October 17, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Evangelical Protestants and Orthodox Christians are joining together in an “unprecedented” alliance to defend the values of life and family, according to Chilean activists.
In their latest joint move, the religious groups have issued a Letter on the Fundamental Values of Life, Marriage, and Family directed to Chile’s President Sebastian Piñera, affirming that the aforementioned values are “the foundation of society” and that “it is the obligation of the government to promote them and avoid that which impedes their development.”
The letter rejects all forms of direct abortion as “taking the life of the most innocent of all” and explicitly rejects not only homosexual “marriage,” but all forms of “civil unions” for both homosexuals and heterosexuals.
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It also denounces proposed legislation to prohibit discrimination based on “sexual orientation,” which it calls “a concept whose ambiguity has resulted, in other countries, in a distortion of sexuality and of the foundations of the family, as well as a serious danger for the exercise of numerous liberties,” including family and religious rights.
The signers warn that such legislation could eventually “permit marriage and adoption of children and young people by persons of the same sex in a legal union.”
The document, which was signed by representatives of the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, the Evangelical Roundtable, the Methodist Pentecostal Church, the Apostolic Pentecostal Church, and the Anglican Church, is only the latest joint action by groups of Christians seeking to preserve the values of life and family.
In July of this year, Catholics and Evangelicals joined together to testify before the Chilean Senate in favor of traditional marriage and against a proposed measure that would make “discrimination” against homosexuals illegal. Their joint testimony caused “surprise” in the Senate committee, according to the organization Make Yourself Heard Chile (HazteOir Chile), formerly Go Chile! (Muevete Chile).
“The Catholic and Evangelical Churches showed themselves to be united in support of the spirit of the law [against discrimination] and agreed on the necessity to remove from the bill the concept of ‘sexual orientation,’ because it is not an agreed upon term even at the international level, and because it tends only to discriminate against fundamental liberties,” the organization reports.
Chilean President Sebastian Piñera, who calls himself a Catholic, has a mixed record with regard to life and family issues. Although he supports the right to life, which is currently protected without exception in Chile, he has recently proposed legislation to create a form of civil union for both homosexuals and heterosexuals.