# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_August 1856_S225
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Lehre und Wehre.

Jahrgang II.               August 1856.               No. 8.

(Submitted by K. B.)
Slavery and the Bible. *)

Hardly could the German Lutheran Church in the United States, for any length of time, evade answering the question: how the slavery prevailing here is to be judged according to God's Word. Even though this question may at present hold little practical interest for the greater part of our German fellow believers, yet times and circumstances can, with the highest probability, be foreseen which will lay upon the Church the duty of discussing the above question more thoroughly and instructing its members concerning it; and even if the question holds no particular practical interest for the immediate present, it is nevertheless, in itself, already of such importance that no mind laying claim to culture can remain without a clear conviction guided by the divine Word. Even social intercourse in civil life does not permit one to remain indifferent and neutral with regard to slavery, which, as is well known, is in all the higher and lower circles of society the favorite subject of oral and written discussion; still more, however, does the need of a firm conviction increase as a consequence of the duty of a citizen of the United States, who, without this conviction, is in many cases unable to exercise his rights of citizenship and of the vote conscientiously. If we now make the slavery question the subject of discussion in an ecclesiastical periodical, we do not fear deserving the reproach of an uncalled-for meddling in the political questions of the day and of party; for when a political question plays over into the spiritual domain of conscience, then it is not only permissible, but even necessary, to submit it to a spiritual tribunal.

In the discussion now undertaken we set aside all philosophical-philanthropic as well as all juridical-political argumentation, and hold strictly within the bounds of Holy Scripture.

*) So little did we consider ourselves entitled to reject the present article on account of the dissent in which our — as we believe, well-founded — conviction stands with its content, that we cannot, nevertheless, forbear giving expression herewith to our dissent. R. v. L. u. W. [The Editors of Lehre und Wehre]

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