Drafted on October 20, 2009Released on November 20, 2009
Preamble
Christians
are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God's word, seeking
justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with
compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.
While fully
acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian
institutions and communities in all ages, we claim the heritage of
those Christians who defended innocent life by rescuing discarded
babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly denouncing the
Empire's sanctioning of infanticide. We remember with reverence those
believers who sacrificed their lives by remaining in Roman cities to
tend the sick and dying during the plagues, and who died bravely in the
coliseums rather than deny their Lord.
After the barbarian
tribes overran Europe, Christian monasteries preserved not only the
Bible but also the literature and art of Western culture. It was
Christians who combated the evil of slavery: Papal edicts in the 16th and 17th
centuries decried the practice of slavery and first excommunicated
anyone involved in the slave trade; evangelical Christians in England,
led by John Wesley and William Wilberforce, put an end to the slave
trade in that country. Christians under Wilberforce's leadership also
formed hundreds of societies for helping the poor, the imprisoned, and
child laborers chained to machines.
In Europe, Christians
challenged the divine claims of kings and successfully fought to
establish the rule of law and balance of governmental powers, which
made modern democracy possible. And in America, Christian women stood
at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. The great civil rights
crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians claiming the
Scriptures and asserting the glory of the image of God in every human
being regardless of race, religion, age or class.
This same
devotion to human dignity has led Christians in the last decade to work
to end the dehumanizing scourge of human trafficking and sexual
slavery, bring compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa, and
assist in a myriad of other human rights causes - from providing clean
water in developing nations to providing homes for tens of thousands of
children orphaned by war, disease and gender discrimination.
Like
those who have gone before us in the faith, Christians today are called
to proclaim the Gospel of costly grace, to protect the intrinsic
dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good. In being
true to its own calling, the call to discipleship, the church through
service to others can make a profound contribution to the public
good.
Declaration
We, as Orthodox,
Catholic, and Evangelical Christians, have gathered, beginning in New
York on September 28, 2009, to make the following declaration, which we
sign as individuals, not on behalf of our organizations, but speaking
to and from our communities. We act together in obedience to the one
true God, the triune God of holiness and love, who has laid total claim
on our lives and by that claim calls us with believers in all ages and
all nations to seek and defend the good of all who bear his image. We
set forth this declaration in light of the truth that is grounded in
Holy Scripture, in natural human reason (which is itself, in our view,
the gift of a beneficent God), and in the very nature of the human
person. We call upon all people of goodwill, believers and
non-believers alike, to consider carefully and reflect critically on
the issues we here address as we, with St. Paul, commend this appeal to
everyone's conscience in the sight of God.
While the whole
scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern for the
poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially troubled
that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the
elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage,
already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy
of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom
of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by
those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of
faith to compromise their deepest convictions.
Because the
sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as a union of husband
and wife, and the freedom of conscience and religion are foundational
principles of justice and the common good, we are compelled by our
Christian faith to speak and act in their defense. In this declaration
we affirm: 1) the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every human
being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, possessing
inherent rights of equal dignity and life; 2) marriage as a conjugal
union of man and woman, ordained by God from the creation, and
historically understood by believers and non-believers alike, to be the
most basic institution in society and; 3) religious liberty, which is
grounded in the character of God, the example of Christ, and the
inherent freedom and dignity of human beings created in the divine
image.
We are Christians who have joined together across
historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our right - and, more
importantly, to embrace our obligation - to speak and act in
defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow
believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will
intimidate us into silence or acquiescence. It is our duty to proclaim
the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in
season and out of season. May God help us not to fail in that duty.
Life
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10
Although
public sentiment has moved in a pro-life direction, we note with
sadness that pro-abortion ideology prevails today in our government.
The present administration is led and staffed by those who want to make
abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and who want to
provide abortions at taxpayer expense. Majorities in both houses of
Congress hold pro-abortion views. The Supreme Court, whose infamous
1973 decision in Roe v. Wade stripped the unborn of legal
protection, continues to treat elective abortion as a fundamental
constitutional right, though it has upheld as constitutionally
permissible some limited restrictions on abortion. The President says
that he wants to reduce the "need" for abortion - a commendable goal.
