LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2023, Page 210

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210

THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS­­—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS

Lewis’s simple formula — either marriage or abstinence — is indeed the biblical norm. But contemporary threats
to marriage are significant. As noted earlier, only about half of Americans are married. While some of the unmarried
are, of course, sexually inactive, many other unmarried people prefer cohabitation and still others engage in shortterm sexual liaisons.
Studies indicate that most married Americans are faithful to their spouses, but marital infidelity is not
infrequent.102 The General Social Survey reports that American husbands commit adulterous affairs against their
wives more frequently than wives do, but the number of adulterous women has risen significantly in recent years.103
However, while outward behavior is important, Christians must take to heart Christ’s warning that adultery begins
in the heart (MATT. 5:28). This is all-the-more important in the present context in which pornography is pervasive,
providing ready stimulus for lustful thoughts and acts. Moreover, for those dissatisfied with their spouses and
inclined to have affairs, websites designed to facilitate affairs are readily available. The internet has fostered an
epidemic in sexual sin, seducing both the married and the unmarried toward adultery in thought, word and deed.

Thus, there can be no mystery in the fact that fewer couples marry or that many marriages end in divorce. Actual
divorce percentages are notoriously difficult to determine.115 Clearly, however, the number of couples that divorce is
high. Moreover, while there is evidence that divorce rates are declining, one of the major reasons is that fewer adults
are getting married.116
It should not surprise us that these behaviors — casual sex, cohabitation before or in place of marriage and
divorce — are not only widespread, but are approved as moral alternatives to past patterns of understandings of
sexuality and marriage. Certainly, not all agree with these attitudes or engage in these behaviors.117 Nevertheless, they
are so much a part of American life that many boast about them. For example, one writer calls her divorce “radical
self-love,” proclaiming that although she loved her husband (and even praises him as a husband and father), she
divorced him because she loved herself more.118

The decline in marriage in the US does not mean that marriage is unpopular. Americans of all races and classes
continue to want to be married. The National Marriage Project, for example, found that across the social strata
— from the least educated and poorest Americans to the most highly educated and economically prosperous —
Americans desire marriage and see it as very important. More than 75% of all Americans want to be married. But
marital success, in terms of longevity and happiness, is not equal across various social groups. Marriages tend to
be long-lasting and happy for only the most highly-educated 30% of Americans. It is the less-educated and lessprosperous for whom marriage is more likely to be an unrealized dream rather than a reality. 104
When marriage is in decline the challenge to chastity is acute and widespread. While most still value faithfulness
within marriage and frown on adultery, few Americans recognize sex between unmarried persons to be a moral
problem — nearly 60% strongly defended such non-marital sex as “not wrong at all” a decade ago, while more recent
studies suggest that about 70% of the population condones sex outside of marriage.105 In such a climate, virginity is
viewed as more shameful than virtuous, and even its defenders seem unwilling to view it as anything more than a
personal choice — an alternative to the equally acceptable option of having as many sexual partners as one wants.106
The use of pornography is not only ubiquitous, it is also increasingly accepted as moral behavior.107 The majority of
Americans evidently affirm the assumption of most media (from movies, to television, to books, blogs, and music)
that consensual sexual activity is morally acceptable between individuals, whether or not they are married.108

GSS data indicates that among married adults about 20% of men and 13% of women committed adultery. See Wendy Wang, “Who Cheats More? The Demographics
of Infidelity in America,” Institute for Family Studies, January 10, 2018, https://ifstudies.org/blog/who-cheats-more-the-demographics-of-cheating-in-america#:~:text=also%20means%20infidelity.
102

103
Zach Schonfeld, “Wives Are Cheating 40% More than They Used to, but Still 70% as Much as Men,” The Atlantic (online ed., July 2, 2013), https://www.theatlantic.
com/national/archive/2013/07/wives-cheating-vs-men/313704/. Married heterosexual North Americans, both from Canada and the US, are far less likely to commit
adultery than Europeans or Asians. Jacob Sims, “Infidelity Statistics: Male and Female Cheating Statistics around the World,” OutlookMagazine.ca (April 3, 2019),
http://www.outlookmagazine.ca/family/infidelity-statistics-male-and-female-cheating-statistics-around-the-world/#:~:text=While%20Canada%20has%20an%20infidelity,they%20surveyed%20customers%20and%20users.

