# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1969_S524
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

CRUCIAL ISSUES IN CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP 513

plied even during times of hostility in a personal con-
frontation with an enemy who is wounded or is in need
of some other personal service.

VII. The destructive potential of modern weaponry
and the impersonality of contemporary techniques of
warfare lay upon the Christian citizen the special burden
of reminding himself and others that human life is a
sacred trust from man’s Creator and that the tempta-
tion to rely on and resort to the kind of massive violence
made possible by these inventions has introduced into
the human situation a new factor of incalculable moral
magnitude. It is therefore imperative for him to work
together with all men of goodwill for the responsible
limitation of armaments, the eradication of sources of
conflict, and an aggressive interest in the preservation
and expansion of the conditions of peace.

VIII. The requirements of justice and love apply in
much the same way to service with police forces.

SECTION FOUR

The Christian and Conscience

I. The word “conscience” may mean man’s faculty to
respond to such moral principles as transcend human
existence. It is so used, for example, in the United
Nations Declaration on Human Rights (Article One).

Il. In the New Testament it is used as a term to
signify moral response in depth on the basis of con-
clusions reached by evaluating the ethical aspects and
implications of a given issue or situation (cf. Acts 23:1:
Rom. 2:15; 1Cor. 8:7, 10: etc.: cf. also C. A. Pierce,
Conscience in the New Testament, London: SCM Press.
1955). In other words, it stands for more than strong
feeling and emotional reaction to an issue or a task.

III. A Christian is bound in conscience to disobey an
order or a law which violates God's will. (Acts 5:29)

IV. When a Christian is persuaded that he faces a
choice in conscience, he must be certain in his own
mind that his conscience is informed by principles which
conform to God’s will. For he has the burden of not
violating his own conscience.

V. When he is inclined, for example, to claim for
himself the right of conscientious objection to a particu-

lar war, he will first need to give serious consideration

to the following matters as they relate to his responsi-

bilities as a citizen of a particular nation:

A. The role of government in the maintenance of order
and in the defense and extension of justice and free-
dom:

B. The role of military establishments in the life and
tasks of a nation:

C. The purposes of the war in question as these relate
to the foreign policy of a nation:

D. The significance and applicability of the command-
ment: “Thou shalt not kill”:

E. The ideological ingredients of the war under evalua-
tion:

F. The principle that the government of a nation in its
dealings with other nations has an a priori, though
not unquestioned, claim on the trust of its own citi-
zens as a source of information and direction.

VI. The Lutheran Confessions operate with the con-
cept of a just war (cf. Augsburg Confession, Art. XVI,
and Apology. Art.IV, 191). Before a Lutheran can
rightly become a conscientious objector, he will need
to formulate answers to the following questions that
have been developed in the course of the history of
Christian theology as a way of determining whether a
war is just or not:

A. Is a war being fought under legitimate authority?

B. Is it being conducted within the framework of inter-
national agreements?

C. Is it being waged in the interest of vindicating some
obvious right that has suffered outrage?

D. Have all peaceful means of achieving a settlement
been exhausted?

E. Is the destruction incurred excessive in terms of the
goals to be achieved?

F. Is it being waged with good intentions. or has it been
undertaken for purposes of aggression?

G. Will the results achieved by engaging in hostilities
provide greater opportunity for justice and freedom
to prevail than if such a war had not been entered
into?