But he has also pledged to make abortion more easily and widely
available by eliminating laws prohibiting government funding, requiring
waiting periods for women seeking abortions, and parental notification
for abortions performed on minors. The elimination of these important
and effective pro-life laws cannot reasonably be expected to do other
than significantly increase the number of elective abortions by which
the lives of countless children are snuffed out prior to birth. Our
commitment to the sanctity of life is not a matter of partisan loyalty,
for we recognize that in the thirty-six years since Roe v. Wade,
elected officials and appointees of both major political parties have
been complicit in giving legal sanction to what Pope John Paul II
described as "the culture of death." We call on all officials in our
country, elected and appointed, to protect and serve every member of
our society, including the most marginalized, voiceless, and vulnerable
among us.
A culture of death inevitably cheapens life in all its
stages and conditions by promoting the belief that lives that are
imperfect, immature or inconvenient are discardable. As predicted by
many prescient persons, the cheapening of life that began with abortion
has now metastasized. For example, human embryo-destructive research
and its public funding are promoted in the name of science and in the
cause of developing treatments and cures for diseases and injuries.
The President and many in Congress favor the expansion of
embryo-research to include the taxpayer funding of so-called
"therapeutic cloning." This would result in the industrial mass
production of human embryos to be killed for the purpose of producing
genetically customized stem cell lines and tissues. At the other end
of life, an increasingly powerful movement to promote assisted suicide
and "voluntary" euthanasia threatens the lives of vulnerable elderly
and disabled persons. 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
"liberty," "autonomy," and "choice."
We will be united and
untiring in our efforts to roll back the license to kill that began
with the abandonment of the unborn to abortion. We will work, as we
have always worked, to bring assistance, comfort, and care to pregnant
women in need and to those who have been victimized by abortion, even
as we stand resolutely against the corrupt and degrading notion that it
can somehow be in the best interests of women to submit to the
deliberate killing of their unborn children. Our message is, and ever
shall be, that the just, humane, and truly Christian answer to problem
pregnancies is for all of us to love and care for mother and child
alike.
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 unborn, the disabled, and the dependent. 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.
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 innocent 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,
racial oppression and discrimination, 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 abortion industry and the
movements for assisted suicide, euthanasia, and human cloning for
biomedical research. And so ours is, as it must be, a truly consistent
ethic of love and life for all humans in all circumstances.
Marriage
The
man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she
shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man." For this reason
a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and
they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:23-24
This
is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the church.
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself,
and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:32-33
In
Scripture, the creation of man and woman, and their one-flesh union as
husband and wife, is the crowning achievement of God's creation. In
the transmission of life and the nurturing of children, men and women
joined as spouses are given the great honor of being partners with God
Himself. Marriage then, is the first institution of human society -
indeed it is the institution on which all other human institutions have
their foundation. In the Christian tradition we refer to marriage as
"holy matrimony" to signal the fact that it is an institution ordained
by God, and blessed by Christ in his participation at a wedding in Cana
of Galilee. In the Bible, God Himself blesses and holds marriage in
the highest esteem.
Vast human experience confirms that marriage
is the original and most important institution for sustaining the
health, education, and welfare of all persons in a society. Where
marriage is honored, and where there is a flourishing marriage culture,
everyone benefits - the spouses themselves, their children, the
communities and societies in which they live. Where the marriage
culture begins to erode, social pathologies of every sort quickly
manifest themselves. Unfortunately, we have witnessed over the course
of the past several decades a serious erosion of the marriage culture
in our own country. Perhaps the most telling - and alarming -
indicator is the out-of-wedlock birth rate. Less than fifty years ago,
it was under 5 percent. Today it is over 40 percent. Our society -
and particularly its poorest and most vulnerable sectors, where the
out-of-wedlock birth rate is much higher even than the national average
- is paying a huge price in delinquency, drug abuse, crime,
incarceration, hopelessness, and despair. Other indicators are
widespread non-marital sexual cohabitation and a devastatingly high
rate of divorce.
