The following statement is
the product of consultation, beginning in September
1992, between Evangelical Protestant and Roman Catholic
Christians. Appended to the text is a List of participants
in the consul-tation and of others who have given
their support to this declaration.
Introduction
We are Evangelical Protestants and
Roman Catholics who have been led through prayer,
study, and discussion to common convictions about
Christian faith and mission. This statement cannot
speak officially for our communities.. It does intend
to speak responsibly from our communities and to our
communities. In this statement we address what we
have discovered both about our unity and about our
differences. We are aware that our experience reflects
the distinctive circumstances and opportunities of
Evangelicals and Catholics living together in North
America. At the same time, we believe that what we
have discovered and resolved is pertinent to The relationship
between Evangelicals and Catholics in other parts
of the world. W'e therefore commend this statement
to their prayerful consideration.
As the Second Millennium draws to
a close, the Christian mission in world history faces
a moment of daunting opportunity and responsibility.
If in the merciful and mysterious ways of God the
Second Coming is delayed, we enter upon a Third Millennium
that could be, in the words of John Paul II, "a
springtime of world missions." (Redemptoris Missio)
As Christ is one, so the Christian
mission is one. That one mission can be and should
be advanced in diverse ways. Legitimate diversity,
however, should not be confused with existing divisions
between Christians that obscure the one Christ and
hinder the one mission. There is a necessary connection
be-tween the visible unity of Christians and the mission
of the one Christ. We together pray for the fulfillment
of the prayer of Our Lord: ' May they all be one;
as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, so also may
they be in us, that the world may believe that you
sent me. I (John 17) We together, Evangelicals and
Catholics, confess our sins against the unity that
Christ intends for all his disciples.
The one Christ and one mission includes
many other Christians, notably the Eastern Orthodox
and those Protestants not commonly identified as Evan-gelical.
All Christians are encompassed in the prayer, "May
they all be one." Our present statement attends
to the specific problems and opportunities in the
relationship between Roman Catholics and Evangelical
Protestants.
As we near the Third Millennium,
there are ap-proximately 1.7 billion Christians in
the world. About a billion of these are Catholics
and more than 300 million are Evangelical Protestants.
The century now drawing to a close has been the greatest
century of missionary expansion in Christian history.
We pray and we believe that this expansion has prepared
the way for yet greater missionary endeavor in the
first century of the Third Millennium.
The two communities in world Christianity
that are most evangelistically assertive and most
rapidly growing are Evangelicals and Catholics. In
many parts of the world, the relationship between
these communities is marked more by conflict than
by cooperation, more by animosity than by love, more
by suspicion than by trust, more by propaganda and
ignorance than by respect for the truth. This is alarmingly
the case in Latin America, increasingly the case in
Eastern Europe, and too often the case in our own
country.
Without ignoring conflicts between
and within other Christian communities, we address
ourselves to the relationship between Evangelicals
and Catholics, who constitute the growing edge of
missionary expansion at present and, most likely,
in the century ahead. In doing so. we hope that what
we have discovered and resolved may be of help in
other situations of conflict, such as that among Orthodox,
Evangelicals, and Catholics in Eastern Europe. While
we are gratefully aware of ongoing efforts to address
tensions among these communities, the shameful reality
is that, in many places around the world, the scandal
of conflict between Christians obscures the scandal
of the cross, thus crippling the one mission of the
one Christ.
As in times past, so also today and
in the future, the Christian mission, which is directed
to the entire human community, must be advanced against
formidable opposition. In some cultures, that mission
encounters resurgent spiritualities and religions
that are explicitly hostile to the claims of the Christ.
Islam, which in many instances denies the freedom
to witness to the Gospel, must be of increasing concern
to those who care about religious freedom and the
Christian mission. Mutually respectful conversation
between Muslims and Christians should be encouraged
in the hope that more of the world will, in the oft-repeated
words of John Paul II, "open the door to Christ."
At the same time, in our so-called developed societies,
a widespread secularization increasingly descends
into a moral, intellectual, and spiritual nihilism
that denies not only the One who is the Truth but
the very idea of truth itself.
