LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 167

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

⤓ Download .txt · copy text

THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS 167

vote in all congregational meetings, and without depriving
them in the least of their favored position in the church”; and

WHEREAS, The Synod in convention at St. Paul in 1956
adopted a statement, quoted in part: ‘““Our women generally
have not been resentful about their exclusion from this voting
membership as it has developed in our congregations. In faith
and love they gladly exercise their rights as members of the
royal priesthood, in this respect through the natural admin-
istrant sex to which the Scripture assigns the ruling function in
the church. They, too, have read, and they willingly heed, the
Pauline texts. Their Spirit-prompted urge to serve the church
has not been wanting in opportunities for activity. There is so
much forall to do, and there are things that nonecan do so well
as women. We believe that Scripture fully sanctions the basic
polity set upin our church, and wecan forsee only evil results in
any change of the polity under which our church has been so
signally blessed for more than a century”; and

WHEREAS, We must always be aware of Satan’s snare to use
the world and the ways of the world to seduce the Christian to
compromise our Scriptural position with the mores of our
society, today as well as in the past, and must therefore respond
to St. Paul’s appeal to the Roman Christians, which also
applies to us as well (Rom. 12:1-2): “I appeal to you, fellow
Christians, by the mercies of God, to give your bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, and so worship Him
as thinking beings. Don’t live like this world, but let yourselves
be transformed by a renewing of your minds so you can test
and be sure what God wants, what is good and pleasing and
perfect”; and

WHEREAS, Satan continually seeks to lead us astray and to
use what seems to bea harmless decision in principle, and once
made, will use it to condition us for a greater breakdown in
principle by leading us into sin, from sin into false doctrine and
practice; and

WHEREAS, History has proven that Lutheran and other
demoninations first began with ‘“‘woman suffrage,” and after
being conditioned have now taken greater steps in ignoring
Scripture by accepting ‘“‘women ordination”; and

WHEREAS, The Synod in the 1969 Denver convention allowed
congregations to adopt the unscriptural position of woman
suffrage, which has brought much confusion and disunity
within our Synod; and

WHEREAS, There is new hope that our younger theologians
of today see that the concession our Synod made by passing
Denver Res. 2-17, giving the option to each congregation
regarding the practice of woman suffrage, was very unwise,
causing them to take a closer look into Scripture, as shown by
the following comment taken from ‘Theses on Woman Suffrage
in the Church by Douglas Judisch (Concordia Theological
Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 3 [July 1977] pp. 36—43): ‘The author
must admit, to be sure, that he favored the resolution con-
cerned at the convention in Denver, considering woman
suffrage a necessary concession to the spirit of the times. His
witness of the evil results of this arrangement, however, has
driven him back to a thorough study of the matter in the light of
the Word of God. The time has come for others in the Synod to
reconsider their stance in the same light”; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Synod, meeting in convention in St.
Louis, Mo. (July 1981), repent of our former action and return to
our previous Scriptural position regarding woman suffrage.

Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church
Fairhope, Pa.
Arnold M. Weidner, President
Gus A. Kern, Secretary
H. B. Schutte, Pastor
Identical or similar:
3-25B

Resurrection, Revelstoke, B.C. Lymon E. Jones

3-26A

To Review Woman Suffrage on the Basis
of Holy Scripture

WHEREAS, The Denver convention of the Synod in 1969

passed Res. 2-17, “To Grant Woman Suffrage and Board
Membership”: and

WHEREAS, This resolution (2-17), which was passed in part
because of the previously published report of the Commission
on Theology and Church Relations entitled ‘Woman Suffrage
in the Church,” declared that ‘Scripture does not prohibit
women from exercising the franchise in congregational or
synodical assemblies” so long as “the polity developed con-
forms to the general Scriptural principles that women neither
hold the pastoral office nor exercise authority over men”
(Denver ‘Proceedings, Res. 2-17, p. 89); and

WHEREAS, The Milwaukee convention of the Synod in 1971
passed a resolution (2-17) asking the Commission on Theology
and Church Relations, in consultation with the Commission
on Constitutional Matters, to review “‘concerns expressed in
overtures to the Synod [regarding woman suffrage] and report
their findings to the Synod prior to the 1973 convention at New
Orleans” (Milwaukee Proceedings, Res. 2-17,); and

WHEREAS, The New Orleans convention of the Synod in
1973 established a task force (with equal representation of men
and women) to study the role of women in The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod; and

WHEREAS, This task force was to be appointed by the
President of the Synod in consultation with the CTCR and the
leadership of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League, with
“guidelines for the work of the task force [to] be developed by
the task force with the approval of the President” ( New Orleans
Proceedings, Res. 2-49, p. 125—26); and

WHEREAS, The Task Force on Women was continued by the
Anaheim convention of the Synod in 1975 for “further study”
of the role of women in the church (Anaheim Proceedings, Res.
3-08, p. 99); and

WHEREAS, In a resolution before the Dallas convention of
the Synod to “commend the Task Force on Women” attention
was called to the CTCR and its Social Concerns Committee for
“studying and clarifying issues concerning woman suffrage
and women teachers” (Dallas Proceedings, Res. 3-06, p. 129);
an

WHEREAS, To date, in resolutions before the Synod, no
mention is made of what the Holy Scriptures doin fact say with
regard to woman suffrage in the church; and

WHEREAS, Some have said they believe woman suffrage is
prohibited in the church on the basis of the following Bible
references and their related subjects:

1. The order of creation: Gen. 1:27; Matt. 19:4; 1 Tim. 2:13

2. The order of the fall into sin: Gen. 3:2, 6, 13, 17; 2 Cor. 11:3;
1 Tim. 2:14

3. The subordination of woman to man: 1 Cor. 11:3; Eph.
5:22-23; Col. 3:18; 1 Tim. 2:11

4, The silence mandated of women in the churches: 1 Cor.
14:33-35; 1 Tim. 2:11

5. The prohibition of the teaching of men by women: 1 Tim.
2:12

6. The forbidding of women to exercise authority over men:
1 Tim. 2:12

7. The curse that attends the ruling of men by women:
Is. 3:12

8. The precedents of the first voters assemblies of Scripture:
Acts 1:16, 21; 6:3; 15:7, 13, 22, 25; 1 Cor. 14:33-34; 1 Tim. 2:8
(Jeffrey C. Kinnery, “Woman Suffrage in the Congregation,”
Christian News, Jan. 14, 1980, p. 5, 7); and

WHEREAS, The Exegetical Department of Concordia Theo-
logical Seminary in Fort Wayne, Ind. unanimously concluded
after careful study of the Sacred Scriptures that ‘‘female suf:
frage is definitely contrary to the Word of God” in the church
(cf. Concordia Theological Quarterly, 41:3, July 1977, p. 36—
45); and

WHEREAS, It is a known fact that councils and synods can
err; therefore be it

Resolved, That The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod ask
its Commission on Theology and Church Relations to carefully
study the issue of woman suffrage in the church once again on
the basis of what the Scriptures say and report their findings to