We confess with sadness that Christians and our
institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the
institution of marriage and to model for the world the true meaning of
marriage. Insofar as we have too easily embraced the culture of
divorce and remained silent about social practices that undermine the
dignity of marriage we repent, and call upon all Christians to do the
same.
To strengthen families, we must stop glamorizing
promiscuity and infidelity and restore among our people a sense of the
profound beauty, mystery, and holiness of faithful marital love. We
must reform ill-advised policies that contribute to the weakening of
the institution of marriage, including the discredited idea of
unilateral divorce. We must work in the legal, cultural, and religious
domains to instill in young people a sound understanding of what
marriage is, what it requires, and why it is worth the commitment and
sacrifices that faithful spouses make.
The impulse to redefine
marriage in order to recognize same-sex and multiple partner
relationships is a symptom, rather than the cause, of the erosion of
the marriage culture. It reflects a loss of understanding of the
meaning of marriage as embodied in our civil and religious law and in
the philosophical tradition that contributed to shaping the law. Yet
it is critical that the impulse be resisted, for yielding to it would
mean abandoning the possibility of restoring a sound understanding of
marriage and, with it, the hope of rebuilding a healthy marriage
culture. It would lock into place the false and destructive belief
that marriage is all about romance and other adult satisfactions, and
not, in any intrinsic way, about procreation and the unique character
and value of acts and relationships whose meaning is shaped by their
aptness for the generation, promotion and protection of life. In
spousal communion and the rearing of children (who, as gifts of God,
are the fruit of their parents' marital love), we discover the profound
reasons for and benefits of the marriage covenant.
We
acknowledge that there are those who are disposed towards homosexual
and polyamorous conduct and relationships, just as there are those who
are disposed towards other forms of immoral conduct. We have
compassion for those so disposed; we respect them as human beings
possessing profound, inherent, and equal dignity; and we pay tribute to
the men and women who strive, often with little assistance, to resist
the temptation to yield to desires that they, no less than we, regard
as wayward. We stand with them, even when they falter. We, no less
than they, are sinners who have fallen short of God's intention for our
lives. We, no less than they, are in constant need of God's patience,
love and forgiveness. We call on the entire Christian community to
resist sexual immorality, and at the same time refrain from disdainful
condemnation of those who yield to it. Our rejection of sin, though
resolute, must never become the rejection of sinners. For every
sinner, regardless of the sin, is loved by God, who seeks not our
destruction but rather the conversion of our hearts. Jesus calls all
who wander from the path of virtue to "a more excellent way." As his
disciples we will reach out in love to assist all who hear the call and
wish to answer it.
We further acknowledge that there are sincere
people who disagree with us, and with the teaching of the Bible and
Christian tradition, on questions of sexual morality and the nature of
marriage. Some who enter into same-sex and polyamorous relationships
no doubt regard their unions as truly marital. They fail to
understand, however, that marriage is made possible by the sexual
complementarity of man and woman, and that the comprehensive,
multi-level sharing of life that marriage is includes bodily unity of
the sort that unites husband and wife biologically as a reproductive
unit. This is because the body is no mere extrinsic instrument of the
human person, but truly part of the personal reality of the human
being. Human beings are not merely centers of consciousness or
emotion, or minds, or spirits, inhabiting non-personal bodies. The
human person is a dynamic unity of body, mind, and spirit. Marriage is
what one man and one woman establish when, forsaking all others and
pledging lifelong commitment, they found a sharing of life at every
level of being - the biological, the emotional, the dispositional, the
rational, the spiritual - on a commitment that is sealed, completed and
actualized by loving sexual intercourse in which the spouses become one
flesh, not in some merely metaphorical sense, but by fulfilling
together the behavioral conditions of procreation. That is why in the
Christian tradition, and historically in Western law, consummated
marriages are not dissoluble or annullable on the ground of
infertility, even though the nature of the marital relationship is
shaped and structured by its intrinsic orientation to the great good of
procreation.
