LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1998, Page 350

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350

THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS

messages about marriage and family, both positive and negative, might be
communicated by carrying out this plan?
Depending upon available resources and time, the group might also
explore secular discussions of the problems and possibilities of surrogacy.
Perhaps a member of the congregation who works in reproductive health
care or ina family services agency could provide helpful background.

(CLOSURE

In the previous section we have been surveying a wide diversity of
resources that might be relevant to the question raised by our first case.
The second main phase in connecting our Christian faith with practical
problems involves bringing order out of the disciplined chaos of our initial
gathering of information. This second phase can be called the search for
closure.

Human beings have a God-given capacity for bringing meaningful
order to informational disorder. Working together, listening to each other,
praying together, we often increase our ability to find what is most impor-
tant. If we have been patient in exploring a variety of questions during the
disciplined chaos phase, we can often reap benefits in coming to an agree”
ment that is well understood and accepted among us all. Even if we do not
completely solve our ethical puzzles, we may nevertheless come to a bet-
ter understanding of where and why we are perplexed and where and
why we disagree.

In order to understand how closure comes about, we can be helped by
noticing again, as we did at the beginning of this study, that practical rea-
soning involves two main activities.

1. We seek, gather, and select information. Disciplined chavs helps us in

the seeking and gathering of information. We then attempt to select and
assemble the information that seers most relevant, reliable, and helpful
for understanding and solving the problem with which we are
wresthng. ,

2. We arrange the information we have gathered in ways that lead us to
see what conclusions are best supported by the available information.
This aspect of our God-given reasorung powers usually operates rather
automatically. Mistakes concerning which conclusion» are supported
by which information are for the most part both readily detected and
easily remedied. Especially when we work together and correct each
other, this activity in our reasoning poses few serious problems.

Typically we move back and forth between gathering and selecting
information and examining what conclusions follow. In the early stages of
studying a puzzle it is usually wise to focus on the gathering of informa-
tion through encouraging disciplined chaos. We then make tentative selec-
tions of the information available to us and examine what conclusions fol-
low. If we settle too quickly on a definite selection of information, we run

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God's grace in Christ. That grace includes the explicit promise that “the
Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we
ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for
words. And he who searches the hearts of men know's what is the mind
of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the
will of God. We know that in everything God works for good with those
who love him, who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:26-28).

The emergence of disagreement on practical matters must be under-
stood in proper perspective. Disagreement does not immediately mean
that we are no longer disciplined by a common confession. This is so
because an important part of what it means to share a common confession
involves sharing a common set of strategies for seeking, gathering, and
selecting, information. Our common confession provides common places
for seeking and gathering, and a basis for evaluating and selecting, the
information we will rely upon.

We have just been studying how a key to effective problem solving lies
in finding the right questions to ask. The reasoning activity that makes the
most difference usually involves the seeking, gathering, and selecting of
information. Confessing Christians share a wide-ranging commitment toa
common set of strategies for seeking, gathering, and selecting information
as we make our way through life. These strategies do not guarantee that
we will achieve agreement on all our practical choices, but they do guar-
antee a wide-ranging consistency in our response to life’s problems and a
foundation for exploring our disagreements in the hope of coming to com-
mon conclusions.

An Illustration

In 1993 the Commission on Theology and Church Relations adopted
and published a report titled Christian Care at Life’s End. This document
explores how Christian teaching concerning the end of life frames signifi-
cant questions that do not always have well-defined answers. An impor-
tant observation in the document reads as follows:

[Whe should expect that Christians who have had different specific expe-
riences may at times disagree concerning application of principles to specif-
ic cases. And, in fact, we do find Christians respecting fundamental biblical
principles and yet coming tu different decisions concerning medical care. .

We ... believe that our disagreements over the details of application to
extremely difficult cases neither discredit the pnnaples nor threaten our
common commitment to God’s Word. We ... owe to each other continu-
ing dialog on difficult points, a dialog that respects the consciences of per-
sons who are seeking to live God-pleasing lives in the context of sincere
and careful attention to God's Word on the basis of accepted principles of
interpretation.

” Christian Care at Life’s End, A Report of the Commission on Theology and Church
Relations of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Sy nod, 1993, 21

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the risk of excluding some of the information that would be most valuable
in addressing the problem at hand.

