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TechnoratiJust so, the abolitionists used the political process to end slavery. If the mid-19th-century Democratic Party tried to be pro-choice on slavery while the abolitionists, President Lincoln, and the Republicans were adamantly anti-slavery, did the slavery issue become a partisan issue? If so, whose fault was that, the pro-slavery and pro-choice party or the anti-slavery party?
If these men and groups had stayed above the fray, beyond the reach of the rough and tumble political process, their goals would have been reached, if ever reached completely, over a much longer time frame and after much additional suffering by those being victimized by societal evil.
Also, given the central thrust of the Manifesto, I was quite startled to read that “In our scales, spiritual, moral, and social power are as important as political power….” I must disagree, and wholeheartedly so. I can’t believe that this is what the Manifesto’s authors intended to say, but it is what they said. Spiritual power is, and always will be, more important than political power, however noble its motives and causes.
There is an additional statement in this section of the Manifesto that cries out for clarification. In the midst of an eloquent plea for freedom of conscience and religious liberty, the Manifesto declares that “we have no desire to coerce anyone or to impose on anyone beliefs and behavior that we have not persuaded them to adopt freely….”
In documents of this kind, proponents have a particular responsibility not to be misunderstood. At best, this statement betrays a startling lack of clarity and specificity. Once again, is this just verbal imprecision?
As an evangelical Christian I am also a citizen who has an obligation to be salt and light in society and a right to expect the divinely ordained civil magistrate (the government) to punish those who do evil (Romans 13:1-7). Consequently, it is my duty as a Christian to work to persuade my fellow citizens to enact laws which will coerce the behavior of those who are victimizing and brutalizing others against their will. I do want to support the government coercing the behavior of slaveholders, of pedophiles, of rapists and of murderers. I am not content to allow pedophiles and rapists to continue their bestial behavior until I have “persuaded them” to stop.
I don’t think the Manifesto intends to say this, but I can assure you that secularist adversaries in our society will pounce on this statement’s lack of clarity to assert that some evangelicals have renounced any legislation of morality.
The Manifesto also calls upon evangelicals to champion a civil public square rather than a naked (secularist) or a sacred (government acknowledgment of the majority faith) public square. This is very similar to my call for principled pluralism in The Divided States of America? In that book I argued for a public square that maximally accommodates and welcomes all religious persuasions, as well as no religious persuasion, to say whatever they choose to say. I argue in that book that the government should be an umpire in the public square, making certain that everyone has the right to speak, without the majority intimidating and silencing minority views. Continue »
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Agree: 
Disagree: 