105
Jean M. Twenge, Ryne A. Sherman, and Brooke E. Wells, “Changes in American Adults Sexual Behavior and Attitudes, 1972–2012,” Archives of Sexual Behavior 44, (2015): 2273–85, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0540-2. See also Statista.com, “Do You Think Sex Between an Unmarried Man and Woman Is Morally
Acceptable or Morally Wrong?” (July 2018), https://www.statista.com/statistics/225947/americans-moral-stance-towards-intercourse-between-unmarried-partners/.

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Homosexual desires could be viewed as an example of confusion over sexual identity with some connection to
gender dysphoria (sexual identity disorder). Nevertheless, this report addresses homosexuality as a distinct issue.
The different groups and individuals who claim a place within the overarching LGBT movement see themselves as
distinctive, with Lesbians and Gays and Bisexual persons all claiming an individual place at the table. Moreover, these
three groups generally say they are perfectly comfortable as male or female and have no desire to be the other sex.
Rather, their concern is that homosexual desires (or sexual desire for both sexes) are perfectly natural for them and
ought to be affirmed by others. Also, a significant difference between sexual dysphoria and homosexuality is that
sexual dysphoria is focused inwardly — the persons with such dysphoria are dealing with a sense that their inner
being is contrary to their physical embodiment — while the person with homosexual desire is focused outwardly,
longing for sexual activity with someone of the same sex.120
However, just as homosexuality and sexual dysphoria must be distinguished, so also homosexual desire and same
sex activity must be distinguished. Homosexual desire, like all sinful human desires, is a consequence of original sin.
While it is different from sinful heterosexual desire, both alike are a form of lust. For the believer, every sinful desire
is cause for repentance and the prayer that the Holy Spirit would give the power to lead a chaste and decent life in
word and deed.
Western society does not affirm such repentant prayer, but instead affirms homosexual desires as fundamentally
normal for some persons. In keeping with the general societal view that all sexual desire is at least neutral, if not inherently
good, our culture encourages those with homosexual desire to follow those desires. The statistics bear this out.121
Homosexual acts, however, are acts that refuse the will of God for us. Fundamentally, homosexual behavior rebels
against God’s intent in creating humankind male and female. Therefore the Scriptures are not silent about same-sex
erotic behavior. Wherever the Word of God speaks of sexual behavior, it does so in a manner that is consistent with
its understanding of marriage as unfolded in the creation narrative (see GEN. 1:26–28; 2:24–25; see also MATT. 19:4–5 and
EPH. 5:31, 33). It is the human as male and female that God creates in His own image.122 Only the male-female relationship has the potential to “be fruitful and multiply” (GEN 1:22). Only the man and woman complement one another by
their sexual otherness (GEN. 2:18–23). So all sexual acts that violate the relationship of male and female in the bond of
marriage are forbidden. That includes, quite obviously, all non-marital and extra-marital heterosexual acts. And it
also includes every same-sex practice.
For such reasons homosexual practice is explicitly condemned in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13. The OT prohibition
is then reaffirmed in the New Testament. In Romans 1:24–32, the apostle Paul attributes desiring and engaging in
same-sex relations as having “exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (ROM. 1:25) with the result that minds are debased
or corrupted (ROM. 1:28). First Corinthians 6:9–10 includes those who practice same-sex acts together with the sexually
immoral (fornicators), adulterers, and a number of other “unrighteous” people who will not “inherit the kingdom of
God.” First Timothy 1:9–10 similarly warns “the ungodly and sinners,” “the unholy and profane,” “those who strike their
fathers and mothers,” “murderers,” “the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers,
and [those who do] whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine” that their behavior is contrary to the Law of God.

