My 101 Reasons for Leaving the Catholic Church:

ECT

What is it ?

"Evangelicals & Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium" (ECT) is a twenty-five page document drafted by a team of fifteen well-known, theologically conservative catholics and evangelicals. But more than that, it is a movement encouraging the unification of Catholics and Evangelicals in theology, faith, and practice. The document includes affirmations of common beliefs, including the following: "We affirm together that we are justified by grace through faith because of Christ." "All who accept Christ as Lord and Savior are brothers and sisters in Christ." "We have not chosen one another, just as we have not chosen Christ. He has chosen us, and he has chosen us to be his together (John 15)."

The document includes common aspirations, including the following: "The love of Christ compels us, and we are therefore resolved to avoid conflict between our communities and, where such conflict exists, to do what we can to reduce and eliminate it." However, a caveat is added: "We reject any appearance of harmony that is purchased at the price of truth." Therefore, Catholics and evangelicals are to search together for common theological ground.

The document outlines common pursuits: "As we are bound together by Christ and His cause, so we are bound together in contending against all that opposes Christ and his cause." First and foremost, Catholics and evangelicals are to proclaim the gospel, from which all other tasks proceed. Second, Christians "have a responsibility for the right ordering of civil society." Catholics and evangelicals are cooperating together as never before. "Our cooperation as citizens is animated by our convergeance as Christians." Both parties agree to speak to the culture:

- Virtue is to be secured by religion.

- American culture is being "laid waste by relativism, anti-intellectualism, and nihilism that deny the very idea of truth."

- The chuch and state should be separate.

- Religion should not be separated from public life.

- Unborn children should have the right to life.

- Public schools should teach moral education.

- Pornography, sexual depravity and obscenity should be opposed.

- Racism, sexism and other isms should be confronted.

- Democracy should be defended around the world.

The section of the document entitled "We Witness Together" declares that there are "different ways of being Christian." Even though one community may believe that it is "more fully in accord with the Gospel than another," there are ample means for Christian growth in both communities. Therefore, "in view of the large number of non-Christians in the world...it is neither theologically legitimate nor a prudent use of resources for one Christian community to proselytize among active adherents of another Christian community."

In summary, Catholics and evangelicals are called to a common battle. We are to affirm together, hope together, search and contend together, and witness together.

How did it come about ?

John Richard Neuhaus (a Catholic priest and former Lutheran minister who converted to Catholicism in 1990), and Chuck Colson (founder of "Prison Fellowship") had both written books charging Christians to contend in "the public square." They began meeting and praying together. Both were approached often by Catholics and evangelicals who were participating in the pro-life movement and the charismatic renewal. The cooperation between Catholics and evangelicals was also apparent to Colson through his ministry of evangelism in prisons around the world. In 1992, Colson published "The Body: Being Light in Darkness," which focused on the theme of church unity. Soon thereafter, Neuhaus and Colson sensed that the time had come to pursue what would become ECT. At the same time, both were in anguish over growing conflicts between Catholics and evangelicals in Latin America. "Our concern was (and is) that animosities between evangelicals and Catholics threatened to mar the image of Christ by turning Latin America into a Belfast of religious warfare." So in 1992 a core working group of seven Catholics and eight evangelicals was assembled. In order to influence those in Latin America, it was decided that the group must set an example of the two communities working together. "In the course of our conversation, it dawned upon a number of participants, almost simultaneously, as though by the prompting of the Holy Spirit: ‘Here is the Church. Here around this table. Christ is here, his gospel is being spoken, and therefore His Church is here. How do we make that simple but wondrous truth clear to our fellow believers?’"

The group appointed a drafting committee, consisting of Colson, Neuhaus, Kent Hill [President of Eastern Nazarene College], and George Weigel [a lay Catholic theologian, President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.]. After numerous drafts, ECT was released to the public in New York on March 29, 1994. The document was signed by the fifteen participants, and endorsed by 25 others. Those endorsing included well-known evangelicals J.I. Packer, Bill Bright, Pat Robertson, Os Guinness, Richard Mouw, Mark Noll, and Thomas Oden.

The release of ECT brought both public acceptance and storms of protest. Some evangelicals felt that the document was a betrayal of the gospel, since the word "alone" was omitted from the classic statement of Protestant faith. Others felt that the document was a hindrance to sharing the gospel with Catholics. To address these concerns, a second document, entitled "The Gift of Salvation" was published in December, 1997. Incredibly, this document purported to resolve the over 500-year dispute concerning the gospel. It determined that the Catholic gospel and the Protestant gospel are one and the same. The Catholic participants who affirm the COUNCIL OF TRENT, and the evangelicals who hold firmly to their reformation creeds jointly declared "we affirm our unity in the Gospel that we have here professed."