We enter the twenty-first century
without illusions. With Paul and the Christians of
the first century, we know that "we are not contending
against flesh and blood, but against the principalities,
against the powers, against the world rulers of this
present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness
in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6) As Evangelicals
and Catholics, we dare not by needless and loveless
conflict between ourselves give aid and comfort to
the enemies of the cause of Christ.
The love of Christ compels us and
we are therefore resolved to avoid such conflict between
our communities and, where such conflict exists, to
do what we can to reduce and eliminate it. Beyond
that, we are called and we are therefore resolved
to explore patterns of working and witnessing together
in order to advance the one mission of Christ. Our
common resolve is not based merely on a desire for
harmony. We reject any appearance of harmony that
is purchased at the price of truth. Our common resolve
is made imperative by obedience to the truth of God
revealed in the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures,
and by trust in the promise of the Holy Spirit's guidance
until Our Lord returns in glory to judge the living
and the dead.
The mission that we embrace together
is the necessary consequence of the faith that we
affirm together.
We Affirm Together
Jesus Christ is Lord. That is the
first and final affirmation that Christians make about
all of reality. He is the One sent by God to be Lord
and Savior of all: "And there is salvation in
no one else, for there is no other name under heaven
given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts
4) Christians are people ahead of time, those who
proclaim now what will one day be acknowledged by
all, that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Philippians 2)
We affirm together that we are justified
by grace through faith because of Christ. Living faith
is active in love that is nothing less than the love
of Christ, for we together say with Paul: "I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I
who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life
I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
(Galatians 2)
All who accept Christ as Lord and
Savior are brothers and sisters in Christ. Evangelicals
and Catholics are brothers and sisters in Christ.
We have not chosen one another, just as we have not
chosen Christ. He has chosen us, and he has chosen
us to be his together. (John 15) However imperfect
our communion with one another, however deep our disagreements
with one another, we recognize that there is but one
church of Christ. There is one church because there
is one Christ and the church is his body. However
difficult the way, we recognize that we are called
by God to a fuller realization of our unity in the
body of Christ. The only unity to which we would give
expression is unity in the truth, and the truth is
this: "There is one body and one Spirit. just
as you were called to the one hope that belongs to
your call. one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God
and Father of us all, who is above all and through
all and in all." (Ephesians 4)
We affirm together that Christians
are to teach and live in obedience to the divinely
inspired Scriptures, which are the infallible Word
of God. We further affirm together that Christ has
promised to his church the gift of the Holy Spirit
who will lead us into all truth in discerning and
declaring the teaching of Scripture. (John 16) We
recognize together that the Holy Spirit has so guided
his church in the past. In, for instance, the formation
of the canon of the Scriptures, and in the orthodox
response to the great Christological and Trinitarian
controversies of the early centuries, we confidently
acknowledge the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In faithful
response to the Spirit's leading, the church formulated
the Apostles Creed, which we can and hereby do affirm
together as an accurate statement of scriptural truth:
-
I believe in God, the Father
almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
-
I believe in Jesus Christ,
his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the
power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin
Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,
died, and was buried. He descended into hell.
On the third day he rose again. He ascended into
heaven. and is seated at the right hand of the
Father. He will come again to judge the living
and the dead.
-
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the
body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
We Hope Together
We hope together that all people
will come to faith Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
This hope makes necessary the church's missionary
zeal. "But how are they to call upon him in whom
they have not believed? And how are they to believe
in him of whom they have never heard? And how are
they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach
unless they are sent?" (Romans 10) The church
is by nature, in all places and at all times, in mission.
Our missionary hope is inspired by the revealed desire
of God that "all should be saved and come to
a knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2)
The church lives by and for the Great
Commission: "Go therefore and make disciples
of all nations. baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe all that I have commanded you; and
lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age."
(Matthew 28)
Unity and love among Christians is
an integral part of our missionary witness to the
Lord whom we serve. "A new commandment I give
to you, that you love one another; even as I have
loved you. that you also love one another. By this
all men will know that you are my disciples, if you
have love for one another." (John 13) If we do
not love one another, we disobey his command and contradict
the Gospel we declare.