Virginia Pelley, “What Is the Divorce Rate in America?” Fatherly (Feb. 18, 2022) https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/what-is-divorce-rate-america/.

115

Pelley, “What Is the Divorce Rate in America?”

118
“There was no emotional or physical abuse in our home. There was no absence of love. I was in love with my husband when we got divorced. Part of me is in love
with him still. I suspect that will always be the case. Even now, after everything, when he walks into the room my stomach drops the same way it does before the roller
coaster comes down. I divorced my husband not because I didn’t love him. I divorced him because I loved myself more.” Lara Bazelton, “Divorce Can Be an Act of
Radical Self-Love,” New York Times (Sep 30, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/opinion/divorce-children.html
119

HS 1981, 16.

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We realize that to uphold and teach chastity in the West today is to face more than the unpopularity C.S. Lewis
observed. As we have already noted, these biblical teachings invite disbelief and scorn from the majority of our
contemporaries. In a single generation, the view of the majority of Americans about the morality of practically any
sexual activity, including homosexual acts, has been reversed, from disapproval to approval. More than a few voices
from within Christianity also question such a strict understanding of sexual virtue. About half of all those who refer
to themselves as Christians now view non-marital casual sexual relationships as moral.123 Same-sex relationships
and same-sex marriage also now have the support of the majority of self-identified Christians.124 According to
Pew Research, this may include a majority of self-identified LCMS individuals.125 No wonder, then, that increasing
numbers of teens now identify themselves as being gay, lesbian or bisexual.126 How could it be otherwise when our
culture exhorts them to discover their sexual identity rather than to give thanks for it as a gift? Such a quest provides
what seems to be a perfect “solution” to the inevitable angst or ambivalence that attends coming of age but is in truth
an oppressive burden.
Acceptance of homosexual desire and acts as moral is not only the perspective of many laity, it is also the public
teaching of increasing numbers of church bodies. In recent decades, various church bodies have adopted the view
that homosexual acts are not sinful and that same-sex marriage should be both sanctioned and celebrated in the
church.127 The arguments invoked for making these changes cannot be addressed in this document, but ample
attention and response to them is available.128 Suffice it to say that arguments for the acceptance of homosexual
acts as moral for the Christian employ one or more of the following arguments: (1) that the Bible’s authors knew
only exploitative homosexual acts and were ignorant of the kinds of homosexual relationships that are loving
and nurturing; (2) that the direction of history shows that homosexual acts are the equivalent of heterosexual
acts in their general character and biblical condemnations are outdated in the same sense as biblical references
that were accepting of slavery; (3) that biblical authority does not extend to cultural matters so that homosexual
condemnations, for example, together with teaching about submission of women, or forbidding women preaching
and serving pastorally, are all no longer applicable.
4. The need for redemption in Christ
Thus, the rebelliousness of humankind is often seen explicitly in the corruption of the precious gift of sexuality. From
the fall sexual desire is easily twisted together with a longing to exercise autonomy with the claim, “my body is my
own,” and with a passion for self-satisfaction. Such a passionate claim is stung by God’s rebuke: “You are not your
own” (1 COR. 6:19). And that rebuke demands repentance.
We stand before God as sexual beings just as we do in every other aspect of our lives — in need of the forgiveness
bestowed only because of the redeeming work of our Lord Jesus Christ. “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ
said, ‘Repent’ [MATT. 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”129 Our need for forgiveness is
123
Jeff Diamant, “Half of US Christians Say Casual Sex between Consenting Adults Is Sometimes or Always Acceptable,” Pew Research Center (Aug. 31, 2020),
https://pewrsr.ch/3lJyBBE.
124
Jana Riess, “Same-sex Marriage Has Support Among Most American Religious Groups,” National Catholic Reporter (May 1, 2018), https://www.ncronline.org/news/
opinion/same-sex-marriage-has-support-among-most-american-religious-groups-study-shows.

Hence the Scriptures are consistent in their prohibition of all non-marital sexual activity, whether with the
opposite sex or the same sex. These prohibitions against sinful sexual activity are not limited in scope but stretch
throughout the different periods of salvation history and within different cultural settings. In every time and place,
God calls to repentance all who live in these ways.

