# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1890_S39
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der ev.⸗luth. Synodalconferenz von Nord⸗Amerika. 1890. 39

tian education is excluded, but also, as a rule, things not in harmony
with the Word of God are by way of instruction and discipline in-
culcated on the children, and the spiritual life of Christian children
is thus endangered and impaired: therefore we as Christians are in
conscience bound to submit to no law of the state which is directed
or may be used toward forcing our children into such public schools.

3. In accordance with our daily prayer: “Thy kingdom come,”
it is our duty to preserve and extend the orthodox Evangelical-
Lutheran Church in this our country, and we are, therefore, in con-
science bound to combat each and every law which is directed or
may be used to the detriment and damage of Lutheran parochial
schools, which are effective means of extending and perpetuating
the kingdom of God.

4. Forasmuch as our Lord Jesus Christ says, “My kingdom is
not of this world,” and “Render unto Cæsar the things which are
Cæsar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s,” the separation
of Church and State is for all times to be acknowledged as in accord-
ance with the Word of God; and since God has in this country vouch-
safed unto us the precious boon of religious liberty, we may not as
faithful stewards approve of any legislation which tends toward a
confusion of spiritual and secular affairs and endangers our religious
liberty, and we most cordially approve of combatting with legitimate
means such laws as have to the detriment and damage of our paro-
chial schools been enacted in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois
during the past year, while on the other hand we, for the same
reason, condemn all demands upon the public funds for the erection
or maintenance of parochial schools.

5. For all the reasons stated we must, as Lutheran Christians,
grant our cordial approval to the fact that our brethren in the states
of Wisconsin and Illinois have, whether in courts of law or at the
ballot-box, taken up and hitherto carried on the contest forced upon
them against such laws, and we are, furthermore, determined to make
most energetic opposition wherever in other states such or similar
legislation may be attempted. To this end we, the delegates of the
Joint Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States, in convention as-
sembled, recommend the following measures:

1) to agree to the propositions made by the district synods,
namely to appoint a General Committee of the Missouri synod, whose
duty it shall be to receive reports from the District Committees; to
give advice as the case may require; to consult prominent jurists
and to publish in leading journals articles on the school question;

2) to appoint as members of this committee the following per-
sons: Rev. H. C. Schwan, Rev. H. Niemann, Mr. E. C. Schwan,