As Evangelicals and Catholics, we
pray that our unity in the love of Christ will become
ever more evident as a sign to the world of God's
reconciling power. Our communal and ecclesial separations
are deep and long standing. We acknowledge that we
do not know the schedule nor do we know the way to
the greater visible unitv for which we hope. We do
know that existing patterns of distrustful polemic
and conflict are not the way. We do know that God
who has brought us into communion with himself through
Christ intends that we also be in communion with one
another. We do know that Christ is the "way,
the truth, and the life (John 14) and as we are drawn
closer to him-walking in that way, obeying that truth,
living that life-we are drawn closer to one another.
Whatever may be the future form of
the relationship between our communities, we can,
we must, and we will begin now the work required to
remedy what we know to be wrong in that relationship.
Such work requires trust and understanding, and trust
and understanding require an assiduous attention to
truth. We do not deny but clearly assert that there
are disagreements between us. Misunderstandings, misrepresentations,
and caricatures of one another, however, are not disagreements.
These distortions must be cleared away if we are to
search through our honest differences in a manner
consistent with what we affirm and hope together on
the basis of God's Word.
We Search Together
Together we search for a fuller and
clearer understanding of God's revelation in Christ
and his will for his disciples. Because of the limitations
of human reason and language, which limitations are
compounded by sin, we cannot understand completely
the transcendent reality of God and his ways. Only
in the End Time will we see face to face and know
as we are known. (1 Corinthians 13) We now search
together in confident reliance upon God's self-revelation
in Jesus Christ, the sure testimony of Holy Scripture,
and the promise of the Spirit to his church. In this
search to understand the truth more fully and clearly,
we need one another. We are both informed and limited
by the histories of our communities and by our own
experiences. Across the divides of communities and
experiences. we need to challenge one another, always
speaking the truth in love building up the Body. (Ephesians
4)
We do not presume to suggest that
we can resolve the deep and long-standing differences
between Evangelicals and Catholics. Indeed these differences
may never he resolved short of the Kingdom Come. Nonetheless,
we are not permitted simply to resign ourselves to
differences that divide us from one another. Not all
differences are authentic disagreements, nor need
all disagreements divide. Differences and disagreements
must be tested in disciplined and sustained conversation.
In this connection we warmly commend and encourage
the formal theological dialogues of recent years between
Roman Catholics and Evangelicals.
We note some of the differences and
disagreements that must be addressed more fully and
candidly in order to strengthen between us a relationship
of trust in obedience to truth. Among points of difference
in doctrine, worship, practice, and piety that are
frequently thought to divide us are these:
-
The church as an integral part
of the Gospel or the church as a communal consequence
of the Gospel.
-
The church as visible communion
or invisible fellowship of true believers.
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The sole authority of Scripture
(sola scriptura) or Scripture as authoritatively
interpreted in the church.
-
The "soul freedom"
of the individual Christian or the Magisterium
(teaching authority) of the community.
-
The church as local congregation
or universal communion.
-
Ministry ordered in apostolic
succession or the priesthood of all believers.
-
Sacraments and ordinances as
symbols of grace or means of grace.
-
The Lord's Supper as eucharistic
sacrifice or memorial meal.
-
Remembrance of Mary and the
saints or devotion to Mary and the saints.
-
Baptism as sacrament of regeneration
or testimony to regeneration.
This account of differences is by
no means complete. Nor is the disparity between positions
always so sharp as to warrant the "or" in
the above formulations. Moreover, among those recognized
as Evangelical Protestants there are significant differences
between, for example, Baptists, Pentecostals, and
Calvinists on these questions. But the differences
mentioned above reflect disputes that are deep and
long standing. In at least some instances, they reflect
authentic disagreements that have been in the past
and are at present barriers to full communion between
Christians.
On these questions, and other questions
implied by them, Evangelicals hold that the Catholic
Church has gone beyond Scripture. adding teachings
and practices that detract from or compromise the
Gospel of God's saving grace in Christ. Catholics,
in turn, hold that such teachings and practices are
grounded in Scripture and belong to the fullness of
God's revelation. Their rejection, Catholics say,
results in a truncated and reduced understanding of
the Christian reality.
Again, we cannot resolve these disputes
here. We can and do affirm together that the entirety
of Christian faith, life, and mission finds its source,
center, and end in the crucified and risen Lord. We
can and do pledge that we will continue to search
together-through study, discussion, and prayer-for
a better understanding of one another's convictions
and a more adequate comprehension of the truth of
God in Christ. We can testify now that in our searching
together we have discovered what we can affirm together
and what we can hope together and, therefore, how
we can contend together.
