New Stanek WND column, “Obamacare’s biggest hurdle: The Manhattan Declaration”
On Nov. 20, the historic Manhattan Declaration was unveiled, just what my distraught spirit had been yearning. I became its 218,525th signer.
The Manhattan Declaration is a momentous 4,700-word manifesto authored by Chuck Colson, Dr. Robert George, and Dr. Timothy George, with input from many Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical leaders. Colson calls it “one of the most important [documents] in my lifetime.”
The Manhattan Declaration draws a line in the sand on the 3 paramount issues of our time: the sanctity of human life, the sanctity of marriage as the holy and conjugal union of husband and wife, and the rights of religious liberty and conscience….
Manhattan Declaration drafters are inviting all like-minded believers to sign on, but the potential ramifications for doing so are sobering.
As Dr. James Dobson explained on his Nov. 23 Focus on the Family radio program, insofar as his signing of the Manhattan Declaration pertained to passage of socialized health care with publicly funded abortion:
I don’t say this glibly at all. … Shirley and I will not be able to comply. That is absolutely untenable to us, because it would make us participants in the killing of babies, and we can’t and we won’t do that. Now I don’t know where all of this is leading or what the implications of it are, but if we have to pay ruinous fines, or have to go to prison, or even if we have to leave this beloved country and spend the rest of our lives in exile, that’s what we are prepared to do.
This must be the mettle of Manhattan Declaration signers….
Continue reading my column this week, “Obamacare’s biggest hurdle: The Manhattan Declaration,” at WorldNetDaily.com.
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
I knew you were a signer because I saw you were a fan on facebook but I am so happy and proud that you wrote a column about it. This is excellent. We must stand. One of your best for sure.
The Manhattan Declaration is a beautiful sentiment.
It is written in the ‘book’ that every word of God is tested and in another place the word of God tests us.
The same can be said ‘oaths’.
The truth of it all will be when the counting of the cost has become the paying of the price.
How many of the signers of the document have the mettle in their bones to lose their property, their lives and their sacred honor rather than break their oath.
Both God and the bent one will test them on those points.
From my experience in the rescue movement I have to report that there were few who were willing or able to pay the price.
In the ensuing decades I have seen no evidence that we, members of the body of Christ, have been matured to the point where we will count all the loss as gain and experience the betrayals, suffer the shame and endure the cross for the joy of the fellowship of HIS suffering which is set before us.
We have not yet come to the place, where as it was written of Joseph when he was falsely accused and wrongfully imprisoned, that the ‘iron of his shackles settled into his bones’.
Matt 16:15-17
15 He said to them, But who do you [yourselves] say that I am?
16 Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 Then Jesus answered him, Blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied) are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. For flesh and blood [men] have not revealed this to you, but My Father Who is in heaven. AMP
Matt 16:22-23
22 Then Peter took Him aside to speak to Him privately and began to reprove and charge Him sharply, saying, God forbid, Lord! This must never happen to You!
23 But Jesus turned away from Peter and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan! You are in My way [an offense and a hindrance and a snare to Me]; for you are minding what partakes not of the nature and quality of God, but of men. AMP
Matt 26:34-35
34 Jesus said to him, Solemnly I declare to you, this very night, before a single rooster crows, you will deny and disown Me three times.
35 Peter said to Him, Even if I must die with You, I will not deny or disown You! And all the disciples said the same thing. AMP
nuff said, just getter done.
yor bro ken
I will confess that I have failed the ‘test’, multiple times.
But I have met some who have not compromised.
God knows who they are. I pray that I may become one of them.
God is not looking for martyrs, just faithful folks.
yor bro ken
“We have met the enemy and it is us”. I have no idea who said it or whether I have written it as originally stated, but the meaning is more true now than it ever has been. Many of our so-called leaders in the Congress and the White house are full of evil – not grace, and are determined to undermine the basic freedoms outlined in the original Declaration and the Bill of Rights. The signers of the original Declaration were the conservatives of their day inasmuch as they were trying to preserve the freedoms originally recognized in the Magna Charta. They had no idea that the threat to freedoms would come to an attempt to legitimize the killing of the most innocent among us.
Sign the Declaration if you have not already done so. Be prepared to follow through with the actions outlined in it.
Only 18 bishops have signed it? Only 18?
Where are the other hundred or so??
I REFUSE to pay for someone else’s abortion!! After what an abortion did to my daughter(killed her of course)and to my life I will stand up and do whatever it takes to defend my freedom TO NOT PAY FOR ABORTION!
Abortion is not healthcare!!
Christians don’t have the option of not paying taxes. Rome was an evil empire, yet Jesus and Paul both acknowledged its authority to collect taxes. Moreover, federal funding of abortion would certainly not be the first time the US government has directly shed innocent blood.
Did Jesus Christ pay taxes for things that He knew were morally abhorrent? Did Paul?
I am serious.
I will use my God given voice to say NO, NO, NO, NO to taxpayer funded abortion!
Residents of the province of Ontario in Canada are required to pay for OHIP, the Ontario health insurance plan. OHIP will pay for any abortion performed in Ontario. My family and other Christian families I know have always paid OHIP. Of course, we protest abortion, and I hope that many Christians are recording their opposition with a comment on every income tax return.
