, developed by well known conservative evangelical leaders. The document is anti-abortion, anti-euthanasia, anti-gay marriage, and declares the right to disobey laws the writers feel would infringe on their religious beliefs. The pastor and all of the church elders have signed this document and the pastor encouraged everyone in the congregation to do likewise.
As you can imagine, there was little scripture quoted in this sermon, and the scripture that was quoted was twisted to fit the predefined beliefs of the writers. The Bible, as I read it, ignores all of the specific issues included in the document–abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, and political repression.
It is interesting that the document focuses on abortion and euthanasia while remaining silent about the 29,000 children under the age of 5 who die daily–mostly from preventable diseases they cannot afford to treat. The document’s stance also blithely ignores the tens of thousands of needless deaths in Iraq as a result of the unprovoked invasion of that nation by a conservative evangelical president.
The document abhors gay marriage but again ignores divorce and heterosexual unions unblessed by marriage vows. The Bible is very clear about its stand on the latter issues but the document seems unaware of these Bible passages.
The document’s assertion of the “inalienable” right to disobey laws seen as religiously repressive is also absent scripture except for Peter’s assertion that he must obey the laws of God over the laws of men. In this case, Peter was referring to Jewish and not Roman law. The Romans didn’t care what you preached so long as it wasn’t sedition. Jesus pays taxes saying “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s” and the Sermon on the Mount encourages those who are oppressed to “go a second mile.” Paul supports the practice of slavery, albeit with the admonition to slave owners to treat their slaves humanely.
For me, the handwriting on the wall of Westminster Chapel is very clear–vote Republican or move to the margins of fellowship at this church. I imagine the pastor will be recruiting for the NRA in some coming sermon. So the message is clear for those of us who are pro-life and pro-choice, those of us who accept the idea of releasing tortured hospice patience from their pain, those of us who want to reach out to the gay community, and those of us who do not set ourselves above the law. You have no place at Westminster Chapel.
May God have mercy on us all.
I am totally in agreement with you on this one! The British version did have reference to the 29k who die each day through poverty etc, but ‘bigged up’ the traditional right wing concerns (which I’m not opposed to- just when they get bigger than poverty etc), so I didn’t sign. There was an excellent defending of the non signers point of view on my friend Dyfed’s blog a while back.