We Contend Together
As we are bound together by Christ
and his cause, so we are bound together in contending
against all that opposes Christ and his cause. We
are emboldened not by illusions of easy triumph but
by faith in his certain triumph. Our Lord wept over
Jerusalem, and he now weeps over a world that does
not know the time of its visitation. The raging of
the principalities and powers may increase as the
End Time nears, but the outcome of the contest is
assured.
The cause of Christ is the cause
and mission of the church, which is, first of all,
to proclaim the Good News that "God was in Christ
reconciling the world to himself, not counting their
trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the
message of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5)
To proclaim this Gospel and to sustain the community
of faith, worship, and discipleship that is gathered
by this Gospel is the first and chief responsibility
of the church. All other tasks and responsibilities
of the church are derived from and directed toward
the mission of the Gospel.
Christians individually and the church
corporately also have a responsibility for the right
ordering of civil society. We embrace this task soberly;
knowing the consequences of human sinfulness, we resist
the utopian conceit that it is within our powers to
build the Kingdom of God on earth. We embrace this
task hopefully; knowing that God has called us to
love our neighbor, we seek to secure for all a greater
measure of civil righteousness and justice. confident
that he will crown our efforts when he right]y orders
all things in the coming of his Kingdom.
In the exercise of these public responsibilities
there has been in recent years a growing convergence
and cooperation between Evangelicals and Catholics.
We thank God for the discovery of one another in contending
for a common cause. Much more important, we thank
God for the discovery of one another as brothers and
sisters in Christ. Our cooperation as citizens is
animated by our convergence as Christians. We promise
one another that we will work to deepen, build upon,
and expand this pattern of convergence and cooperation.
Together we contend for the truth
that politics, law, and culture must be secured by
moral truth. With the Founders of the American experiment,
we declare, "We hold these truths." With
them, we hold that this constitutional order is composed
not just of rules and procedures but is most essentially
a moral experiment. With them, we hold that only a
virtuous people can be free and just, and that virtue
is secured by religion. To propose that securing civil
virtue is the purpose of religion is blasphemous.
To deny that securing civil virtue is a benefit of
religion is blindness.
Americans are drifting away from,
are often explicitly defying, the constituting truths
of this experiment in ordered liberty. Influential
sectors of the culture are laid waste by relativism,
anti-intellectualism, and nihilism that deny the very
idea of truth. Against such influences in both the
elite and popular culture, we appeal to reason and
religion in contending for the foundational truths
of our constitutional order.
More specifically, we contend together
for religious freedom. We do so for the sake of religion.
but also because religious freedom is the first freedom,
the source and shield of all human freedoms. In their
relationship to God, persons have a dignity and responsibility
that transcends, and thereby limits, the authority
of the state and of every other merely human institution.
Religious freedom is itself grounded
in and is a product of religious faith, as is evident
in the history of Baptists and others in this country.
Today we rejoice together that the Roman Catholic
Church-as affirmed by the Second Vatican Council and
boldly exemplified in the ministry of John Paul II-is
strongly committed to religious freedom and, consequently,
to the defense of all human rights. Where Evangelicals
and Catholics are in severe and sometimes violent
conflict, such as parts of Latin America, we urge
Christians to embrace and act upon the imperative
of religious freedom. Religious freedom will not be
respected by the state if it is not respected by Christians
or, even worse, if Christians attempt to recruit the
state in repressing religious freedom.
In this country, too, freedom of
religion cannot be taken for granted but requires
constant attention. We strongly affirm the separation
of church and state, and just as strongly protest
the distortion of that principle to mean the separation
of religion from public life. We are deeply concerned
by the courts' narrowing of the protections provided
by the "free exercise" provision of the
First Amendment and by an obsession with "no
establishment" that stifles the neces-sary role
of religion in American life As a consequence of such
distortions. it is increasingly the case that wherever
government goes religion must retreat, and government
increasingly goes almost every-where. Religion. which
was privileged and founda-tional in our legal order,
has in recent years been pe-nalized and made marginal.
We contend together for a renewal of the constituting
vision of the place of religion in the American experiment.
