To Whom It May Concern thoughts about life as I see it

The Manhattan “Declaration”

In response to the culture shift towards postmodernism, Evangelical leaders gathered together to form a declaration, called the Manhattan Declaration.

Now, I am not opposed to any of the core ideas that the Declaration states, with the three main points defending such things as:

• The sanctity of human life.
• The dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife.
• The rights of conscience and religious liberty.

Who am I to argue with these three big truth's that stem from scripture?

I am not against the sanctity of human life, biblical marriage, and the rights and liberty of religions, but I am against the methods that the authors of the declaration use, by simply writing a document.  From what I know, this declaration was written, in part, to educate younger people like myself about these issues (which is odd, because in such a connected age, if young people desire information, truth, and an understanding of culture, they will simply turn to the hyper-connected culture that they live in, and use Google & Wikipedia among others to seek out the truth).

As a whole, the declaration does a great job in outlining why evangelicals should believe these certain truths.

But, one problem that evangelicals have is that they are unwilling to converse with those who aren't like them.  My friend Jonathan Merritt points out in his Washington Post article "Manhattan Declaration unlikely to inspire young Christians," that:

There is little doubt that the right wing vanguard--many of them listed on this document--needs a new army of recruits if they expect their movement to thrive in the 21st Century.

To those who are young and convinced that change doesn't happen without action, simply writing a declaration that things need to change does not necessarily mean that change will occur.  Writing on a piece of paper, something like, "These issues need to be noticed, because our culture is changing the definition of foundational truths, so help fix these things by signing this document," will not inspire me to do anything.  Nothing.  John MacArthur put it perfectly:

Although I obviously agree with the document’s opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and other key moral problems threatening our culture, the document falls far short of identifying the one true and ultimate remedy for all of humanity’s moral ills: the Gospel.

The gospel is the central change in how a person views the world.  If we reach culture with the gospel, there won't be a need for a declaration, because we will already have a declaration large enough to not ignore: the gospel.

Did you sign the Declaration?  Why or why not?