While I think I agree with Huck Finn, I do admire those who have committed to going into prison or exile rather than indirectly support the killing of children. No American has yet been put to the test, of course. I wouldn’t think that the opposition would work unless it was broadly-based, and of course the Manhattan Declaration attempts just that. Plan and pray. Trust and obey. (Obey God rather than man. However, obedience to God is the only reason to disobey God’s ministers, the civil government.)
I am wholeheartedly in favour of defending the unborn, and the sanctity of marriage – but we have to be careful that nothing trumps the sanctity of the gospel.
As a person of note, and a public signer of the declaration, I am very interested to hear Jill’s response to the 19 Questions posed by the Pyromaniac’s blog:
http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2009/11/nineteen-questions-for-signers-of.html
Did Jesus Christ pay taxes for things that He knew were morally abhorrent? Did Paul?
I am serious.
I will use my God given voice to say NO, NO, NO, NO to taxpayer funded abortion!
Posted by: carla at December 2, 2009 12:34 PM
AMEN!
Well-written as usual Jill!
An addendum to my post at December 2, 2009 7:26 AM
Matt 26:73-75 73 But after a while the men who had been standing there came over to him and said, “We know you are one of his disciples, for we can tell by your Galilean accent.”
74 Peter began to curse and swear. “I don’t even know the man,” he said. And immediately the cock crowed. TLB
74 Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying—I don’t know the man!” And immediately the rooster crowed. NLT
74 Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!” NKJV
74 Then he began to curse and swear, “I do not know the man!” And immediately a cock crowed. NASB
74 Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. KJV
74 Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, “I do not know the man.” And immediately the cock crowed. RSV
74 Then he began to curse and to swear, I know not the man. And immediately [the] cock crew. Darby
74 Then Peter began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, I do not even know the Man! And at that moment a rooster crowed. AMP
74 Then he began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”
Immediately a rooster crowed. NIV
74 Then began he to anathematise, and to swear —’I have not known the man;’ and immediately did a cock crow, YLT
75 Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said, “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went away, crying bitterly.
TLB
None of know what is really in our heart until circumstances conspire against us and we are forced to make a decision to confess Jesus or deny him.
Are you closer to the LORD than Peter was?
Have you witnessed and participated in the kind of miracles that Peter did?
Have you seen a vision of the glorified Son of God?
Have you walked on the water with Jesus while HE held your hand?
Have you come to point of attempting to kill a man to protect your LORD? [What an absurd notion, that GOD would need us to save him!]
Peter was a man no different from you or I.
I do not want to dampen any ones enthusiasm to be in solidarity with God, but I do want to encourage some sobre consideration before your emotions overcome your wisdom and you write a check you might not yet have the funds to cover.
When the time comes for God to test your faith, HE will provide the grace that will empower you to pass through the fire that will burn away the hay and stubble and what will be left is only that which HE has made unshakeable in you.
yor bro ken
Let’s not be myopic, folks! Christian conservatives–including Tony Perkins himself–have been weak on supporting the anti-Invasion movement. The Obamacare menace has a loophole that will give illegal aliens coverage paid my you and me. This and other CC sites should be all over Obamacare, not just on the abortion issue.
Gee the religious far right extremists intend to leave the country and live in exile abroad? What great news. Don’t let the door hit you in the behind on the way out. LOL
Bystander,
This country need the religious far right extremists (don’t forget zealots) to balance out the secular far left extremists. Lord knows what would happen without us and it wouldn’t be pretty.
No, Janet, go ahead and leave the country. I think we can get by fine without the right wing extremists. If we find we need you, we’ll let you know. Don’t call us, we’ll call you.
OK, Bystander. But you aren’t getting my phone number. It’ll be sink or swim for you. :)
If the Christians leave, so do many charities like food banks and homeless shelters, even some counseling services. Forget the maternity homes for women who need a place to stay during their pregnancy that they CHOOSE TO GO TO TERM with…they’ll be gone too, if you kick the Christians out. Sure there may be a few secular services that can take over these, but many more are run by Christians.
p.s. I signed the declaration earlier today.
Robert, don’t even worry about it. It’s very easy to sign a piece of paper. When it comes time to do anything, I don’t imagine this project will have much success. Let them feel good about their chest beating for a few days, and then be forgotten.
The declarations doesn’t say anything about the taking of life and killing people in war. Why is that? It’s not Christian to kill under any circumstances.
There is such thing as a Just war, Mona. Do you think Christians were against the American Revolution? How about the Civil War?
We can’t always be pacifists.
socialized health care would not involve private corporations… maybe some republicans should actually look up the definition of socialism? ooh, but i guess fact-checking is reserved for the liberal media and their gotcha journalism
Liz: Did Christ say there was such a thing as a just war? I don’t think so. I believe he preached a message of pacifism. Remember the Beatitudes? “Blessed be the peacemakers….
Hi Mona,
“Liz: Did Christ say there was such a thing as a just war?”
Where did Christ say that we are only to believe the things he says which are recorded in the bible and nothing else?
Where did Christ say that we are only to believe the things he says which are recorded in the bible and nothing else?
Posted by: Bobby Bambino Author Profile Page at December 3, 2009 5:48 PM
Bobby, it inspired and infallible word of God would probably cover the main points, like, I don’t know, issues of war and peace perhaps.
Jesus came “to guide our feet into the way of Peace.” (Luke 1:79)
“I say unto you love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which desoitefully use and persecute you, that you may be children of your father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:44-45)
“Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword, shall perish with the sword.” (Matthew 26:52)
Luke 12:49-53
“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”