In an email praising The Manhattan Declaration (an issue that currently has Christians on both sides, but NONE that I know would agree with this), Jim Daly, President and CEO of Focus on the Family wrote:

It is important, first off, to note that the Manhattan Declaration is not a partisan or political statement…Instead, it addresses and elevates four specific areas of universal consensus. Some have referred to these as “threshold issues,” meaning they represent the foundation of our faith and the pivot point from which everything else flows. This is the bedrock. If we can’t agree on these areas of doctrine, everything else will be of reduced value.  (emphasis added)

These four areas are:

1. The sanctity of human life.
2. The sanctity of marriage.
3. The protection of religious liberty.
4. The rejection of unjust laws.

Daly refers to these as “baseline principles” of the Christian faith. Now, there are intramural debates over which is the foundation of our faith, Christ or Scripture, God or His Word, etc., but Daly opts for neither and instead claims 1-4 above. I’ve offered my blog, biblicalthought.com, as a place to discuss the Manhattan Declaration. There you will also find more discussion of Daly’s email in the thread: Discussing the Manhattan Declaration

I truly hope one of the evangelical Manhattan Declaration signatories step up and correct (or rebuke) Mr. Daly, warning him of the radical implications of his claims as head of one of the largest, most influential, worldwide evangelical organizations. I don’t think even the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox signatories would agree with such a wild claim.

P.S. My (Stephen Macasil) view is that Scripture is the foundation of our faith, and we can discuss that too. Happy Thanksgiving!