The Manhattan Declaration, which was drafted last month and released November 20, includes two key bits of info.
1) The evangelicals, conservative Catholics, and Christians who wrote and signed the doc indicate that the political fight over abortion, gay marriage, and religious liberty will continue to be heavily emphasized.
More interestingly...
2) The document suggests that sexual orientation is fixed at birth.
We acknowledge that there are those who are disposed towards homosexual and polyamorous conduct and relationships, just as there are those who are disposed towards other forms of immoral conduct.
We have compassion for those so disposed; we respect them as human beings possessing profound, inherent, and equal dignity; and we pay tribute to the men and women who strive, often with little assistance, to resist the temptation to yield to desires that they, no less than we, regard as wayward.
While the peeps behind the document continue to strenuously oppose gay marriage, there are some surprising names who've signed their names to a declaration conceding an orientation.
A sampling:
Dr. James Dobson
Founder, Focus on the Family (Colorado Springs, Colo.)
Dr. Daniel Akin
President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Wake Forest, N.C.)
Gary Bauer
President, American Values; Chairman, Campaign for Working Families
Kay Arthur
CEO and Co-founder, Precept Ministries International (Chattanooga, Tenn.)
Joel Belz
Founder, World Magazine (Asheville, N.C.)
Pastor Randy & Sarah Brannon
Senior Pastor, Grace Community Church (Madera, Calif.)
Chuck Colson
Founder, The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview (Lansdowne, Va.)
Jerry Jenkins
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Moody Bible Institute (Black Forest, Colo.)
Josh McDowell
Founder, Josh McDowell Ministries (Plano, Texas)
Dr. J.I. Packer
Board of Governors' Professor of Theology, Regent College (Canada)
So what does this have to do with 2012?
A blogger notes that not a single signature is provided by a Mormon. That's another bit to help explain why his 2008 campaign on social issues never took off (as articulated so adroitly by Michael Steele) and why he'll likely take a different approach next time.
UPDATE: Here's Huck interviewing Chuck Colson about the Declaration [h/t Unfit blog].
DOUBLE UPDATE: David Frum makes the Mormon/Mitt Romney point here.
