# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1890_S37
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1890. 37

Declaration of the Synod on the School Question.

This declaration was presented to the Synod in the following five points.

1. Since God's Word, the rule of our life, lays upon all Christian parents the duty to bring up their children in the discipline and admonition of the Lord, it is thereby laid down for all Christians, if they have their children educated in schools, to entrust the children, until they are established in Christian knowledge, only to such schools in which the children's education is conducted in the discipline and admonition of the Lord; and it goes without saying for us that we also wish, to the best of our ability, to educate our children to be capable citizens, and that, again as a matter of course, we are also concerned for their being as capably schooled as possible in the use of the English language of the country.

2. Since in the religionless public schools, wherever they are conducted solely in the spirit of the religionless state, not only is a Christian education excluded, but in these schools as a rule, through instruction and discipline, things contrary to the Word of God are impressed upon the children, and so the spiritual life of Christian children is endangered and damaged, we may not, as Christians, in conscience submit to any law of the state that is aimed at, or can be used for, forcing our children into such religionless public schools.

3. As we pray daily, "Thy kingdom come," so we also have the duty to preserve and spread the orthodox Evangelical Lutheran Church in this country, and must therefore, also in conscience, oppose all laws that are directed to, or can be used for, damaging our Lutheran parish schools, which serve the extension and preservation of the kingdom of God.

4. When our Lord Christ says, "My kingdom is not of this world," and "Give to the emperor what is the emperor's, and to God what is God's,", the separation of church and state is to be recognized for all times as in accordance with the Word of God; and since God has granted us in this country the high good of religious liberty, we may, as faithful stewards, approve no legislation that amounts to a mixing of the spiritual and the worldly and endangers our church's freedom, but rather we heartily approve the struggle, conducted by lawful means, against such laws, as they were enacted last year in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois to the harm of our parish schools; while on the other hand, for the same reason, we reject every claim upon public funds for the founding or maintenance of church schools.

5. For all the reasons given we, as Lutheran Christians, must give our hearty approval to the fact that our brethren in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois have taken up, and thus far conducted, the struggle forced upon them against those laws, whether before the