c. 2006 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) A network of evangelical and Catholic leaders, reaffirming its call to build up a “culture of life,” has issued a new statement that links the biblical principle of loving one’s neighbor to care for the unborn, the frail and the dying.
“The direct and intentional taking of innocent human life in abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, and embryonic research is rightly understood as murder,” declares the new statement, “That They May Have Life” from Evangelicals and Catholics Together.
Despite the strong language, the group rejected charges that they want to establish a “theocracy” or “impose” their convictions on other Americans.
The statement was published in the October issue of the Catholic magazine First Things and announced in this month’s issue of the evangelical magazine Christianity Today.
The Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, editor-in-chief of First Things, said there was “intense” debate over whether to describe abortion as “murder.”
“But we tried to be very precise, namely that any direct and deliberate taking of innocent human life is in ordinary language _ and certainly in the language of the Western moral tradition _ properly called murder,” he said.
In linking defense of human life to allegiance to Jesus, the statement urges “all people of good will” to support a humane society and calls on those involved in the practice of medicine to “recover the moral integrity of their profession.”
The statement marks the sixth time that evangelical and Catholic leaders in the network have issued a joint document. It comes at a time when conservative Protestants and Catholics have overcome theological differences in an effort to work together on causes of mutual concern, such as opposition to gay marriage and assisted suicide.
“We are determined to employ every legal means available to protect, in law and in life, the innocent and vulnerable members of the human community,” the document states.
Previous statements have addressed abortion, pornography and the need for “marginal Christians” to be more active in church. The newest document seeks to find room for civil discussion in the midst of what many call an ongoing “culture war.”
“It is not the case that we wish to `impose’ our moral convictions on our fellow-citizens or, as some recklessly charge, to establish a `theocracy,”’ it reads. “Our intention is not to impose but to propose, educate and persuade.”
Christianity Today Editor David Neff, who wrote an essay on the statement in the October issue of his magazine, said in an interview that he welcomes the latest document from the network.
“I like the emphasis on the tone, on the way in which to address polarization in our society on this while holding firm to a strong, certain commitment to what we see as an essential of Christian ethics,” Neff said.
Evangelical signatories include Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship; Timothy George, dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala.; and Thomas Oden, professor emeritus of Drew University in New Jersey. Catholic signatories include the Cardinal Avery Dulles, a theologian at Fordham University; and George Weigel, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center; and James Buckley, dean of arts and sciences at Loyola College in Maryland.
Additional evangelical endorsers included National Association of Evangelicals President Ted Haggard, author and megachurch pastor Rick Warren and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.
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