125
Pew Research Center, “Views about Homosexuality among Members of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod,” Religious Landscape Study (2014), https://www.
pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/religious-denomination/lutheran-church-missouri-synod/views-about-homosexuality/.
126

Jones, “LGBT Identification Rises to 5.6%,” https://news.gallup.com/poll/329708/lgbt-identification-rises-latest-estimate.aspx.

127
At the present time a number of US church bodies teach that homosexual relationships are morally permissible and sanction same-sex marriage. This includes: the
Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), Society of Friends, United Church of Christ. The United Methodist Church
has experienced a formal division especially over this issue.

This does not deny that there are individuals who experience sexual desire for persons of the same-sex, but do not seek affirmation of those desires. Rather, they
would prefer that they could be rid of such desires and are instead committed either to celibacy or to following only desires for the opposite sex.
120

See, for example, Robert A. J. Gagnon’s exhaustive rebuttal of exegesis that minimizes or denies the biblical view of homosexual acts as sin in The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics (Nashville: Abingdon, 2001); also the pro-con exegetical debate between Gagnon and Dan O. Via, Homosexuality and the Bible:
Two Views (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003). The LCMS has addressed this as well: CTCR, Response to Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust (St. Louis: The Lutheran Church—
Missouri Synod, 2012); also three responses to Reconciling Works: Lutherans for Full Participation by Drs. Joel Biermann, https://files.lcms.org/file/preview/FE18AEFE99C1-4AB4-826D-DC4E7FBD7674?; Thomas Egger, https://files.lcms.org/file/preview/C5149888-007E-43E0-B704-AC4788A2002F?; and Timothy Saleska, https://files.
lcms.org/file/preview/EE01391E-E1B0-4FCD-9719-81980B663C6E?.

128

121
“The National Survey of Family Growth” from the National Center for Health Statistics (published by the CDC) shows the increase in sexual activity
between same-sex persons between the 2015–2017 time period and the 2017–2019 period. The percentange of women who had sexual activity with another
woman increased from 17.9 to 20.8 in that period. The percentage of men who engaged in same-sex acts grew from 7.0% to 7.3%.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/key_statistics/s-keystat.htm#samesexpartners.

God created man “in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them,” (GEN. 1:27–28); note that the Hebrew parallelism of these
verses moves from man as him (generic use of the pronoun) to man “male and female.”

122

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114

Sarah Kliff and Soo Oh, “Americans Think Divorce Is Less Acceptable Than They Did a Decade Ago,” VOX, Mar 17, 2016, 10:00am EDT https://www.vox.
com/2016/3/17/11250888/divorce-public-opinion-united-states. But compare Dugan, “U.S. Divorce Rate Dips, but Moral Acceptability Hits New High.”

3. Homosexual rebellion

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113
Cara Murez, “Big Rise in US Teens Identifying as Gay, Bisexual,” WebMD (June 15, 2021), https://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/news/20210615/big-rise-in-usteens-identifying-as-gay-bisexual. Sangeeta Singh-Kurtz & Dan Kopf, “The Rise in Americans Saying They Are Bisexual Is Driven by Women,” Quartz (April 23, 2021),
https://qz.com/1601527/the-rise-of-bisexuals-in-america-is-driven-by-women/.

117

108
See Twenge, Sherman, and Wells, “Changes in American Adults Sexual Behavior,” 2273–85, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-015-0540-2. Statista.com’s data indicates
that 69% of the population views sex between an unmarried man and woman to be morally acceptable. See “Do You Think Sex Between an Unmarried Man and
Woman Is Morally Acceptable or Morally Wrong?” (July 2018), https://www.statista.com/statistics/225947/americans-moral-stance-towards-intercourse-between-unmarried-partners/.

