# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2023_S407
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

FLOOR COMMITTEES: REPORT AND OVERTURE ASSIGNMENTS

11. Church and Culture
REPORTS
R1, R1.2.5, R1.3, R12, R16, R20, R66.1–R66.4
OVERTURES
Ov. 11-01

To Be Cautious with
the World’s Moral Imperatives
WHEREAS, We live in a post-Christian world in which our
Christian faith does not drive the shaping of culture; and
WHEREAS, The world has its own vocabulary of moral
imperatives, often skewing those our Lord has given, sometimes
even contradicting them directly, thereby making evil seem good
and good seem evil (Isaiah 5:20); and
WHEREAS, The world’s moral imperatives migrate according to
who has the most power to shape them; and
WHEREAS, “The world will seek to domesticate [us] to its ways,”
(Norman Nagel, Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel [St. Louis:
CPH, 2004], 151); and
WHEREAS, St. Peter has called us to be sober and vigilant because
the adversary is always looking for an opportunity to pounce (1
Peter 5:8); and
WHEREAS, This often occurs by means of language and ideology
that is untruthful according to Scripture and the Lutheran
Confessions; and
WHEREAS, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and
desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9); and
WHEREAS, The human sciences, such as sociology,
anthropology, and psychology, are doubly vulnerable to the
deceitfulness and sickness of the heart since practitioners bring the
above heart sickness and deceitfulness to bear, and the subjects
contributing data to research share the same above mentioned heart
sickness and deceitfulness, giving both experimenter and subject a
false sense of objectivity and moral neutrality; and
WHEREAS, Ideas and conclusions drawn from the abovementioned human sciences find their way into other disciplines such
as arts and humanities, economics, political science, and most
especially, journalism, howbeit, even the practitioners of the hard
sciences are not immune; therefore be it
Resolved, That pastors, church workers, and lay people be
encouraged to use the language of the world’s moral imperatives
sparingly, to wit, on occasions when the users of those terms overtly
explain what they mean by their usage; and be it further
Resolved, That pastors, church workers, and lay people be
encouraged to refrain from using the world’s moral imperatives
when a) the speaker does not have occasion to explain his or her
usage, or b) the hearer does not have the opportunity to seek an
explanation of the usage; and be it further
Resolved, That pastors, church workers, and lay people, in the
interest of vigilance, be encouraged to investigate the world’s moral
imperatives, holding them up to the light of the Holy Scriptures and
the Lutheran Confessions; and be it further

407

Resolved, That pastors, church workers, and lay people be
encouraged to intensify their own biblical and confessional literacy
so that they may be able to rightly divide whatever they are hearing,
affirming what is honorable, just, pure, lovely, and commendable
while shining the painful light of truth upon what is false and evil;
and be it further
Resolved, That we cultivate a robust use of the Holy Scriptures
and the Lutheran Confessions to direct conversations away from the
world’s moral imperatives and into truth, life, and health; and be it
finally
Resolved, That pastors, church workers, and lay people be
encouraged to a vigorous exercise of the Eighth Commandment
among ourselves as we speak of the world’s moral imperatives,
always presuming best intentions on the part of the other person
while at the same time aiming to speak and live in truth together,
truth whose boundaries are given by the Holy Scriptures and the
Lutheran Confessions; and that this resolution be forwarded to the
2023 Synod convention.
Pastors’ Conference (Eastern Region)
Northern Illinois District
Ov. 11-02

To Reject Racism and Advance the Gospel
WHEREAS, God has created all people and they are blood-related
going back to our mutual fathers, Adam and Noah, and all are
subject to the stain of original sin, but now also have been equally
redeemed by the blood of Christ in order to be reconciled to God
and to each other; and
WHEREAS, God’s Word says, “If you really fulfill the royal law
according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself,’ you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are
committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors”
(James 2:8–9); and
WHEREAS, Racism (the sinful notion that some races are
inherently superior to others), misunderstanding, and strife are
present in the world and experienced in congregations due to our
sin; and
WHEREAS, The Synod abhors racism, and in convention has
passed resolutions repudiating all racism (1992 Resolution 3-03;
2019 Res. 11-04A); and
WHEREAS, Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a common,
multifaceted, and controversial theory for discussion of
contemporary race relations; therefore be it
Resolved, That the Synod in convention reject the worldview of
CRT, as it is contrary to Scripture and counterproductive to true
racial conversation and reconciliation, for it pursues equality of
outcome—equity—between racial groups, which requires treating
individuals unequally based on race, and also reject all
organizations, movements, petitions, and theological language that
support this worldview in a positive manner; and be it further
Resolved, That the Synod reject any doctrine that teaches:
• one’s race, ancestry, or nationality is inherently superior to
the race, ancestry, or nationality of another;
• any individual is inherently racist, or oppressive, whether
consciously or unconsciously, because of his or her race,
ancestry, or nationality;
and be it further
2023 Convention Workbook