First Things RSS Feed - A Statement

Do Whatever He Tells You: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Christian Faith and Life

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0400

In 1994, after intense study, discussion, and prayer, we issued a statement titled “Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium.” In 1997, we bore common witness to “The Gift of Salvation,” underscoring God’s unmerited justification of sinners because of the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, and our only hope of salvation. In our third statement, “Your Word is Truth” (2002), we affirmed a convergence in our understanding of the transmission of God’s saving Word through Holy Scripture and tradition, which is the lived experience of the community of faith under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In 2003, we addressed “The Communion of Saints,” in which we confessed that our communion with Christ means that we are in a certain, albeit imperfect, communion with one another in his body, the Church. “The Call to Holiness” in 2005 lifted up our common participation in the life-transforming love of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The statement “That They May Have Life” (2006) set forth the Christian mandate, based on biblical authority and clear reason, for the protection of innocent human life from conception to natural death.

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The Call to Holiness

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:00:00 -0500

Over more than ten years, this group of Evangelicals and Catholics, speaking as individuals committed to their respective communities but without any official mandate, has explored important areas of agreement and disagreement among us. In our first round of conversations and in the resulting statement of 1994, “Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium,” we were able to recognize one another as brothers and sisters in Christ and to affirm the positive value of the witness to the gospel rendered by our several communities, notwithstanding differences and disagreements. In 1997, we were able to issue a second statement, “The Gift of Salvation.” In that statement we affirmed that the justification of sinners, which is not earned by any good works or merits of our own, leads us toward the fullness of salvation that is promised in the final kingdom.

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The Communion of Saints

Sat, 01 Mar 2003 00:00:00 -0500

This statement on the communion of saints ( communio sanctorum ) is part of the ongoing project known as Evangelicals and Catholics Together, commonly called ECT. The project began in 1992 with a conference occasioned by growing and often violent conflicts between Catholics and evangelical Protestants in Latin America. In May 1994 we issued a statement, “ Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium .” In that statement we explained why it is necessary for us, as “brothers and sisters in Christ,” to work with one another, and not against one another, in the great task of evangelization, and to support one another in facing up to the ominous moral, cultural, and spiritual threats of our time. The signers of the statement pledged themselves to such Christian solidarity and, while this initiative has not been without its critics, both Evangelical and Catholic, we are greatly heartened by the thousands who have joined in that pledge, both in this country and in other parts of the world.

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On Human Rights

Wed, 01 Apr 1998 00:00:00 -0500

Fifty years ago, on December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration marked a decisive moment in the moral, cultural, and political history of the world. It gave powerful testimony to a widespread longing for freedom, justice, peace, and solidarity. Affirming the dignity of the human person, it specified and sought to secure certain freedoms and rights as essential to the protection of that dignity. The Preamble calls the Declaration “a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations,” and as such the Declaration is itself one of the signal achievements of the modern world.

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That They May Have Life

Fri, 01 Aug 1997 00:00:00 -0400

The following statement was issued early this year by the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, office of the President’s Commission on the Sanctity of Life.—The Editors

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The Inhuman Use of Human Beings

Sun, 01 Jan 1995 00:00:00 -0500

A panel of nineteen experts appointed by the National Institutes of Health has recommended government funding for conceiving human embryos in the laboratory for the sole purpose of using them as materials for research. After carefully studying the Report of the Human Embryo Research Panel, we conclude that this recommendation is morally repugnant, entails grave injustice to innocent human beings, and constitutes an assault upon the foundational ideas of human dignity and rights essential to a free and decent society. The arguments offered by the Panel are more ideological and self-interested than scientific; the actions recommended by the Panel cross the threshold into a world of apparently limitless technological manipulation and manufacture of human life. The Panel claims to draw a “clear line” against experiments that almost everyone would deem abhorrent. In fact it does not draw such a line and, by virtue of its own logic, it cannot draw such a line. The recommendation, if adopted, will be a fateful step for humanity from which it may be impossible to turn back.

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