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The Areopagus Declaration
20 Centuries ago, St. Paul preached to the assembled at the Areopagus on Mars Hill in Athens, calling on the Greeks to recognize the Christian God as the unknown god whom they were seeking.

"Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands."

Significantly, the Areopagus was an institution designed by the Ancient Greeks as a public forum for the settling of certain legal disputes. So St. Paul is appealing to the court of public opinion.
Today it has become fashionable for Church representatives to make public pronouncements and declarations that are intended to have similar effects on public opinion, especially expressing certain "social concerns."
Unfortunately, such declarations are necessarily couched in secular terms, as if the Church needs to negotiate for a seat at the table of public opinion regarding the great moral issues of our day, while begging for "tolerance" in the court of public opinion for its views.
We, the undersigned, while recognizing the necessity to make a public witness regarding serious cultural problems, believe that our witness is better served by stating with clarity and boldness the true nature of the problem and its cure. We invite all believers to not only sign the following declaration, but to live according to its precepts:
1) America and the world at large struggle in ignorance of the true God and true faith.
2) Generic "spiritualities" will never satisfy the human heart and will continue to lead people astray.
3) Political efforts to embody the Rule of God on earth are doomed to failure, and always lead to discontent. Even more so when the promise of heavenly realities is couched in secular terms.
4) Whereas moral idealism can be a positive force in any society, there is no rational foundation for agreement on moral ideals apart from the Rule of God.
5) The power of God's rule is incomparably greater than any worldly or personal claim to power or authority. His power is made manifest in the hearts of believers and is evident to anyone with an open mind and an open heart.
6) The only reliable, meaningful and lasting force for change in the world is God's revelation to the human heart. The best any human institution can hope to do is recognize this power and try to adapt to it.
7) The Church does not exist as an institution competing at a worldly level for the attention of other worldly institutions. It is unique in its substance and its mission.
8) The Church's mission is to point all mankind to the Kingdom of God and away from the kingdom of man. Its substance is Christ's body.
9) Our society is sick and mired in sinful temptations. At the top of the list is the desire to usurp God's rule. But this has always been the case.
10) The only cure for this sickness is to forsake worldly temptations and to seek God and his Heavenly Kingdom as an ever-present, interior reality. By glorifying God in all things we too can become glorified, and our glorification becomes the world's only hope.