We understand that many of our fellow citizens,
including some Christians, believe that the historic definition of
marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a denial of equality
or civil rights. They wonder what to say in reply to the argument that
asserts that no harm would be done to them or to anyone if the law of
the community were to confer upon two men or two women who are living
together in a sexual partnership the status of being "married." It
would not, after all, affect their own marriages, would it? On
inspection, however, the argument that laws governing one kind of
marriage will not affect another cannot stand. Were it to prove
anything, it would prove far too much: the assumption that the legal
status of one set of marriage relationships affects no other would not
only argue for same sex partnerships; it could be asserted with equal
validity for polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even
adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous
relationships. Should these, as a matter of equality or civil rights,
be recognized as lawful marriages, and would they have no effects on
other relationships? No. The truth is that marriage is not something
abstract or neutral that the law may legitimately define and re-define
to please those who are powerful and influential.
No one has a
civil right to have a non-marital relationship treated as a marriage.
Marriage is an objective reality - a covenantal union of husband and
wife - that it is the duty of the law to recognize and support for the
sake of justice and the common good. If it fails to do so, genuine
social harms follow. First, the religious liberty of those for whom
this is a matter of conscience is jeopardized. Second, the rights of
parents are abused as family life and sex education programs in schools
are used to teach children that an enlightened understanding recognizes
as "marriages" sexual partnerships that many parents believe are
intrinsically non-marital and immoral. Third, the common good of civil
society is damaged when the law itself, in its critical pedagogical
function, becomes a tool for eroding a sound understanding of marriage
on which the flourishing of the marriage culture in any society vitally
depends. Sadly, we are today far from having a thriving marriage
culture. But if we are to begin the critically important process of
reforming our laws and mores to rebuild such a culture, the last thing
we can afford to do is to re-define marriage in such a way as to embody
in our laws a false proclamation about what marriage is.
And so
it is out of love (not "animus") and prudent concern for the common
good (not "prejudice"), that we pledge to labor ceaselessly to preserve
the legal definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman
and to rebuild the marriage culture. How could we, as Christians, do
otherwise? The Bible teaches us that marriage is a central part of
God's creation covenant. Indeed, the union of husband and wife mirrors
the bond between Christ and his church. And so just as Christ was
willing, out of love, to give Himself up for the church in a complete
sacrifice, we are willing, lovingly, to make whatever sacrifices are
required of us for the sake of the inestimable treasure that is
marriage.
Religious Liberty
The
Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from
darkness for the prisoners. Isaiah 61:1
Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. Matthew 22:21
The
struggle for religious liberty across the centuries has been long and
arduous, but it is not a novel idea or recent development. The nature
of religious liberty is grounded in the character of God Himself, the
God who is most fully known in the life and work of Jesus Christ.
Determined to follow Jesus faithfully in life and death, the early
Christians appealed to the manner in which the Incarnation had taken
place: "Did God send Christ, as some suppose, as a tyrant brandishing
fear and terror? Not so, but in gentleness and meekness..., for
compulsion is no attribute of God" (Epistle to Diognetus 7.3-4). Thus
the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the example of
Christ Himself and in the very dignity of the human person created in
the image of God - a dignity, as our founders proclaimed, inherent in
every human, and knowable by all in the exercise of right reason.
Christians
confess that God alone is Lord of the conscience. Immunity from
religious coercion is the cornerstone of an unconstrained conscience.
No one should be compelled to embrace any religion against his will,
nor should persons of faith be forbidden to worship God according to
the dictates of conscience or to express freely and publicly their
deeply held religious convictions. What is true for individuals
applies to religious communities as well.
It is ironic that
those who today assert a right to kill the unborn, aged and disabled
and also a right to engage in immoral sexual practices, and even a
right to have relationships integrated around these practices be
recognized and blessed by law - such persons claiming these "rights"
are very often in the vanguard of those who would trample upon the
freedom of others to express their religious and moral commitments to
the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage as the conjugal
union of husband and wife.
We see this, for example, in the
effort to weaken or eliminate conscience clauses, and therefore to
compel pro-life institutions (including religiously affiliated
hospitals and clinics), and pro-life physicians, surgeons, nurses, and
other health care professionals, to refer for abortions and, in certain
cases, even to perform or participate in abortions. We see it in the
use of anti-discrimination statutes to force religious institutions,
businesses, and service providers of various sorts to comply with
activities they judge to be deeply immoral or go out of business.