Often a key to effective problem solving lies in finding the right ques-
tions to ask. We have already noted that reasoning concerning which con-
clusions are supported by which information is relatively straightforward.
The reasoning activity that makes the most difference usually involves the
gathering and selecting of information.

Once we are satisfied that we have sought out all the information that
is likely to be helpful, we tum increasingly to the task of making sure pre-
cisely what conclusions follow from the best available information. When
the available information seems reliable and consistently points to a spe
cific conclusion, then closure has been achieved and we are ready to make
our choices and to act.

Biblically Disciplined Reasoning and Disagreement

One more issue needs to be studied before we conclude our discussion
of the surrogacy case. People popularly believe that well-defined commu-
nities that share a common faith and life will easily and always come to
common conclusions about practical choices in life. This popular belief is
partially true. Christians are in agreement on a wide variety of important
questions concerning, how life is to be lived.

But this popular belief is also misleading. The problem is with the
word always. Well-defined communities do not always and easily come to
common conclusions. There are at least two reasons for this fact.

1. God has created a humanity characterized by great diversity. Wherev-

er two, three or more people gather, there you find fascinating differ-
ences. This means that even in well-defined communities we must
expect to find differences concerning a vanety of practical choices. In a
world untouched by sin, this diversity would be seen simply to reflect
the beauty of God’s creative work. Christians who know themselves
chosen in Baptism are not frightened by every difference or disagree-
ment that anses in the body of Christ about the application of doctrinal
or ethical principles. They trust that God wil help us all toward speak-
ing the truth in love (Eph. 4:15), and they respect Christian freedom for
honest differences (Gal. 5:1, 13; 1 Peter 2:16).
2. But our world is deeply touched and twisted by sin and evil. This
means that even in well-defined communities we can be sure that each
of us is tainted by the futility to which the whole creation has been sub-
jected (Rom. 8:18-23). For this reason, sometimes we are unable to dis-
cer together with certainty the right path among difficult choices. At
such times we continue carefully and prayertully to reason with each
other in the hope of coming to agreement, but we must also be sensitive
and careful concerning conscientious but different choices to which fel-
low members may be led. In such circumstances we learn anew how
much we all need a Savior and how we all must live at all times by

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Returning to the Case:
Surrogacy in the Christian Congregation

Our surrogacy case has already itlustrated much of what we Christians
have in common, even though we have so far not come to a conclusion
about a reconimended choice. Because we are Christians, we sensitively
and patiently hear each other out. Because we are Christians, we agree to
pray together for God’s guidance. Because we are Christians, we together
search the Holy Scriptures for guidance. Because we are Lutheran Chris-
tians, we pay special attention to the ecumenical creeds, Luther's cate-
chisms, and the other confessional writings in the Book of Concord.

Consider, for example, how we might make use of the Small Cate-
chism’s discussion of matters relevant to surrogacy and family life. In the
Small Catechism Luther presents the Ten Commandments as a means for
raising questions concerning our daily life. He was aware that we are often
helped as much by having at hand effective strategies for questioning as by
having detailed lists of answers to questions that may not be appropriate.

Luther uses each of the Ten Commandments to prompt lines of ques-
tioning for examining one’s life. The Sixth Commandment—“You shall not
commit adultery”—concers the relationship of husbands and wives, a
topic relevant to our case. Luther writes in explanation, “We should fear
and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we
say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other.”!* Notice
how the simple prohibition of adultery becomes for Luther an exploration
of questions concerning how, in matters of sex, our words and deeds
remain pure and honorable and how husbands and wives can love and
honor each other.

This explanation does not answer every question, but confessional
Lutherans are committed to framing questions about surrogacy in its light.
Questions about purity, love, and honor in marriage can be framed in a
variety of ways. When the Commission’s 1981 report on sexuality raised
the question whether third-party intrusion into such an intimate matter as
pregnancy compromises the one-flesh nature of marriage, it was, like
Luther, asking us to examine one of the many dimensions of God's guid-
ance concerning marriage.

The Fourth Commandment—"Honor your father and your mother"
is also relevant to our case. Luther writes, “We should fear and love God
so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but
honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.”"* Here again
Luther helps us to frame some questions that Christians should be asking

" Lather's Smal Catechism, 10.
“Tod