Religion and religiously grounded
moral conviction is not an alien or threatening force
in our public life. For the great majority of Americans,
morality is derived, however variously and confusedly,
from religion. The argument, increasingly voiced in
sectors of our political culture, that religion should
be excluded from the public square must be recognized
as an assault upon the most elementary principles
of democratic governance. That argument needs to be
exposed and countered by leaders, religious and other,
who care about the integrity of our constitutional
order.
The pattern of convergence and cooperation
between Evangelicals and Catholics is, in large part,
a result of common effort to protect human life, especially
the lives of the most vulnerable among us. With the
Founders, we hold that all human beings are endowed
by their Creator with the right to life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness. The statement that the
unborn child is a human life that-barring natural
misfortune or lethal intervention-will become what
everyone recognizes as a human baby is not a religious
assertion. It is a statement of simple biological
fact. That the unborn child has a right to protection,
including the protection of law, is a moral statement
supported by moral reason and biblical truth.
We, therefore, will persist in contending-we
will not be discouraged but will multiply every effort-in
order to secure the legal protection of the unborn.
Our goals are: to secure due process of law for the
unborn, to enact the most protective laws and public
policies that are politically possible, and to reduce
dramatically the incidence of abortion. We warmly
commend those who have established thousands of crisis
pregnancy and postnatal care centers across the country,
and urge that such efforts be multiplied. As the unborn
must be protected, so also must women be protected
from their current rampant exploitation by the abortion
industry and by fathers who refuse to accept responsibility
for mothers and children. Abortion on demand, which
is the current rule in America, must be recognized
as a massive attack on the dignity, rights, and needs
of women.
Abortion is the leading edge of an
encroaching culture of death. The helpless old, the
radically handicapped, and others who cannot effectively
assert their rights are increasingly treated as though
they have no rights. These are the powerless who are
exposed to the will and whim of those who have power
over them. We will do all in our power to resist proposals
for euthanasia, eugenics, and population control that
exploit the vulnerable, corrupt the integrity of medicine,
deprave our culture, and betray the moral truths of
our constitutional order.
In public education, we contend together
for schools that transmit to coming generations our
cultural heritage. which is inseparable from the formative
influence of religion, especially Judaism and Christianity.
Education for responsible citizenship and social behavior
is inescapably moral education. Every effort must
be made to cultivate the morality of honesty, law
observance, work, caring, chastity, mutual respect
between the sexes, and readiness for marriage, parenthood.
and family. We reject the claim that, in any or all
of these areas, "tolerance" requires the
promotion of moral equivalence between the normative
and the deviant. In a democratic society that recognizes
that parents have the primary responsibility for the
formation of their children, schools are to assist
and support, not oppose and undermine, parents in
the exercise of their responsibility.
We contend together for a comprehensive
policy of parental choice in education. This is a
moral question of simple justice. Parents are the
primary educators of their children: the state and
other institutions should be supportive of their exercise
of that responsibility. We affirm policies that enable
parents to effectively exercise their right and responsibility
to choose the schooling that they consider best for
their children.
We contend together against the widespread
pornography in our society, along with the celebration
of violence, sexual depravity, and anti-religious
bigotry in the entertainment media. In resisting such
cultural and moral debasement, we recognize the legitimacy
of boycotts and other consumer actions, and urge the
enforcement of existing laws against obscenity. We
reject the self-serving claim of the peddlers of depravity
that this constitutes illegitimate censorship. We
reject the assertion of the unimaginative that artistic
creativity is to be measured by the capacity to shock
or outrage. A people incapable of defending decency
invites the rule of viciousness, both public and personal.
We contend for a renewed spirit of
acceptance, understanding, and cooperation across
lines of religion, race, ethnicity, sex, and class.
We are all created in the image of God and are accountable
to him. That truth is the basis of individual responsibility
and equality before the law. The abandonment of that
truth has resulted in a society at war with itself,
pitting citizens against one another in bitter conflicts
of group grievances and claims to entitlement. Justice
and social amity require a redirection of public attitudes
and policies so that rights are joined to duties and
people are rewarded according to their character and
competence.
