- Text which I posted to a discussion board on the 'Manhattan Refutation' Facebook group, which takes the approach of rewriting the 'Life' section of the Manhattan Declaration to bring it in line with a full rejection of the 'culture of death' and affirmation of life. I'm reproducing the text of what I wrote here, so it is available to a much wider audience, and so it can be reviewed for comment and challenge by those who are not comfortable associating with the 'Manhattan Refutation'.
- Links to resources and pages, including the actual Manhattan Declaration itself.
Here is what I’ve been mulling over … is it possible to take the very words of the Manhattan Declaration and redeem them by transforming them into a much fuller inclusion of the Kingdom of God that Christ calls us into?
I am not satisfied with my effort so far. However, I am posting here my down-and-dirty first attempt to transform the ‘Life’ section of the MD so that everyone else can get a better idea of the approach I’m suggesting we consider.
The ‘Life’ section was the first section of the MD that was glaringly ‘sinful by omission’. In other posts, I alluded to the fact that I believed the MD’s biggest failures were in what it omitted. The ‘Life’ section is a prime example. The authors rightly focused on the problem with the ‘culture of death’ but like most ‘Pro Life’ believers I’ve encountered, they are only ‘Pro’ the Life of a limited group of individuals.
Somehow, it’s still OK to promote a culture of death when it comes to our cultural and political enemies; it’s still OK to promote a culture of death by filling our minds with violent and murderous ‘entertainment’; it’s still ok to promote a culture of death by seeking military solutions to diplomatic problems and by subjecting our enemies to torture and violence that we justify as necessary so we can have enough intelligence (stupidity?) to preemptively execute them before they execute us.
I realize that many people will disagree with the above very politically (and evangelically) incorrect statements I’ve made, and I apologize in advance for my part in anything that has offended. However, I do not believe that any of us should apologize for the offense of the Cross.
That said, here is a modified writing of (most of) the ‘Life’ section of the Manhattan Declaration. If you read it in parallel with the MD, you’ll notice that a lot of the language did not need to be changed at all, and still matches the MD word-for-word.
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Life
A culture of death inevitably cheapens life in all its stages and conditions by promoting the belief that lives that are imperfect, immature and inconvenient, or which are abhorrent to our own moral sensibilities, are discardable. This death-culture is woven into our society’s consciousness so insidiously that many who genuinely and authentically vie for the sanctity of life remain totally unaware of its broad influence, and instead focus on only a few ‘litmus test’ issues such as abortion and euthanasia. As Christians, we assert that all life is sacred and that no life is discardable – not even the lives of those we consider our enemies. We call the culture of death into the light so that all its tentacles may be exposed. A culture of death takes root in any cheapening of life, and is particularly revealed in how we, as a society, choose to use our freedoms. We have failed to choose wisely, and have allowed or actively participated in discretionary ‘entertainment’ that promotes obsession with crime, militarism, murder and other types of violence and abuse. We have casually accepted these as appropriate and acceptable forms of entertainment, whether the ‘passive’ entertainment of movies and television, or the active, ‘behavioral rehearsing’ entertainment of shoot-to-kill video games, and have failed to use the blessings of liberty to engage in activities that promote life, reconciliation, and healing …
…. 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 “defending our homeland” and “preserving the foundational unit of society.” Waging wars and fostering homophobic hatred are just a few examples of cleverly disguised methods to achieve the extinction of groups of people deemed “unworthy of life”. We will be united and untiring in our efforts to roll back the license to kill that began with the authorization of hatred against those who are demonized as political and cultural enemies…
…We will work, as we have always worked, to bring assistance, comfort, and care to those in need and to those who have been victimized by hatred and war, even as we stand resolutely against the corrupt and degrading notion that it can somehow be in the best interests of anyone to submit to the deliberate killing of people we choose to demonize as ‘enemies’. Our message is, and ever shall be, that the just, humane, and truly Christian answer to violence and evil is for all of us to love and care for all of God’s children, whether friends or enemies, remaining fully aware that Christ died for us, even while we ourselves were still God’s enemies.
…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 born and unborn, the abled and ‘disabled’, the dependent and ‘independent’, the ‘straight’, the ‘gay’, the ‘saint’ and ‘sinner’, citizens of our own nation, and citizens of other nations, whether enemy or friend. 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, political status, and moral standing before God and humanity…
…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 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; oppression and discrimination based on race, gender, and sexual orientation; 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 entertainment industry and the movements for military-assisted homicide, homophobia, and disregard of the suffering of those at the bottom of society both domestically and internationally to preserve our own nation’s economic benefit. And so ours is, as it must be, a truly consistent ethic of love and life for all humans in all circumstances…
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