Raising Standards Evangelical Manifesto -

RAISING STANDARDS EVANGELICAL MANIFESTO. We must keep taking strong public biblical stands on the issues of our day. Otherwise, the Word will go unheard and anti-God agendas will prevail. Our National Evangelical Association of Belize (NEAB) has spoken out often to government and media on key issues.

But we don’t always have time to respond quickly to fast-breaking news. We have needed a policy paper that shows our basic positions on recurring issues. They include abortion, marriage & family, gender policy, drug policy, corruption, Guatemala & curriculum.

In 2019 I wrote an evangelical manifesto for NEAB that addressed the basics of these issues. Six denominations representing hundreds of churches endorsed it. Now we can show it to politicians and others so they know where the evangelical church stands.

I recommend the same for your nation. Find organizations that best represent evangelicals. Then urge them to write basic united stands on vital issues. After that, they can communicate those stands to national representatives.

As an example, this week I am providing a slightly revised version of three issues in our manifesto. You can easily apply them to your nation. Next week I plan to provide another three.

1 Abortion

Children in the womb used to have safe passage into life. Now countless innocents are being killed illegally. A recent alarming trend allows abortions right up to—and after—the moment of birth.

Therefore we raise the standard of the right to life, beginning at conception. Ultrasounds show unmistakable signs of life in the earliest stages of an unborn child. And heartbeats start in about five weeks. We call on political candidates and public officials to uphold and enforce our laws against abortion.

We pray that God will move parents to prepare the way for these precious lives. And that they will receive full protection from the government as human beings.

2 Traditional Marriage & Family

Children used to be able to depend upon a married father and mother committed to care for their needs. Now uncommitted cohabitation and single-parenting deprive most of them of vital care. Children learn to depend on gangs for identity and protection rather than on parents.

Therefore we raise the standard of faithful one-man, one-woman marriages only. In addition, we deplore divorce and extramarital sex. We plead with all those in broken families to seek God for restoration. Also, we urge those involved in extramarital sex to seek God for a faithful spouse and to be faithful to that spouse. We call on candidates and elected officials to honour traditional marriage and family in their private lives and public policies. Furthermore, we call on them to reject LGBT unions, LGBT marriages and LGBT adoptions. Because these serve as harmful models of family life and child development.

We pray that God will turn the hearts of husbands and wives to each other, and of fathers and mothers to their children. So that Belize’s standards will rise and not fall, and bring a blessing instead of a curse.

3 Gender Policy

Children used to grow up with the plain common sense that there are only two sexes, male and female. They learned respect for the opposite sex, considering extramarital sex as a shameful and ruinous thing. Now they are encouraged to engage not only in natural sex acts before marriage, but in all kinds of unnatural sex acts, with multiple artificial genders. Such acts are not rights endowed by our Creator. Instead, they are acts of abuse, not of love, which cause disease and sexual confusion. Such a perverse trend not only destroys God-given sexual identities. It destroys future families which are the building blocks of our future as a nation.

Therefore we raise the standard of premarital abstinence as the only sure way to avoid sexual degradation, STDs and premarital pregnancy. We oppose all who despise abstinence—whether those in media, schools or government—as corrupters of the public health and public good. Jesus Himself forewarned of woe to that person who would “cause one of these little ones to sin.” Instead we call on all Belizeans to encourage children and youth in the many healthy pursuits—learning, sports, music, worship, arts and appropriate work—that will prepare them for productive and rewarding lives. Furthermore, we say no to all sexual exploitation. Specifically we say no to “sex work” promotion, LGBT propaganda, and LGBT curricula.

We pray that God will guide children from the many broad ways to sexual degradation. That He will guide instead into the narrow way to a truly fulfilling life. And that He will guide the parents, teachers, media figures and public officials who guide Belize’s children.