After the judicial imposition of "same-sex marriage" in Massachusetts,
for example, Catholic Charities chose with great reluctance to end its
century-long work of helping to place orphaned children in good homes
rather than comply with a legal mandate that it place children in
same-sex households in violation of Catholic moral teaching. In New
Jersey, after the establishment of a quasi-marital "civil unions"
scheme, a Methodist institution was stripped of its tax exempt status
when it declined, as a matter of religious conscience, to permit a
facility it owned and operated to be used for ceremonies blessing
homosexual unions. In Canada and some European nations, Christian
clergy have been prosecuted for preaching Biblical norms against the
practice of homosexuality. New hate-crime laws in America raise the
specter of the same practice here.
In recent decades a growing
body of case law has paralleled the decline in respect for religious
values in the media, the academy and political leadership, resulting in
restrictions on the free exercise of religion. We view this as an
ominous development, not only because of its threat to the individual
liberty guaranteed to every person, regardless of his or her faith, but
because the trend also threatens the common welfare and the culture of
freedom on which our system of republican government is founded.
Restrictions on the freedom of conscience or the ability to hire people
of one's own faith or conscientious moral convictions for religious
institutions, for example, undermines the viability of the intermediate
structures of society, the essential buffer against the overweening
authority of the state, resulting in the soft despotism Tocqueville so
prophetically warned of.1 Disintegration of civil society is a prelude to tyranny.
As
Christians, we take seriously the Biblical admonition to respect and
obey those in authority. We believe in law and in the rule of law. We
recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them
or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to
them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral. The biblical purpose
of law is to preserve order and serve justice and the common good; yet
laws that are unjust - and especially laws that purport to compel
citizens to do what is unjust - undermine the common good, rather than
serve it.
Going back to the earliest days of the church,
Christians have refused to compromise their proclamation of the
gospel. In Acts 4, Peter and John were ordered to stop preaching.
Their answer was, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's
sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about
what we have seen and heard." Through the centuries, Christianity has
taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes
required. There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties
of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King,
Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Writing from an explicitly
Christian perspective, and citing Christian writers such as Augustine
and Aquinas, King taught that just laws elevate and ennoble human
beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose ultimate source
is God Himself. Unjust laws degrade human beings. Inasmuch as they
can claim no authority beyond sheer human will, they lack any power to
bind in conscience. King's willingness to go to jail, rather than
comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring.
Because
we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict
that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions,
embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any
other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force
us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the
equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about
morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and
ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But under no
circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God's.
1Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America
Drafting Committee
- Robert George
Professor, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University - Timothy George
Professor, Beeson Divinity School, Samford 
University - Chuck Colson
Founder, The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview (Lansdowne, Va.)
Signers (as of November 19, 2009)
- Dr. Daniel Akin
President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, N.C.) - Most Rev. Peter J. Akinola
Primate, Anglican Church of Nigeria (Abika, Nigeria) - Randy Alcorn
Founder and Director, Eternal Perspective Ministries (EPM) (Sandy, Ore.) - Rt. Rev. David Anderson
President and CEO, American Anglican Council (Atlanta) - Leith Anderson
President of National Association of Evangelicals (Washington, D.C.) - Charlotte K. Ardizzone
TV Show Host and Speaker, INSP Television (Charlotte, N.C.) - Kay Arthur
CEO and Co-founder, Precept Ministries International (Chattanooga, Tenn.) - Dr. Mark L. Bailey
President, Dallas Theological Seminary (Dallas) - Most Rev. Craig W. Bates
Archbishop, International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church (Malverne, N.Y.) - Gary Bauer
President, American Values; Chairman, Campaign for Working Families - His Grace, The Right Reverend Bishop Basil Essey
The Right Reverend Bishop of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America (Wichita, Kan.) - Joel Belz
Founder, World Magazine (Asheville, N.C.) - Rev. Michael L. Beresford
Managing Director of Church Relations, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (Charlotte, N.C.) - Ken Boa
President, Reflections Ministries (Atlanta) - Joseph Bottum
Editor of First Things (New York) - Pastor Randy & Sarah Brannon
Senior Pastor, Grace Community Church (Madera, Calif.) - Steve Brown
National Radio Broadcaster, Key Life (Maitland, Fla.) - Dr. Robert C. Cannada, Jr.
