the Manhattan Declaration - Time for Civil Disobedience?

A couple of blogs ago, I wrote that it was time for the sleeping Christians to wake up and stop our country from an ever plunging downward spiral to total immorality and depravity.

Apparently, other Christians and Catholics have come to the same conclusion and have drafted a document called "the Manhattan Declaration". In the Manhattan Declaration, it is stated that Christians will NOT tolerate nor participate in three urgent issues:

• Life Issues like abortion, euthanesia and embryo destructive stem cell research



• Sanctioning same se/x marriage



• Persecution of individuals for practicing their faith (calling teaching against illicit se/x etc a "hate crime")

Sadly, the dealbreaker which seems to have awakened the sleeping giant was the third point. I say, "sadly" because it seems that 35 years of our slaughtering the unborn to the tune of 1.4 million unborn babies a year (99 percent which are NOT the so called "hard cases" i.e. rape and incest) wasn't enough to get folks upset enough. It took threatening their very persons to get them to wake up.

Religious persecution has been happening all along, worldwide. One estimate put the number of priests and other Christians who suffered martyrdom in the last 30 years to be at an all time high but suddenly with the election of a president who likely is Christian in name only (if that- they have film clips of him ridiculing the Bible) and a "hate crimes" law in Canada, things are getting closer to home and it's getting a bit "hot in the kitchen" so to speak.

For example, in Canada, a Bishop was arrested and tried for a "hate crime" - his offense? Writing a letter to the Catholics in HIS diocese stating the Catholic teachings on same se/x marriage which is considered an "intrinsic evil".

The Bishop was released but not before he spent thousands of dollars in his defense.

In Washington, two Senators are going after the Catholic Bishops committee because they told Congress they would not support a Health Care Bill which used tax moneys to pay for abortions.

In New Jersey, a Methodist church is being sued because they refused to rent out their hall to a same se/x couple who wanted to use it for a "wedding" reception.

And in Massachusetts, the only state in the union where same s/ex marriage is legal, Catholic Charities, the largest adoption agency in the USA which has placed thousands of children, had to close its doors or be forced to place children in homes considered not healthy according to their beliefs. Also, children in that state in public schools are taught that s/s marriage is a valid lifestyle regardless of what the parents would like their children taught. Parents are told they don't have a say in what their kids are taught.

All over the country, though, persecution against religion especially Christianity, is increasing. Parents tell stories like their children are not allowed to wear teashirts to school with a religious theme because that's a "hate crime". One child was told that she couldn't tell her friends at recess about her First Communion. Stories like that are too prevalent to ignore the trend.

Also in public schools, it's ok to teach Islam and witchcraft, but NOT ok to EVEN MENTION Christianity or Judaism.

With the "hate crimes" bill in effect and the possible sanctioning of unrestricted abortion in health care, we face a new peril i.e. health care workers being forced to act against their moral code, Catholic hospitals possibly closing their doors because of being forced to do abortions and more.

And so the sleeping majority is beginning to wake up.

Will the Manhattan Declaration lead to "Civil disobedience"? One of the clergypersons told Fox News he hoped not but if people are forced to do immoral acts like abortion, it may lead to that, like, he pointed out, Martin Luther King led civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws. (How ironic that a president who has Martin Luther King and the civil rights activists to thank for his being ABLE To be elected is oppressing believers - he should know better).

The real irony of this is that many Christians swallowed their distaste for the millions of abortions and other problems and voted for this president because of his promises to fix the economy and end the war. Barack Obama has ESCALATED the war with no end in sight and has spent almost up to the limit for the national debt some 11 trillion dollars, very little of which the American people have seen. It's true you can buy a car now for a couple of thousand bucks cheaper than you could a few years ago but who's buying with unpaid furloughs and lay-offs and pay cuts. Medicare premiums will go double in the next few years, we are told.

And the unemployment percentage is at 17 percent which is higher than it was in the Great Depression of the 1930's - it was 15 percent then. But as Mr Obama laughingly told one of the late night talk show hosts, "So much for campaign promises".

In the meantime, Christians may be called upon to act the part, perhaps for the first time in a couple of hundred years.

Opposition from the world is the price we pay for following Christ. No pain, no gain. Why should that surprise us? If living the Gospel were easy, all the world would be saints. But the Gospel is demanding. It rubs against our fallen human nature. It demands of us — and even makes us unpopular. Why? Because people who do good are a thorny reminder to those who don´t. It shouldn´t surprise us that the neighbors look down on us for having so many kids. Or that the guys in the dorm snicker at us for living chastely. Or that the boss overlooks us for a promotion because we wouldn´t donate to that pro-abortion group last Christmas during the company fund drive. Do I realize that to be a Christian is to be persecuted?

-- Father Edward McIlmail, LC