Pastors' Letter

November 2, 2010

Dear Mayor Snead and Manhattan City Commissioners,

We are a group of pastors and leaders who serve several churches and organizations throughout Manhattan. These are made up of people who live out their faith at home, at school, at work, and while participating in a variety of civic groups. We share love for and allegiance to Jesus Christ, confidence in his power to give new life, and fidelity to the Bible as God’s word to us.

In the Bible He calls us to honor and pray for you as leaders. Where we have failed to do this we seek the Lord’s mercy and your forgiveness as well as the strength to obey. We intend to submit joyfully to the laws you establish until they require us to compromise our worship and devotion to Jesus.

Our Lord in the Scriptures teaches us that all people are created by God and equally share the status of being made in His image. He directs us to show respect and courtesy to everyone. We recognize our sacred responsibility to love all human beings as Christ does. We humbly acknowledge that we have often fallen short of this standard and rejoice in our Lord’s love and forgiveness to us. We affirm that the core of our mission in this city is to offer hope and restoration to all in following Him.

We reject and oppose all forms of prejudice. But, advancing godly behavior does not constitute prejudice. God’s design for human flourishing as revealed in the Bible includes the enjoyment of sexual intimacy only within the beauty and bounds of a marriage commitment between a man and a woman. All other sexual behavior is sin, subject to God’s judgment.

We acknowledge that we too have sinned. Jesus Christ entered our world to confront this disaster. He lived free from any sin. He always enjoyed God’s favor. He deserved no condemnation but endured death on a cross to take the judgment due sinners. Three days later, He returned to life, conquering death and hell. We now celebrate the forgiveness He offers to all who trust Him.

We conclude that creating protected classes in an anti-discrimination ordinance for self-selected behaviors and personally chosen identities would be bad law. We unite in concern that such an ordinance might silence individual Christians in response to the acceptance or practice of immorality when their silence would indicate consent.

Offering help to those who seek to reverse immoral directions in life might be labeled as discrimination requiring a costly legal defense. Churches and Christian organizations might be pressured to hire, to allow into membership, and to make facilities available to those who openly practice and promote what we cannot condone.

So we appeal to you not to amend the anti-discrimination ordinance according to current proposals. We pledge to pray as you consider your decision in this matter.

Yours for the Good of Our City,