Chancellor and CEO, Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando, Fla.) - Galen Carey
Director of Government Affairs, National Association of Evangelicals (Washington, D.C.) - Dr. Bryan Chapell
President, Covenant Theological Seminary (St. Louis) - Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver - Timothy Clinton
President, American Association of Christian Counselors (Forest, Va.) - Chuck Colson
Founder, The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview (Lansdowne, Va.) - Most Rev. Salvatore Joseph Cordileone
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland, Calif. - Dr. Gary Culpepper
Associate Professor, Providence College (Providence, R.I.) - Jim Daly
President and CEO, Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs, Colo.) - Marjorie Dannenfelser
President, Susan B. Anthony List (Arlington, Va.) - Rev. Daniel Delgado
Board of Directors, National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; Pastor, Third Day Missions Church (Staten Island, N.Y.) - Dr. James Dobson
Founder, Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs, Colo.) - Dr. David Dockery
President, Union University (Jackson, Tenn.) - Most Rev. Timothy Dolan
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of New York, N.Y. - Dr. William Donohue
President, Catholic League (New York) - Dr. James T. Draper, Jr.
President Emeritus, LifeWay (Nashville, Tenn.) - Dinesh D'Souza
Writer and Speaker (Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.) - Most Rev. Robert Wm. Duncan
Archbishop and Primate, Anglican Church in North America (Ambridge, Pa. ) - Joni Eareckson Tada
Founder and CEO, Joni and Friends International Disability Center (Agoura Hills, Calif.) - Dr. Michael Easley
President Emeritus, Moody Bible Institute (Chicago) - Dr. William Edgar
Professor, Westminster Theological Seminary (Philadelphia) - Brett Elder
Executive Director, Stewardship Council (Grand Rapids, Mich. - Rev. Joel Elowsky
Drew University (Madison, N.J.) - Stuart Epperson
Co-Founder and Chariman of the Board, Salem Communications Corporation (Camarillo, Calif.) - Rev. Jonathan Falwell
Senior Pastor, Thomas Road Baptist Church (Lynchburg, Va.) - William J. Federer
President, Amerisearch, Inc. (St. Louis) - Fr. Joseph D. Fessio
Founder and Editor, Ignatius Press (Ft. Collins, Colo.) - Carmen Fowler
President and Executive Editor, Presbyterian Lay Committee (Lenoir, N.C.) - Maggie Gallagher
President, National Organization for Marriage (Manassas, Va.) - Dr. Jim Garlow
Senior Pastor, Skyline Church (La Mesa, Calif.) - Steven Garofalo
Senior Consultant, Search and Assessment Services (Charlotte, N.C.) - Dr. Robert P. George
McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.) - Dr. Timothy George
Dean and Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School at Samford University (Birmingham, Ala.) - Thomas Gilson
Director of Strategic Processes, Campus Crusade for Christ International (Norfolk, Va.) - Dr. Jack Graham
Pastor, Prestonwood Baptist Church (Plano, Texas) - Dr. Wayne Grudem
Research Professor of Theological and Biblical Studies, Phoenix Seminary (Phoenix) - Dr. Cornell "Corkie" Haan
National Facilitator of Spiritual Unity, The Mission America Coalition (Palm Desert, Calif.) - Fr. Chad Hatfield
Chancellor, CEO and Archpriest, St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (Yonkers, N.Y.) - Dr. Dennis Hollinger
President and Professor of Christian Ethics, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, Mass.) - Dr. Jeanette Hsieh
Executive Vice President and Provost, Trinity International University (Deerfield, Ill.) - Dr. John A. Huffman, Jr.
Senior
Pastor, St. Andrews Presbyterian Church (Newport Beach, Calif.);
Chairman of the Board, Christianity Today International (Carol Stream,
Ill.) - Rev. Ken Hutcherson
Pastor, Antioch Bible Church (Kirkland, Wash.) - Bishop Harry R. Jackson, Jr.