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111
According to YouGov polling, 26% of all Americans would be interested in an open or non-monagamous relationship. 46% of LGBT adults expressed an interest and
22% of heterosexuals did and, between the sexes, more men than women expressed interest. Jamie Ballard, “A Quarter of Americans Are Interested in Having an Open
Relationship,” YouGovAmerica (April 26, 2021), https://today.yougov.com/topics/lifestyle/articles-reports/2021/04/26/open-relationships-gender-sexuality-poll.

Horowitz, Graf, and Livingston, “Landscape of Marriage and Cohabitation,” https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/11/06/the-landscape-of-marriage-andcohabitation-in-the-u-s/. See also Andrew Dugan, “U.S. Divorce Rate Dips, but Moral Acceptability Hits New High,” Gallup (July 7, 2017), https://news.gallup.com/
poll/213677/divorce-rate-dips-moral-acceptability-hits-new-high.aspx.

107
Andrew Dugan, “More Americans Say Pornography is Morally Acceptable,” Gallup (June 5, 2018), https://news.gallup.com/poll/235280/americans-say-pornography-morally-acceptable.aspx.

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110
“Among people ages 18 to 44, a larger share have cohabited at some point than have been married (59% vs. 50%).” Juliana Menasce Horowitz, Nikki Graf and Gretchen Livingston, “The Landscape of Marriage and Cohabitation in the U.S.,” Pew Research Center (Nov. 6, 2019), https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/11/06/
the-landscape-of-marriage-and-cohabitation-in-the-u-s/.

116

106
For example, see M.C. Barnes, “My Virginity Is Empowering, Not Embarrassing,” Huffington Post (Aug 14, 2020), https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/virginity-sex_uk_5f3510f1c5b6fc009a62073c.

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A society in which casual sexual encounters and divorce prevail is on its way to viewing sexual partners as
interchangeable. Its tendency is to dehumanize people and treat them solely in terms of their sexual functions,
abstracting such functions from any content of personal significance.119

112
Frank Newport, “Understanding the Increase in Moral Acceptability of Polygamy,” Gallup (June 26, 2020), https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/313112/
understanding-increase-moral-acceptability-polygamy.aspx.

104
Wilcox, When Marriage Disappears, 27–37. By “highly-educated” the National Marriage Project was referring to those Americans who have completed a bachelors
degree or more, which was about 30% in 2010 at the time When Marriage Disappears was published. The percentage of Americans 25 or older in that category had
risen to 36% according to a 2019 American Community Survey. “US Census Bureau Releases New Educational Attainment Data,” Release no. CB20-TPS09 (March 30,
2020), https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/educational-attainment.html.

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Such facts indicate that even though Americans may still desire marriage, their understanding of marriage
is inadequate. In truth, there is widespread rebellion against marriage as it is understood biblically. As HS 1981
affirmations three and five remind us: to “regard marriage as a divine, lifelong institution, ordained by God for the
good of man and woman” is to “affirm God’s will that sexual intercourse be engaged in only between a man and
woman committed to a complete and lifelong sharing of their lives with one another in a marriage covenant not to be
broken.” Sadly, these affirmations do not reflect the views of most Americans today. HS 1981 warned:

109
CDC lists the mean number of lifetime sexual partners at 4.3 for women and 6.3 for men. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Number of sexual partners in
lifetime,” (November 8, 2021), https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/key_statistics/n-keystat.htm.

Certain behaviors necessarily follow such perspectives, of course. Among them are a willingness to have

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numerous sexual partners and engage in casual sex (sex apart from any commitment),109 increases in cohabitation,110
support for open relationships or marriages,111 for polygamy,112 for bisexual relationships,113 and continuing high
levels of divorce.114 Alternatively, an individual who is drawn exclusively to the opposite sex, or values virginity, or
desires heterosexual marriage finds little encouragement to fulfill such wishes. Few movies, novels, or other media
portray people living “chaste and decent lives in word and deed” or spouses who love and honor one another. Instead,
there is a boring predictability to the portrayals of sexual relationships in popular media, almost inevitably involving
unmarried couples driven only by passion without a whit of sexual integrity.

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129

Martin Luther, Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences [1517], LW 31:25.

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