# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2013_S148
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

148

MERCY

weapons of a man, nor shall a man wear female clothing ... [S]uch
things are not to be done as a matter of serious and constant habit and
custom, but due uprightness and dignity are to be preserved for each
sex … Through this law … [Moses] seem to reproach any nation in
which this custom is observed” (AE 9:219–220; and
Whereas, Christ confirms and fulfills this Old Testament pattern, as the New Testament makes clear. Just as Jesus gave up His
life, died, for His Bride, so also husbands should give up their lives,
die, for their wives (Eph. 5:25); and
Whereas, The common sensibility of “gentlemen” 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

2013 Convention Workbook

principles of just war is the need to distinguish between combatants and non-combatants; 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; therefore be it, 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, From
Holy Scripture 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, good design, and high and
holy callings. We hereby declare our conscientious objection to any
policy or practice that considers women eligible for assignment into
combat situations or conscription; and be it finally, To all who defy
God’s clearly-expressed will in this matter, we declare His warning
(Ez. 33): Hear the Word of the Lord and repent, lest you incur His condemnation, for on the final day you will face His judgment.
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