Senior Pastor, Hope Christian Church (Beltsville, Md.) - Fr. Johannes L. Jacobse
President, American Orthodox Institute; Editor, OrthodoxyToday.org (Naples, Fla.) - Jerry Jenkins
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Moody Bible Institute (Black Forest, Colo.) - Camille Kampouris
Publisher, Kairos Journal - Emmanuel A. Kampouris
Editorial Board, Kairos Journal - Rev. Tim Keller
Senior Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (New York) - Dr. Peter Kreeft
Professor of Philosophy, Boston College (Mass.) and at the Kings College (N.Y.) - Most Rev. Joseph E. Kurtz
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville, Ky. - Jim Kushiner
Editor, Touchstone (Chicago) - Dr. Richard Land
President, The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the SBC (Washington, D.C.) - Jim Law
Senior Associate Pastor, First Baptist Church (Woodstock, Ga.) - Dr. Matthew Levering
Associate Professor of Theology, Ave Maria University (Naples, Fla.) - Dr. Peter Lillback
President, The Providence Forum (West Conshohocken, Pa.) - Dr. Duane Litfin
President, Wheaton College (Wheaton, Ill.) - Rev. Herb Lusk
Pastor, Greater Exodus Baptist Church (Philadelphia) - His Eminence Adam Cardinal Maida
Archbishop Emeritus, Roman Catholic Diocese of Detroit - Most Rev. Richard J. Malone
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine - Rev. Francis Martin
Professor of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Heart Major Seminary (Detroit) - Dr. Joseph Mattera
Bishop and Senior Pastor, Resurrection Church (Brooklyn, N.Y.) - Phil Maxwell
Pastor, Gateway Church (Bridgewater, N.J.) - Josh McDowell
Founder, Josh McDowell Ministries (Plano, Texas) - Alex McFarland
President, Southern Evangelical Seminary (Charlotte, N.C.) - Most Rev. George Dallas McKinney
Bishop, Founder and Pastor, St. Stephen's Church of God in Christ (San Diego) - Rt. Rev. Martyn Minns
Missionary Bishop, Convocation of Anglicans of North America (Herndon, Va.) - Dr. C. Ben Mitchell
Graves Professor of Moral Philosophy, Union University (Jackson, Tenn.) - Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.
President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, Ky.) - Dr. Russell D. Moore
Senior
Vice President for Academic Administration and Dean of the School of
Theology, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, Ky.) - Most Rev. John J. Myers
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, N.J. - Most Rev. Joseph F. Naumann
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City, Kan. - David Neff
Editor-in-Chief, Christianity Today (Carol Stream, Ill.) - Tom Nelson
Senior Pastor, Christ Community Evangelical Free Church (Leawood, Kan.) - Niel Nielson
President, Covenant College (Lookout Mt., Ga.) - Most Rev. John Nienstedt
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis - Dr. Tom Oden
Theologian, United Methodist Minister; Professor, Drew University (Madison, N.J.) - Marvin Olasky
Editor-in-Chief, World Magazine; Provost, The Kings College (New York) - Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix - Rev. William Owens
Chairman, Coalition of African-American Pastors (Memphis, Tenn.) - Dr. J.I. Packer
Board of Governors' Professor of Theology, Regent College (Canada) - Metr. Jonah Paffhausen
Primate, Orthodox Church in America (Syosset, N.Y.) - Tony Perkins
President, Family Research Council (Washington, D.C.) - Eric M. Pillmore
CEO, Pillmore Consulting LLC (Doylestown, Pa.) - Dr. Everett Piper
President, Oklahoma Wesleyan University (Bartlesville, Okla.) - Todd Pitner
President, Rev Increase - Dr. Cornelius Plantinga
President, Calvin Theological Seminary (Grand Rapids, Mich.) - Dr. David Platt
Pastor, Church at Brook Hills (Birmingham, Ala.) - Rev. Jim Pocock
Pastor, Trinitarian Congregational Church (Wayland, Mass.) - Fred Potter
Executive Director and CEO, Christian Legal Society (Springfield, Va.) - Dennis Rainey
President, CEO, and Co-Founder, FamilyLife (Little Rock, Ark.) - Fr. Patrick Reardon
