Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1969 · 48th Convention › Sheet 545
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1969, Sheet 545

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

WOMAN SUFFRAGE IN THE CHURCH

From the New York convention (1967) the Com-
mission on Theology and Church Relations received the
assignment to do a study on the subject of woman suf-
frage “to establish a policy for congregations of the
Synod” (2-05) and to provide guidance in the matter
of full membership on the part of women on synodical
boards, commissions, and committees (2-06). On the
basis of its study this commission submits the following
declarations and supporting documentation to the Den-
ver convention (1969) of The Lutheran Church — Mis-
souri Synod.

The basic recommendation of the commission is for-
warded to the convention on the fundamental assump-
tion that both the exercise of the franchise and the
holding of church office, whether by men or women, are
to be viewed as opportunities for service rather than
occasions for an insistence on individual rights. An
interest in the exercise of power as such is a charac-
teristic of unredeemed life. The Lord of the church
has asked His followers not to have an interest in the
prerogatives of rule and authority (cf. Luke 22:25).

It is well to remember, moreover, that it is not pos-
sible in a presentation of this kind to offer solutions
for every aspect of the problem before us. The dec-
larations offered herewith, instead, were designed to
provide general guidance for a very complex area of
church life. They flow from the historical and exe-
getical materials given in subsequent sections.

In light of a thorough study of the issues involved,
the Commission on Theology and Church Relations
recommends adoption of the following declarations as
guides in the matter of woman suffrage, including both
the issue of the franchise and the matter of holding
office:

I. Declarations

1. We find nothing in Scripture which prohibits
women from exercising the franchise in voters’ assem-
blies.

2. Those statements of Scripture which direct women
to keep silent in the church, and which prohibit them
to teach and to exercise authority over men, we under-
stand to mean that women ought not to hold the pas-
toral office.

3. Such passages, we hold, indicate that women
ought not to hold any other office in the church whose
function it is to assist the pastor in the exercise and
administration of the Office of the Keys.

4. The principles set forth in such Passages, we be-
lieve, apply also to holding any other kind of office
in the institutional structures of the church which
might involve women in a violation of the order of
creation.

5. We find no statement in Scripture which prohibits
women from holding office on the boards and commit-
tees of Synod whether such offices are filled by election
or by appointment.

514

6. We conclude that the Synod itself and the con-
gregations of the Synod are at liberty to alter their
constitutions and their practices to conform to these
declarations if they believe that such changes are in
the best interest of the congregation and of the church
at large.

In the discussion which follows, a distinction is made
at certain points between the exercise of the franchise
and the matter of holding office. The former question
has been before the Synod in some form or other for
more than a century. The issue of holding office, spe-
cifically on synodical boards and committees, was not
taken up until the Detroit convention of 1965 (cf. Pro-
ceedings, p. 100, Res, 2-24). At New York these two
aspects of the suffrage question were covered by the
two resolutions cited in the opening paragraph of this
document (2-05 and 2-06). In the following sections
the two items are dealt with separately wherever the
need occurred.

II. Historical Background

As we have already noted, the question of women
voting in voters’ assemblies has been before Synod for
a long time, even though it did not become a pressing
problem until recent decades.

A. EARLY PASTORAL THEOLOGIES

Dr. C. F. W. Walther takes cognizance of the ques-
tion in Die rechte Gestalt einer vom Staate unabhangi-
gen Evangelisch Lutherischen Ortsgemeinde (Saint
Louis, 1864). In a discussion of congregational meetings
he observes (p. 50):

All the adult male members of the congregation are en-

titled to active participation in the transactions of such

meetings by way of speaking, deliberating, voting, and re-
solving. But women and the young are excluded from
such participation.

Dr. Walther quotes 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 as his au-
thority for this observation.

Later on he took up the question of woman suffrage
again. This time he discussed it in his Amerikanisch-
Lutherische Pastoraltheologie (St. Louis, 1872), p. 371:

All adult male members (that is, those who can vote in

civic matters) ought to have the right to take active part

in speaking, deliberating, voting, and passing of resolu-
tions as these occur in the meetings of the congregation,
since this right appertains to the whole congregation.

Compare Matt. 18:17-18; Acts 1:15, 23-26; 15:5, 12-13,

22-23; 1Cor.5:2; 6:2; 10:15; 12:7; 2Cor.2:6-8; 2 Thess,

3:15. Excluded from the exercise of this right are young

people (1 Peter 5:5) and female members of the congre-

Zation (1 Cor. 14:34-35).

It should be noted that Dr. Walther simply appeals
to 1 Cor. 14: 34-35 for his position on the right of women
to vote. He does not stop to show how this passage
proves his point.

Walther’s position was adopted by John H. C. Fritz,
Pastoral Theology, (St. Louis, 1932). Under the head-
ing “The Congregational Meeting” he has the following
statement on “The Right of Suffrage” (p. 315):