A LETTER TO SIGNERS OF THE MANHATTAN DECLARATION

(am primit adineauri aceasta scrisoare...)

Dear Friends,


We hope you've visited our new website, manhattandeclaration.org. It is loaded with resources to defend life, marriage, and religious freedom.

If you've been to the website in the last few days, you saw the story of the eight nurses in New York who refused to participate in taking the life of an unborn child by abortion. They were punished, but held their ground. (Later their employer relented and even apologized to them.) Here are people who refused to render to Caesar that which belongs to God! If you didn't get to the story, please read it. More people must follow their example.

The second bit of exciting news comes from England. Weeks ago, a group of British pastors and Christian leaders, including the former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey, posted on a website a condensed version of the Manhattan Declaration. They called it, appropriately, the Westminster Declaration. In the first week they had 5,000 signatures. As we write, they have close to 50,000! This is extraordinary. The church in England has not, in recent years, distinguished itself by giving Christian witness on public moral issues. So this was welcome change and big news - all inspired by the Manhattan Declaration.

Around the world we're getting similar reports of the Declaration being picked up and circulated. It has been translated into a number of foreign languages.

Here at home, we're looking forward to a very busy fall. There will be a New Mexico Christian worldview summit, August 24-26 in Albuquerque, bringing together 600 Catholic and evangelical pastors. It is being co-chaired by Archbishop Michael Sheehan and former congressman Bill Redmond, who is a Colson Center-commissioned Centurion. Chuck Colson, along with the eminent Catholic theologian Michael Novak, will be present for this event.

This is the kind of movement-building event that is growing out of the Manhattan Declaration, and that our website will help connect people to. Keep visiting the site and join our online community. It will link you up with like-minded citizens across the country. The movement section will give you blogs and lists of signatories, as well as a feature called Signer Vision. We will be asking people to post comments on our forums and find events related to the Manhattan Declaration.

You may be wondering whether our efforts are bearing fruit. This Declaration has been the most galvanizing force for the Christian church within anyone's memory. It has brought together leaders across the confessional divides to take a clear, unequivocal stand for life, marriage, and liberty. And it is gaining momentum. But we need each signer to get one other fellow believer to sign so that we can swiftly reach one million. Please take a moment today to call the Manhattan Declaration to the attention of a Christian friend. You can share it using our website.
Here's what else you can do:

• Pray for us regularly.
• Educate the laity through on-line study resources.
• Host local events just like the people in Albuquerque are doing in August; and
• Give as you're led to support this movement. Our only major expense thus far has been for e-mail and the upgrading of the website, which was contributed by two of our supporting organizations. But we do have ongoing costs to support the website and the Movement. As you'll see, there is a convenient way to give on this website.
Please join the movement. Get others involved, and make full use of the website resources to connect with others who share your convictions about the most important and critical moral questions in our lives today.

God bless you.
Dr. Timothy George
Dr. Robert George
Chuck Colson