Pastor, All Saints' Antiochian Orthodox Church (Chicago) - Bob Reccord
Founder, Total Life Impact, Inc. (Suwanee, Ga.) - His Eminence Justin Cardinal Rigali
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia - Frank Schubert
President, Schubert Flint Public Affairs (Sacramento, Calif.) - David Schuringa
President, Crossroads Bible Institute (Grand Rapids, Mich.) - Tricia Scribner
Author (Harrisburg, N.C.) - Dr. Dave Seaford
Senior Pastor, Community Fellowship Church (Matthews, N.C.) - Alan Sears
President, CEO, and General Counsel, Alliance Defense Fund (Scottsdale, Ariz.) - Randy Setzer
Senior Pastor, Macedonia Baptist Church (Lincolnton, N.C.) - Most Rev. Michael J. Sheridan
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs, Colo. - Dr. Ron Sider
Director, Evangelicals for Social Action (Wynnewood, Pa.) - Fr. Robert Sirico
Founder, Acton Institute (Grand Rapids, Mich.) - Dr. Robert Sloan
President, Houston Baptist University (Houston) - Charles Stetson
Chairman of the Board, Bible Literacy Project (New York) - Dr. David Stevens
CEO, Christian Medical and Dental Association (Bristol, Tenn.) - John Stonestreet
Executive Director, Summit Ministries (Manitou Springs, Colo.) - Dr. Joseph Stowell
President, Cornerstone University (Grand Rapids, Mich.) - Dr. Sarah Sumner
Professor of Theology and Ministry, Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, Calif.) - Dr. Glenn Sunshine
Chairman of the History Department, Central Connecticut State University (New Britain, Conn.) - Luiz Tellez
President, The Witherspoon Institute (Princeton, N.J.) - Dr. Timothy C. Tennent
President, Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, Ky.) - Michael Timmis
Chairman, Prison Fellowship and Prison Fellowship International (Naples, Fla.) - Mark Tooley
President, Institute for Religion and Democracy (Washington, D.C.) - H. James Towey
President, St. Vincent College (Latrobe, Pa.) - Juan Valdes
Middle and High School Chaplain, Florida Christian School (Miami, Fla.) - Todd Wagner
Pastor, WaterMark Community Church (Dallas) - Dr. Graham Walker
President, Patrick Henry College (Purcellville, Va.) - Alexander F. C. Webster
Archpriest, Orthodox Church in America; Associate Professorial Lecturer, The George Washington University (Ft. Belvoir, Va.) - George Weigel
Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center (Washington, D.C.) - David Welch
Houston Area Pastor Council Executive Director, US Pastors Council (Houston) - Dr. James Emery White
Founding and Senior Pastor, Mecklenburg Community Church (Charlotte, N.C.) - Dr. Hayes Wicker
Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church (Naples, Fla.) - Mark Williamson
Founder and President, Foundation Restoration Ministries/Federal Intercessors (Katy, Texas) - Parker T. Williamson
Editor Emeritus and Senior Correspondent, Presbyterian Lay Committee
- Dr. Craig Williford
President, Trinity International University (Deerfield, Ill.) - Dr. John Woodbridge
Research Professor of Church History and the History of Christian Thought, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, Ill.) - Don M. Woodside
Performance Matters Associates (Matthews, N.C.) - Dr. Frank Wright
President, National Religious Broadcasters (Manassas, Va.) - Most Rev. Donald W. Wuerl
Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. - Paul Young
COO and Executive Vice President, Christian Research Institute (Charlotte, N.C.) - Dr. Michael Youssef
President, Leading the Way (Atlanta) - Ravi Zacharias
Founder and Chairman of the Board, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (Norcross, Ga.) - Most Rev. David A. Zubik
Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh - James R. Thobaben, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Professor, Bioethics and Social Ethics, Asbury Theological Seminary (Wilmore, Ky.)
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More
than 150 Christian leaders are issuing a "call of conscience" to
America--urging them reaffirm their opposition to abortion, stem cell
research and same-sex marriage. ]]>