# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2016_S355
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
Circuit 12, Iowa District East; Trinity, Clinton, MA; St.
Paul’s, Kewanee, IL; Grace, Seguin, TX; Central Jersey
Circuit, New Jersey District; Board of Directors, Wyoming
District; Board of Directors, Central Illinois District;
Trinity, Leesville, LA; Immanuel, Roswell, NM; Winona
Circuit, Minnesota South District; Trinity, Guttenberg,
IA; Jacksonville Circuit, Central Illinois District; Kenosha
Circuit, South Wisconsin District; Racine Circuit, South
Wisconsin District; St. Paul’s, Latimer, IA; Springfield
East and West Circuits, Central Illinois District; Concordia,
Springfield, IL; Good Sherpherd, Sherman, IL; Concordia,
Wausaw, IL; Holy Cross, Golden, IL; Board of Directors,
Rocky Mountain District; Zion, Ellendale, ND; St. John,
Culbertson, NE; Benton Circuit, Iowa District East; St.
Paul, McGregor, IA; Grace, DeSoto, MO
5-30

To Consider Ramifications of Conscription
of Women into Military Service
Whereas, At the 2013 Synod convention, the “Mercy” floor committee intended to speak to the issue of the conscription of women in
their original resolution, as printed in Today’s Business for July 23,
2013: “Resolved, That the LCMS support those who have a religious
and moral objection to women serving in ground combat positions
and/or participating in the selective service system and being subject to a possible draft,” yet the committee did not present the phrase
“and/or participating in the selective service system and being subject to a possible draft” because committee members saw no need to
address that issue at that time (Reporter Online); and
Whereas, Since then, on December 3, 2015, the US Department
of Defense announced that all US military combat positions are being
opened up to women, and detailed legal analysis has already been
undertaken by the Department of Defense in consultation with the
Department of Justice concerning the legal implications of this change
of policy in regards to the constitutionality of the application of the
selective service toward women; therefore be it
Resolved, That the LCMS consider the ramifications of the conscription of women, in particular, by means of participation in the
selective service system and a possible draft, as it is an application
of the order of creation and the doctrine of vocation; and be it further
Resolved, That the LCMS support those who have a conscientious
objection to women participating in the selective service system and
being subject to a possible draft.
Board of Directors
South Wisconsin District
5-31

To Condemn and Renounce Employment
of Women in Military Combat
Whereas, On Dec. 3, 2015, the U.S. Department of Defense
announced its lifting of our nation’s 65-year-old ban against sending women into combat—an exclusion the Supreme Court upheld
in 1981; and
Whereas, In 1992, a presidential commission reexamined the
use of women in combat. It conducted hearings inviting theological
input. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod did not contribute or
attend. The final report found that no major American religious establishment had adopted a theological position or spoken clearly on this

355

issue. In 1993–94, the Secretary of Defense ordered the military services to permit women to compete for some combat assignments and
to open some specialties formerly reserved to men. Regretfully, we in
the LCMS must acknowledge: our silence wrongly implied consent to
these changes which we did not intend and must extend no longer; and
Whereas, We recognize our nation’s freedom, prosperity, and
security as gracious gifts from God’s generous hand. These lie beyond
the achievement of human capabilities alone. Dependent upon His
mercies, we dare not defy His will; and
Whereas, God ordered His creation of man and woman in a good
relationship with Himself and one another that His order of redemption does not erase but confirms and fulfills. God designed woman
as His vessel for bearing life (Gen. 3:20). To employ a woman as an
instrument of death and destruction inverts His design; to ignore His
order is sinful; and
Whereas, Advocates of women warriors often cite Judges 4 for
support. In fact, this account is incomprehensible without the underlying presumption that men, not women, have the duty to go forth into
combat. The Lord exposes the cowardice of Barak through Deborah
and shames him by delivering the enemy leader into the hands of a
woman, Jael. God sends neither woman into combat; and
Whereas, The inclusion of women into all combat positions in
the U.S. Armed Forces is not in accordance with God’s order of creation (Genesis 1−2; 1 Corinthians 11), in which men are to be the
self-sacrificial heads and protectors of women, laying down their
lives for them as Christ laid down His life for His Church (Eph.
5:25), and showing honor to them (1 Pet. 3:7), which is further confirmed and testified to by the exclusion of women from combat duty
and conscription throughout the Scriptures (Numbers 1; Josh. 1:14;
Deuteronomy 20; 22; etc.). So also, by extension, in society women
are not to sacrifice themselves for men in combat; rather, men are to
sacrifice themselves for women; and
Whereas, This includes a special and particular responsibility to
guard, protect, and defend women, people of every nation and any
faith should counsel and encourage men to obey their innate impulse
and outward duty: put “women and children first.” For men to employ
women in their own physical defense and in killing can only be considered among the most profound abuses of women; and
Whereas, The spilling and shedding of human blood is far more
than a “job” offering legal “employment.” To escape condemnation
as mercenary murder, the call to arms for the taking and risking of
human lives must only be conducted as a moral enterprise against
evil threats, toward just ends, by just means. Among the fundamental
principles of “just war” is the need to distinguish between combatants and noncombatants; women have always been presumed to be
the latter. America must not ignore this basic presumption, and dare
not attempt to overrule it. To employ women in military combat is
intrinsically immoral and barbaric; and
Whereas, The last Synod convention dismissed the question of
women in combat as one that would not actualize and therefore took
no action on the resolutions regarding the issue then presented; therefore be it
Resolved, That as pastors and congregations of the LCMS, we
confess as sin our failure clearly and boldly to speak to this issue of
women in combat. We repent. We seek now to state our clear theological position on this issue and sound the clear trumpet of God’s
warning (1 Cor. 14:8); and be it further
Resolved, That from Holy Scriptures we are convinced: God does
not sanction and will not bless the purposeful exposure of women to
any hostile environment that compromises His own created order,
2016 Convention Workbook