# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S538
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

FLOOR COMMITTEE REPORTS AND OVERTURES ASSIGNMENTS

538

11. Church and Culture
REPORTS
R1, R1.1, R1.2, R1.3, R7, R12, R17, R60, R61, R62
OVERTURES
Ov. 11-01

To Give Guidance and Encourage Action on
Beginning-of-Life Issues
Preamble
The 66th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod (LCMS) adopted Resolution 3-04, “To Create Task Force for
Study of Issues Relating to Procreation, Fertility, and Care for the
Unborn” (2016 Proceedings, 143), which affirms the Bible’s
teaching that God’s creation of human life begins at conception and
that “Children are a blessing from the Lord” (Ps. 127:3, 5). This
resolution also identified the complexities and ever-changing
landscape of procreation, fertility, and care for the unborn. It noted
that science and technology have significantly changed since the
publication several decades ago of various Commission on
Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) documents and reports on
life issues.
The adopted resolution called for the President of Synod to appoint
a task force to take up these issues and report back to the next
convention. The members of this task force (including
representatives from pertinent Synod offices and entities, Lutherans
For Life, the seminaries, and laypersons who have expertise in the
fields of medicine, procreative science, theology, ethics, etc.) were
specifically asked to do the following:
• identify the important issues to be addressed to best help and
support families and parents dealing with the issues of
procreation, fertility and care of the unborn;
• identify specific actions leading to the production of
appropriate LCMS responses to these issues.
The task force was appointed by the Synod President and met three
times during the past triennium. At those meetings, it carefully
assessed its assignment from the Synod and heard and discussed
reports on specific issues such as procreation, medical advances in
areas such as genomics, questions raised by medical consent forms,
and questions and concerns about procreative technologies such as
in vitro fertilization.
The task force also determined that while the items raised in the
resolution all relate to human reproduction and tend toward a
consideration of technological “advances,” there are underlying
cultural assumptions and questions that challenge the Christian. The
task force agreed that it was important to try to address
“foundational matters” relative to these questions and assumptions.
For example, the biblical view that parents are blessed with a child
as a gift of God today faces a competing view wherein children are
viewed more as a parental reproductive project and an entitlement.
In response to this specific concern, one member of the task force,
Dr. Gilbert Meilaender, was asked and agreed to prepare a paper for
study and discussion. This paper, titled “The Child as a Gift of
God,” was thoroughly discussed by the task force, and all members

2019 Convention Workbook

agreed that the paper identifies fundamental issues that deserve
broader dissemination, study and discussion.
WHEREAS, The 2016 Resolution 3-04 Task Force was formed
with the mandate to study issues relating to procreation, fertility,
and care for the unborn in order to identify actions leading to the
production of appropriate LCMS responses to these issues, and to
make recommendations in the form of appropriate overtures to the
Synod’s 2019 national convention; and
WHEREAS, The task force met on three occasions during the past
triennium for careful deliberation and discussion of beginning-oflife issues; and
WHEREAS, The task force has identified certain proposed
“actions” for the Synod to consider; therefore be it
Resolved, That the following specific recommendations of the
task force be adopted and implemented:
• to commend the paper “The Child as a Gift of God” to
members of the Synod and Synod congregations for
reflection, study and discussion;
• to urge filling as soon as fiscally possible the vacant position
of LCMS Director of Life and Health Ministry since
leadership in this office is crucial for moving forward on
these critical and time-sensitive issues;
• to urge the CTCR, as it seeks to complete its assignment
from the Synod to update its 1981 report on Human
Sexuality (2016 Res. 14-03A, Proceedings, 242–3), to give
new or renewed attention to the virtue of chastity in relation
to specific issues such as 1) the vocation of singleness; 2) the
nature and significance of Christian marriage; 3) a theology
of procreation (including issues relating to contraception); 4)
the reality and burden of infertility;
• to ask the CTCR to review and revisit its various documents
on beginning of life issues (e.g., Christians and Procreative
Choices: How Do God’s Chosen Choose? [adopted 1996];
What Child is This? Marriage, Family, and Human Cloning,
[adopted 2002]; Christian Faith and Human Beginnings:
Christian Care and Pre-Implantation Human Life [adopted
2005]) to determine whether and/or where updates to these
documents are needed and how such potential updates might
best and most effectively be communicated to the Synod;
• to request the Synod’s office of Life and Health Ministries,
in collaboration with supportive entities (e.g., Lutherans For
Life, the Concordia University Wisconsin Center for
Bioethics), to continue to sponsor and coordinate
conferences and other education on issues such as embryo
adoption, methods of contraception, genomics and other new
technologies, surrogacy, and medical consent, for the
purpose of enhancing the church’s understanding of and
response to these issues;
• to encourage our seminaries and colleges to give increased
attention and priority to beginning-of-life issues through
coursework, continuing education, and other means;
• to request the Office of National Mission (ONM) to prepare
educational resources on beginning-of-life issues for LCMS
campus ministries and youth ministries;
• to encourage districts, circuits, congregations and schools to
address these issues as they are able;
• to request the ONM to identify resources and individuals for
consultation on beginning-of-life issues.
2016 Resolution 3-04 Task Force