# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2013_S362 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 362 This document is also available in Spanish from Concordia Publishing House THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON ANDatCHURCH RELATIONS (CPHTHEOLOGY item 092624) and online www.lcms.org/ctcr. Immigrants Among Us: Abbreviations immigrants among us A Lutheran Framework for Addressing Immigration Issues AE Ap KW LC SA SC Luther’s Works. American ed. 55 vols. St. Louis: Concordia and Philadelphia: Fortress, 1955–1986 Apology of the Augsburg Confession The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Edited by Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000. The Large Catechism Smalcald Articles Small Catechism Copyright © 2013 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod 1333 South Kirkwood Road, St. Louis, MO 63122-7295 Manufactured in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyrighted © 2001, unless otherwise noted. Quotations from the Lutheran Confessions are from the Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, ed. Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000). The SymbolGreek II and NewJerusalem fonts used to print this work are available from Linguist’s Software, Inc., PO Box 580, Edmonds, WA 980200580, USA; telephone (425) 775-1130; www.linguistsoftware.com. A Report of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod This publication may be available in braille, in large print, or on cassette tape for the visually impaired. Please allow 8 to 10 weeks for delivery. Write to the Library for the Blind, 7550 Watson Rd., St. Louis, MO 63119–4409; call toll-free 1-888-215-2455; or visit the Web site www.blindmission.org. November 2012 2 Immigrants Among Us Immigrants Among Us A Lutheran Framework for Addressing Immigration Issues A Lutheran Framework for Addressing Immigration Issues Preface Table of Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Purpose of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 I. Immigrant Neighbors Past and Present: How Should Scripture Inform Attitudes Towards Immigrants Today? . . . . . . 11 II. God’s Law, Civil Law, and the Neighbor: On Christian Obedience to God's Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 III. Living in God’s Two Realms: On the Activity of Christians in the World as Church and as Citizens . . . . . . . . .29 IV. Who Is My Neighbor? The Place of the Christian’s Vocation in the Immigration Debate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Concluding Remarks and a Final Exhortation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 V. Responding to Immigration Concerns: Some Guidelines for Church Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Appendix I: A Framework for Considering Immigration Concerns: Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Appendix II: Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 The following report is no more or less than the subtitle suggests: a Lutheran framework for considering the complex and challenging topic of immigration in the United States. To be clear, the document does not present the “official position” of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod on current debates in the United States regarding immigration. This is true for several reasons: (1) The Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) does not determine the official position of the Synod. Our reports are published for the purpose of study and discussion, not as a final statement on doctrine and practice. (2) The Synod did not ask for a perspective on immigration that would attempt to settle all discussions or end debate in the LCMS (much less the U.S. itself!). (3) In taking on an assignment from the Synod, the CTCR attempts to address the assigned issue(s) on the basis of scriptural and confessional truths that are not limited to the fluid, constantly changing realities of particular social, political, legal, or cultural circumstances. A document that was determined, above all, to be “relevant” to current debates on this issue would quickly become irrelevant. (4) As the document itself seeks to explain, there are social, political, and legal issues that are not decisively addressed by the Word of God and about which, therefore, Christians committed to the same understanding of scriptural authority may disagree. At the same time, the Commission does seek to provide here a helpful resource for Christians—particularly Lutherans—to consider the challenging issue of immigration. One of our goals is to help individuals with very strong opinions to consider how and why there are conscientious, thoughtful Christians who have come to different conclusions about immigration. Above all, the Commission wishes to remind readers that both the immigrant and the fellow citizen are our neighbors—individuals we are called to love. Therefore, the following report includes not only a theological discussion of some of the questions raised by Christian citizens regarding immigration, but also two Appendices. Appendix I provides a series of case studies. Appendix II consists of two brief lists of terms, the first legal and the second theological, explaining how these terms are used in the document. The “immigration terms” occur frequently in national debates, while the listed “theological terms” are important for understanding the theological perspective of this document. You may wish to review Appendix II before reading the report. 5 2013 Convention Workbook 3