The Manhattan Declaration

Today marks the public release of the Manhattan Declaration, which Chuck Colson invited me to sign several weeks ago. After reading it, I gladly agreed to do so.

I am posting only the Preamble below, as well as a part of the Declaration about life, in the hopes that it will interest you in reading the full statement, posted at www.manhattandeclaration.org. If you read and agree with it, you may sign on with us if you so choose.

I do not participate in many things like this, but both the content and the tone of this statement is something I wish to affirm. It expresses truth, but I believe it does so with grace. May God use this statement to help galvanize the Church to walk in a spirit of bold humility, full of grace and truth, as we face the critical issues of our culture.

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 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 recent decades to work to end the dehumanizing 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.

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. Many in the present administration want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and 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.

You can read the rest of the statement at www.manhattandeclaration.org


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A Simple Gesture

When someone passed on to me this supposedly true story (I make no guarantees it really happened, but similar things certainly do happen) it reminded me of two things. One, the impact we have on people by doing good works. And two, the sense of satisfaction when we finally hear the story.

Mark was walking home from school one day when he noticed the boy ahead of him had tripped and dropped all of the books he was carrying, along with two sweaters, a baseball bat, a glove and a small tape recorder. Mark knelt down and helped the boy pick up the scattered articles. Since they were going the same way, he helped to carry part of the burden. As they walked Mark discovered the boy's name was Bill, that he loved video games, baseball and history, and that he was having lots of trouble with his other subjects and that he had just broken up with his girlfriend.

They arrived at Bill's home first and Mark was invited in for a Coke and to watch some television. The afternoon passed pleasantly with a few laughs and some shared small talk, then Mark went home. They continued to see each other around school, had lunch together once or twice, then both graduated from junior high school. They ended up in the same high school where they had brief contacts over the years. Finally the long awaited senior year came and three weeks before graduation, Bill asked Mark if they could talk.

Bill reminded him of the day years ago when they had first met. "Did you ever wonder why I was carrying so many things home that day?" asked Bill. "You see, I cleaned out my locker because I didn't want to leave a mess for anyone else. I had stored away some of my mother's sleeping pills and I was going home to commit suicide. But after we spent some time together talking and laughing, I realized that if I had killed myself, I would have missed that time and so many others that might follow. So you see, Mark, when you picked up those books that day, you did a lot more, you saved my life."

Can you imagine how Mark felt when he heard that? I've felt that way when people have sent me a baby photo or handed me a baby and said "Thought you'd want to know that this child is alive because of what you told us about abortion; we'd scheduled an abortion but cancelled it."

But the other thing that strikes me is Mark didn't know and if Bill hadn't told him he still wouldn't know. There are so many things like this that we won't know until eternity. We will hear the stories. Stories of entertaining angels unaware.

I feel this every time I write a book. I get to the late stages of the book, where it's all-consuming and I'm so tired, and keep asking myself, "Is it worth it?" After the book comes out I start getting the letters from people saying how their lives have been changed, how they've come to faith in Christ or have drawn closer to God. One man met me in another city and told me, "My wife was so depressed she'd decided to take her life; she read one of your books and God spoke to her; she's still here and she's doing so much better."

The story of Mark and Bill also reminds me how important it is that we tell the other person when God has used him or her in our lives. That itself is a short-term reward, but it also encourages us to keep on and anticipate the long-term rewards as well. I'm grateful for every kind letter I've received. Like most people, I keep many of them on file. I hope it's not that I love the praise of men more than the praise of God. I hope it's because in hearing the expressions of men I can sense God's affirmation and encouragement to keep working, keep investing the time and effort, because it matters, it's making a difference for eternity.

Has anyone ever changed your life through something they've done for you? Have you told them how much it meant to you?


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Visiting America's Wounded Warriors

Todd DuBord, my friend and Chuck Norris’s chaplain, linked me to Chuck’s column to let me know he’d referred to If God is Good. I want to convey part of Chuck’s touching story below, then if you wish you can read the whole column here.

… a couple days later we went out to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston to visit with America's wounded warriors. How can one put into words the pride one feels around these brave men and women? Despite the loss of limbs or suffering from some other sacrifice in battle, their resolve and class was off the charts. While they were enthusiastic and grateful about our visit, it was my wife and I who were truly blessed and inspired by them.

Then came a moment that would have been completely surreal if it were not a staggering reality. As we were visiting the burn unit, we discovered that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the shooter at Fort Hood who murdered 13 and wounded another 40, was being treated in the same facility. To be honest, it made me sick to my stomach and sent shivers of disgust down my spine.

If ever I have experienced a polar opposite, it was in that moment as I was thinking about how Hasan was the sheer antithesis to the character, commitment and service of all the other men and women we met at West Point and Fort Sam Houston. I was equally moved by the civil servants and military medical staff, many of whom knew victims of this assassin, yet turned immediately around and became his caregivers. They are exemplary models of the patriot and Founding Father Thomas Paine, who said, "He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will [eventually] reach himself."

Two years earlier, we visited Brooke Army Medical Center and recalled meeting a young soldier by the name of David who had been just flown in from Iraq and was in ICU suffering from burns that covered more than 90 percent of his body. Now, two years later, David came walking down the hospital corridor to greet us. We were overjoyed to see him again, and we could tell that he felt the same of us, though his gravely burned head and face was not able to muster even a smile. We again shared some choice, heartfelt moments with David. I couldn't help but say to him, "David, you are absolutely one of the toughest soldiers I have ever met." Even then, he tried to smile as he quipped, "Tougher than Chuck Norris?" "Yes," I replied. "You're much, much tougher than me!"

It's in times like these that I'm also grateful for military chaplains and the work of men like retired Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell, who was burned over 60 percent of his body when hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 collided into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. After more than 30 surgeries, Lt. Col. Birdwell now uses his life to bring hope to others. His story is also told on pages 42 through 43 in my friend Randy Alcorn's latest best-seller and help for those struggling through pain and difficulty, If God is Good, a copy of which I will be sending to David along with Lt. Col. Birdwell's book Refined by the Fire.


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Thanksgiving in the Midst of Tragedy

Since November 11 is Veteran’s Day, I want to start this blog by acknowledging the men and women who have served to protect and defend our country. My heart especially goes out to those who lost loved ones in the Fort Hood shooting on November 5.

In a TV interview last week about the tragedy, one chaplain asked, “Where is God in all of this?” While it’s not always easy to trust God in suffering, it’s always possible.

On September 11, 2001, Lisa Beamer’s husband, Todd, died on United Airlines Flight 93. Lisa says, “I can’t see all the reasons [God] might have allowed this when I know he could have stopped it.... I don’t like how his plan looks from my perspective right now, but knowing that he loves me and can see the world from start to finish helps me say, ‘ It’s OK.’”

John Greenleaf Whittier, in his poem “The Eternal Goodness,” wrote of life’s great sufferings. He said,

Yet, in the maddening maze of things,
And tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!

During the Civil War, in a time of great national suffering, Abraham Lincoln called upon the nation to come to God in thanksgiving. He wrote,

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity... peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict.

Lincoln pointed out that farming, textiles, shipping, lumber, and other aspects of the economy were flourishing, and iron, coal, and precious metals “have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.” He encouraged people to thank God that, despite the casualties, the population increased due to childbirth. He said to rejoice in the nation’s strength and the promise of increased freedom. “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”

Hence, Lincoln continued, “It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people.” So he called upon the nation “to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

How remarkable that the annual celebration of Thanksgiving began in the middle of what was arguably the most terrible period in all of the nation’s history! Even in those darkest days, Lincoln could point to many reasons to thank God for his goodness and grace.


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