We contend for a free society, including
a vibrant market economy. A free society requires
a careful balancing between economics, politics, and
culture. Christianity is not an ideology and therefore
does not prescribe precisely how that balance is to
be achieved in every circumstance. We affirm the importance
of a free economy not only because it is more efficient
but because it accords with a Christian understanding
of human freedom. Economic freedom, while subject
to grave abuse, makes possible the patterns of creativity,
cooperation, and accountability that contribute to
the common good.
We contend together for a renewed
appreciation of Western culture. In its history and
missionary reach, Christianity engages all cultures
while being captive to none. We are keenly aware of,
and grateful for, the role of Christianity in shaping
and sustaining the Western culture of which we are
part. As with all of history, that culture is marred
by human sinfulness. Alone among world cultures, however,
the West has cultivated an attitude of self-criticism
and of eagerness to learn from other cultures. What
is called multiculturalism can mean respectful attention
to human differences. More commonly today, however,
multiculturalism means affirming all cultures but
our own. Welcoming the contributions of other cultures
and being ever alert to the limitations of our own,
we receive Western culture as our legacy and embrace
it as our task in order to transmit it as a gift to
future generations.
We contend for public policies that
demonstrate renewed respect for the irreplaceable
role of mediating structures in society-notably the
family, churches, and myriad voluntary associations.
The state is not the society, and many of the most
important functions of society are best addressed
in indepen-dence from the state. The role of churches
in responding to a wide variety of human needs, especially
among the poor and marginal, needs to be protected
and strengthened. Moreover, society is not the aggregate
of isolated individuals bearing rights but is composed
of communities that inculcate responsibility, sustain
shared memory, provide mutual aid, and nurture the
habits that contribute to both personal well-being
and the common good. Most basic among such communities
is the community of the family. Laws and social policies
should be designed with particular care for the stability
and flourishing of families. While the crisis of the
family in America is by no means limited to the poor
or to the underclass, heightened attention must be
paid those who have become, as a result of well-intended
but misguided statist policies, virtual wards of the
government.
Finally, we contend for a realistic
and responsible understanding of America's part in
world affairs. Realism and responsibility require
that we avoid both the illusions of unlimited power
and righteousness, on the one hand, and the timidity
and selfishness of isolationism, on the other. U.S.
foreign policy should reflect a concern for the defense
of democracy and, wherever prudent and possible. The
protection and advancement of human rights, including
religious freedom.
The above is a partial list of public
responsibilities on which we believe there is a pattern
of convergence and cooperation between Evangelicals
and Catholics. We reject the notion that this constitutes
a partisan "religious agenda" in American
politics. Rather, this is a set of directions oriented
to the common good and discussable on the basis of
public reason. While our sense of civic responsibility
is informed and motivated by Christian faith, our
intention is to elevate the level of political and
moral dis-course in a manner that excludes no one
and invites the participation of all people of good
will. To that end, Evangelicals and Catholics have
made an inestimable contribution in the past and,
it is our hope, will contribute even more effectively
in the future.
We are profoundly aware that the
American experiment has been, all in all, a blessing
to the world and a blessing to us as Evangelical and
Catholic Christians. We are determined to assume our
full share of responsibility for this "one nation
under God," believing it to be a nation under
the judgment, mercy, and providential care of the
Lord of the nations to whom alone we render unqualified
allegiance.
We Witness Together
The question of Christian witness
unavoidably returns us to points of serious tension
between Evangelicals and Catholics. Bearing witness
to the saving power of Jesus Christ and his will for
our lives is an integral part of Christian discipleship.
The achievement of good will and cooperation between
Evangelicals and Catholics must not be at the price
of the urgency and clarity of Christian witness to
the Gospel. At the same time, and as noted earlier,
Our Lord has made clear that the evidence of love
among his disci-ples is an integral part of that Christian
witness.
