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Sunday, November 22, 2009

BIBLICAL MORALISTS DEFY GOVERNMENT

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Biblical ethicists defy left-of-left government intrusion if the latter prods believers to deny their values.


These stalwarts are in the line of Jesus overturning temple tables, sending merchants fleeing. Jesus defied the power structure in favor of hallowing His Father’s House of Prayer.


Christians through centuries have defied evildoers. They have stood for the God of the Bible while secularists threatened them with harm.


So it is today those adhering to scriptural morals inform a secularist-prone government to move over. These godly disciples will not bend to unbelievers’ demands. They will serve God as God.


“Because we honor justice and the common good,” it states, “we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide or 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.”


The document referred to is the Manhattan Declaration per Washington Times’ Julia Duin.


It is bolstered by evangelicals, Roman Catholics and Orthodox leaders in particular. Moralists of all stripes agree with its mission.


Prison Fellowship founder Charles Colson and Princeton University professor Roman Catholic Robert P. George spearheaded this Christian witness. Scores of others join them.


As Barack Hussein Obama, Marxist Muslim, continues to gather about him anti-Christian cohorts, particularly as czars in his shadow government, Christians do what Jesus told them to do.


Jesus instructed His grace children not to hide their lights under bushels. Jesus told His own they were the salt of the earth. Jesus Himself defended heaven’s moral base against the odds, finally being murdered for doing so.


Jesus instructed that in every age His saved ones are to be in the world but not of the world, hence Christians take their testimony into the marketplaces. For that some have been persecuted, others martyred. Nevertheless, Jesus followers boldly hold to His example worldwide.


“There are at least 224 million Christians in the United States, according to the Web site Adherents.com.


“The document, which was drafted over the summer, is being released at a time of high stress for many of the groups that signed it. The Archdiocese of Washington is under fire for saying it will not comply with a pending D.C. law that would force the Catholic Church to give health benefits or adoption services to same-sex couples.”


For biblical ethicists there is no thought of compromise, no matter how threatened. Allegiance is having none other than the God of the Word. His law comes first; defending it is paramount.


Read “Religious leaders vow civil disobedience on anti-life issues” at http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/21/religious-leaders-vow-civil-disobedience/