“Many of our churches and organizations either don’t know what’s happening or have chosen to keep silent about sex and abortions in the evangelical community,” said [NAE President] Anderson. “Generation Forum was started to get the truth out [about sex and evangelicals].”

Recent criticism over the National Association of Evangelicals’ (NAE) choice of funding partners highlights the continued difficulty of seeking middle ground across the abortion divide.

The Generation Forum, a four-year-old NAE initiative to “converse and cooperate without compromising” in order to reduce abortions, drew criticism from World Magazine last week for being primarily funded by a pro-contraception group.

The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, which encourages the widespread use of contraception in order to reduce unplanned pregnancies, funds the Generation Forum’s research, publications, outreach, and staff. Previewing a forthcoming World article, editor in chief Marvin Olasky critiqued the two organizations as “strange bedfellows”—largely because the National Campaign receives substantial funding from the Hewlett Foundation, which funds many pro-abortion groups.

In response, the Manhattan Declaration urged its followers to tell the NAE to stop using National Campaign funding because the campaign’s goals are “incompatible with [our] faith convictions.”

“Reducing unintended pregnancy is a laudable goal, but here, as in all things, how matters a great deal,” the Manhattan Declaration stated in a blog post. “If, as in this case, it is through programs that undermine God’s plan for sex in the context of marriage, we must not compromise our values.” [Editor’s note: the original URL (link) referenced is no longer valid, so the link has been removed.]

Manhattan Declaration representatives did not return a call for comment Monday.

Olasky also noted that Sarah Brown, CEO of the National Campaign, was one of four panelists invited to speak about reducing abortion rates at a Q conference in April. In a vote during the panel, moderated by Q executive director Rebekah Lyons, nearly two-thirds of audience members said churches should advocate contraception use by single 20-somethings.

Such poll results send the message that it’s fine for unmarried evangelicals to use contraception, according to Olasky. “In this and other ways, the National Campaign’s grant paid off,” he wrote.

“As a professor and elder, I’ve seen how conflicted many young unmarried evangelicals are,” Olasky said in an e-mail to Christianity Today. “Many are hoping to garner some wisdom from their elders. It’s neither helpful nor compassionate when the elders follow polls rather than the Bible

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