Today, in this country and elsewhere,
Evangelicals and Catholics attempt to win "converts"
from one another's folds. In some ways, this is perfectly
understandable and perhaps inevitable. In many instances,
however, such efforts at recruitment undermine the
Christian mission by which we are bound by God's Word
and to which we have recommitted ourselves in this
statement. It should be clearly understood between
Catholics and Evangelicals that Christian witness
is of necessity aimed at conversion. Authentic conversion
is-in its beginning, in its end, and all along the
way-conversion to God in Christ by the power of the
Spirit. In this connection, we embrace as our own
the explanation of the Baptist-Roman Catholic International
Conversation (1988):
Conversion is turning away from
all that is opposed to God, contrary to Christ's
teaching, and turning to God, to Christ, the Son.
through the work of the Holy Spirit. It entails
a turning from the self-centeredness of sin to faith
in Christ as Lord and Savior. Conversion is a passing
from one way of life to another new one, marked
with the newness of Christ. It is a continuing process
so that the whole life of a Christian should be
a passage from death to life, from error to truth,
from sin to grace. Our life in Christ demands continual
growth in God's grace. Conversion is personal but
not private. Individuals respond in faith to God's
call but faith comes from hearing the proclamation
of the word of God and is to be expressed in the
life together in Christ that is the Church.
By preaching, teaching, and life
example, Christians witness to Christians and non-Christians
alike. We seek and pray for the conversion of others,
even as we recognize our own continuing need to be
fully converted. As we strive to make Christian faith
and life-our own and that of others-ever more intentional
rather than nominal, ever more committed rather than
apathetic, we also recognize the different forms that
authentic discipleship can take. As is evident in
the two thousand year history of the church, and in
our contemporary experience, there are different ways
of being Christian, and some of these ways are distinctively
marked by communal patterns of worship, piety, and
catechesis. That we are all to be one does not mean
that we are all to be identical in our way of following
the one Christ. Such distinctive- patterns of discipleship,
it should be noted, are amply evident within the communion
of the Catholic Church as well as within the many
worlds of Evangelical Protestantism.
It is understandable that Christians
who bear witness to the Gospel try to persuade others
that their communities and traditions are more fully
in accord with the Gospel. There is a necessary distinction
between evangelizing and what is today commonly called
proselytizing or "sheep stealing." We condemn
the practice of recruiting people from another community
for purposes of denominational or institutional aggrandizement.
At the same time, our commitment to full religious
freedom compels us to defend the legal freedom to
proselytize even as we call upon Christians to refrain
from such activity.
Three observations are in order in
connection with proselytizing. First, as much as we
might believe one community is more fully in accord
with the Gospel than another, we as Evangelicals and
Catholics affirm that opportunity and means for growth
in Christian discipleship are available in our several
communities. Second, the decision of the committed
Christian with respect to his communal allegiance
and participation must be assiduously respected. Third,
in view of the large number of non-Christians in the
world and the enormous challenge of our common evangelistic
task, it is neither theologically legitimate nor a
prudent use of resources for one Christian community
to proselytize among active adherents of another Christian
community.
Christian witness must always be
made in a spirit of love and humility. It must not
deny but must readily accord to everyone the full
freedom to discern and decide what is God's will for
his life. Witness that is in service to the truth
is in service to such freedom. Any form of coercion-physical,
psychological, legal, economic-corrupts Christian
witness and is to be unqualifiedly rejected. Similarly,
bearing false witness against other persons and communities,
or casting unjust and uncharitable suspicions upon
them, is incompatible with the Gospel. Also to be
rejected is the practice of comparing the strengths
and ideals of one community with the weaknesses and
failures of another. In describing the teaching and
practices of other Christians, we must strive to do
so in a way that they would recognize as fair and
accurate.
In considering the many corruptions
of Christian witness, we, Evangelicals and Catholics,
confess that we have sinned against one another and
against God. We most earnestly ask the forgiveness
of God and one another, and pray for the grace to
amend our own lives and that of our communities.
Repentance and amendment of life
do not dissolve remaining differences between us.
In the context of evangelization and "reevangelization,"
we encounter a major difference in our understanding
of the relationship between baptism and the new birth
in Christ. For Catholics, all who are validly baptized
are born again and are truly, however imperfectly,
in communion with Christ. That baptismal grace is
to be continuingly reawakened and revivifed through
conversion. For most Evangelicals, but not all, the
experience of conversion is to be followed by baptism
as a sign of new birth. For Catholics, all the baptized
are already members of the church, however dormant
their faith and life; for many Evangelicals, the new
birth requires baptismal initiation into the community
of the born again. These differing beliefs about the
relationship between baptism, new birth, and membership
in the church should be honestly presented to the
Christian who has undergone conversion. But again,
his decision regarding communal allegiance and participation
must be assiduously respected.
