Um, the Barmen Declaration was part of the slightly off-track task of trying to preserve the autonomy of the major confessing churches as against direct Nazi control of faith and practice. Those were good goals, but they were not, as the Manhattan Declaration is, a virtual declaration of war, a clear proclamation of outright defiance on specific and critical issues of conscience. Barmen didn’t even address the single most egregious offense of the Nazi’s, their murderous anti-Semitism, largely because so many of the German churches had already quietly absorbed the same repugnant mentality.
By contrast, the Manhattan Declaration, due its intensely focused energy, has the potential to generate a remarkably dynamic resistance effort that will be a genuine thorn in the side of the would-be tyrant. Unlike the people of the prewar Weimar Republic, we have the benefit of hindsight. We have, I believe, learned from their mistakes, and from our own. That was then. This is now. Note the difference, and keep moving that flag forward into the conflict.
Thanks for that explanation. I was somewhat familiar with the Barmen Declaration, but not the details.