# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2023_S313
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
about vaccination and medication in good conscience; therefore be
it
Resolved, That the Nebraska District urge its members and
parishioners to read Synod President Rev. Dr. Matthew Harrison’s
“LCMS COVID Vaccine Pastoral Letter” dated January 21, 2021
(files.lcms.org/dl/f/1F618D12-7061-4157-9321-A0B870A37B34,
accessed Mar. 19, 2023); and be it further
Resolved, That the district urge its members and parishioners to
read the September 24, 2021 document: “The LCMS and COVID19 Vaccines: Facts and Considerations” (lcms.org/doc/covid19vaccines-fact-sheet, accessed Mar. 19, 2023); and be it finally
Resolved, That the district in convention petition the Synod in its
2023 convention to direct the Commission on Theology and Church
Relations to address specifically the topic of vaccines and other
medications as it relates to the issue of abortion.
Nebraska District
Ov. 5-43

To Encourage Synod to Clarify Our Stance
on Fetal Tissues and Their Use Related
to Pharmaceutical Products
WHEREAS, God’s Word condemns murder (Ex. 20:13; Matt.
19:18; Rom. 13:9); and
WHEREAS, God pledges a reckoning for the shedding of innocent
blood (Gen. 9:5–6); and
WHEREAS, God’s children are called away from self-seeking
(Rom. 2:8), but rather to seek good for our neighbor (1 Cor. 10:23–
24); and
WHEREAS, The recent controversy surrounding vaccines for the
COVID-19 virus have brought into the spotlight the ethical question
of the relationship of fetal tissue to the production of some vaccines;
and
WHEREAS, Abortion violates God’s call to protect life; and
WHEREAS, Aborted tissue has been harnessed in the field of
pharmaceutical experimentation; and
WHEREAS, These tissues, and the cell lines derived from these
tissues, are used to test certain pharmaceuticals, as well as to design,
produce, and/or manufacture them, resulting in different levels of
contact and use of such tissues with those products; therefore be it
Resolved, That the Missouri District memorialize The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) in convention to direct the
Commission on Theology and Church Relations and the two
seminaries of our Synod to clarify any theological significance
between the different types of fetal tissues used and if they are used
directly or are derived cell lines; and be it further
Resolved, That the above entities clarify what is biblically and
ethically acceptable regarding the pharmaceutical products that in
various manners are related to fetal tissues and how to differentiate
for the sake of conscience; and be it finally
Resolved, That the LCMS congregations and pastors be
encouraged to then apply the resulting guidance in our teachings
and lives.
Missouri District

313

Ov. 5-44

To Advocate for Religious Exemption and Against
Vaccine Mandates with Use of Vaccines Decided
as Matter of Individual Conscience
WHEREAS, In the beginning, “God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him; male and female he created
them” (Gen. 1:27), and He reaffirmed this special status after the
flood, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be
shed, for God made man in his own image” (Gen. 9:6); and
WHEREAS, The human conscience has always been the
battleground over control of the destiny of the human race, starting
in the Garden of Eden with God instructing the man not to eat from
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil while the serpent
suggested to the woman that they would be like God if only they
would eat of the tree in the midst of the garden—which they did
(Gen. 2 and 3); later King Nebuchadnezzar demanded that
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego bow down and worship a
golden image to which they objected and, thankfully, God protected
them from the fiery furnace (Daniel 3); when the council in
Jerusalem demanded that the apostles stop teaching in the name of
Jesus, Peter replied, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts
5:29); and finally Paul writes in Romans 14:23, “But whoever has
doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith.
For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin”; and
WHEREAS, The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold
these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,”
such as freedom of religion and freedom of speech, enshrined in the
Bill of Rights; and
WHEREAS, The Nuremberg Code stipulates that “voluntary
consent of the human subject is absolutely essential” and protects
the right of the individual to control his own body; and
WHEREAS, Vaccines are often developed using tissue from
aborted fetal cell lines; and
WHEREAS, Vaccine makers are given liability protection from
The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (42 U.S.C. §§
300aa–1 to 300aa–34) from any injuries that might be caused by
their vaccines to insure a stable market supply of vaccines; and
WHEREAS, Vaccine mandates don’t always offer religious
exemption nor do they compensate the individual receiving the
vaccine against those manufacturing, administering, and mandating
the vaccine for injuries the jabbed incur; and
WHEREAS, Many Lutheran pastors have been asked about our
Synod’s position on the mandates and for help with religious
exemption from mandates; and
WHEREAS, When there is potential for harm, there has to be an
opportunity for an individual to make a choice; therefore be it
Resolved, That the Synod encourage those considering vaccines
to proceed only after receiving informed consent regarding use of
tissue from aborted fetal cell lines in the development of the vaccine
as well as consideration of possible injury from the vaccine; and be
it further
Resolved, That the Synod go on record as advocating for
religious exemption from vaccine mandates with use of vaccines
decided as a matter of individual conscience.
Circuit 3 (Rice Lake)
North Wisconsin District
2023 Convention Workbook