There are, then, differences between
us that cannot be resolved here. But on this we are
resolved: All authentic witness must be aimed at conversion
to God in Christ by the power of the Spirit. Those
converted, - whether understood as having received
the new birth for the first time or as having experienced
the reawakening of the new birth originally bestowed
in the sacrament of baptism - must be given full freedom
and respect as they discern and decide the community
in which they will live their new life in Christ.
In such discernment and decision, they are ultimately
responsible to God, and we dare not interfere with
the exercise of that responsibility. Also in our differences
and disagreements, we Evangelicals and Catholics commend
one another to God "who by the power at work
within us is able to do far more abundantly than all
that we ask or think." (Ephesians 3)
In this discussion of witnessing
together we have touched on difficult and longstanding
problems. The difficulties must not be permitted to
overshadow the truths on which we are, by the grace
of God, in firm agreement. As we grow in mutual understanding
and trust, it is our hope that our efforts to evangelize
will not jeopardize but will reinforce our devotion
to the common tasks to which we have pledged ourselves
in this statement.
Conclusion
Nearly two thousand years after it
began, and nearly five hundred years after the divisions
of the Reformation era, the Christian mission to the
world is vibrantly alive and assertive. We do not
know, we cannot know, what the Lord of history has
in store for the Third Millennium. It may be the springtime
of world missions and great Christian expansion. It
may be the way of the cross marked by persecution
and apparent marginalization. In different places
and times, it will likely be both. Or it may be that
Our Lord will return tomorrow.
We do know that his promise is sure,
that we are enlisted for the duration, and that we
are in this together. We do know that we must affirm
and hope and search and contend and witness together,
for we belong not to ourselves but to him who has
purchased us by the blood of the cross. We do know
that this is a time of opportunity-and, if of opportunity,
then of responsibility-for Evangelicals and Catholics
to be Christians together in a way that helps prepare
the world for the coming of him to whom belongs the
kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
PARTICIPANTS:
Mr. Charles Colson Prison Fellowship
Fr. Juan Diaz-Vilar, S.J. Catholic Hispanic Ministries
Fr. Avery Dulles, S.J. Forciham University
Bishop Francis George, OMI Diocese of Yakima (Washington)
Dr. Kent Hill Eastern Nazarene College
Dr. Richard Land Christian Life Commission of the
Southern Baptist Convention
Dr. Larrv Lewis Home Mission Board of the Southern
Baptist Convention
Dr. Jesse Miranda Assemblies of God
Msgr. William Murphy Chancellor of the Archdiocese
of Boston
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus Institute on Reli-gion
and Public Life
Mr. Brian O'Connell World Evangelical Fellowship
Mr. Herbert Schlossberg Fieldstead Foun-dation
Archbishop Francis Stafford Archdiocese of Denver
Mr. George Weigel Ethics and Public Policv Center
Dr. John White Geneva College and the National Association
of Evangelicals
ENDORSED BY:
Dr. William Abraham Perkins School
of Theology
Dr. Elizabeth Achtemeier Union Theological Seminary
(Virginia)
Mr. William Bentley Ball Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Dr. Bill Bright Campus Crusade for Christ
Professor Robert Destro Catholic University of America
Fr. Augustine DiNoia, O.P. Dominican House of Studies
Fr. Joseph P. Fitzpatrick, S.J. Fordham University
Mr. Keith Fournier American Center for Law and Justice
Bishop William Frey Trinity Episcopal School for
Ministrv
Professor Mary Ann Glendon Harvard Law School
Dr. Os Guinness Trinity Forum
Dr. Nathan Hatch Universitv of Notre Dame
Dr. James Hitchcock St. Louis University
Professor Peter Kreeft Boston College
Fr. Matthew Lamb Boston College
Mr. Ralph Martin Renewal Ministries
Dr. Richard Mouw Fuller Theological Seminary
Dr. Mark Noll Wheaton College
Mr. Michael Novak Anierican Enterprise Institute
John Cardinal O'Connor Archdiocese of New York
Dr. Thomas Oden Drew University
Dr. James J. I. Packer Regent College (British Columbia)
The Rev. Pat Robertson Regent University
Dr. John Rodgers Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry
Bishop Carlos A. Sevilla, S.J. Archiocese of San
Francisco
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