LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2001, Page 214

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214 HIGHER EDUCATION

5-26

To Investigate Teaching of Evolution

WuereAs, The evolution of man and the universe from some
primary organisms and substances is an unscriptural and antiscien-
tific myth; and

Wuereas, Dr. C. F. W. Walther and the founding fathers of The
Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod insisted on the inerrancy of the
Bible in all matters:

Walther wrote: “Whoever believes with his whole heart that
the Bible is the Word of God, cannot believe anything else than
that it is inerrant.” “Whoever thinks he can find an error in Holy
Scriptures does not believe in Holy Scriptures but in himself.”
(Christian News, November 8, 1999, p. 1); and

WuereEAsS, No church body has opposed evolution and insisted
upon the inerrancy of the Bible more than the LCMS (LCMS 1973
convention: Statement of Scriptural and Confessional Principles,
A Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the LCMS, and the
writings of such LCMS theologians as Walter Maier, Sr., Theodore
Graebner, Alfred Rehwinkel, William Beck, etc.); and

Wuereas, Much has been said in the nation’s press because of
reports from Kansas and elsewhere about the teaching of evolution
in schools; and

WuereEas, Almost al] major Protestant denominations, the
Roman Catholic Church, and the pope now permit their churches
and schools to teach evolution as an established scientific fact; and

WHEREAS, The October 1998 Acts and Facts of the Institute for
Creation Research reported that LCMS high schools are teaching
evolution from secular-based textbooks (vol. 27, no. 10):

ACTS & FACTS, Inslitute for Creation Research,
Box 2667, El Cajon, CA 92021, October 1998

Origins in Missouri Synod High Schools

The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod traditionally has
held to a literal six days of creation. Yet, its high schools in 26
states seem to be teaching mostly evolution from secular-based
textbooks.

Ever since the Reformation, a recent creation has been the
foundational doctrine of this denomination. Now, an ICR grad-
uate research project in science education reveals that the next
generation of Lutherans in many cases is being taught that an
old earth and its inhabitants evolved naturalistically to the pres-
ent state.

In a yearlong sludy of the origins content of high school bi-
ology classes, Tom Draves, an ICR graduate student and
Lutheran high school biology teacher, discovered a surprising
abandonment of traditional doctrinal teaching positions in favor
of evolution. He used an 8|-question instrument to survey most
of the biology teachers in all of the Missouri Synod high
schools. The questionnaire was a combinalion of an earlier cre-
ation evolution questionnaire by two evolutionists, Shankar and
Skoog, that was used in Texas public high schools and an addi-
tional sel of questions relevant to this religious setting.

Hundreds of correlations have already been examined. One
of the most interesting is that between the course preparation of
teachers and the amount of time that they now devole to origins,
significant correlations occurred between these variables. Upper
level biology classes contained more evolution if the teachers
had much evolution in their collegiate preparation. Likewise, if
the teacher had taken course work on creation, then more cre-
ation content was placed into the curriculum.

This finding is especially relevant since these Lutheran
schools are supposed to teach the doctrine of creation. Evi-
dently, the teachers are being taught evolutionary theory in pref-
erence to creation, whether coming from Lutheran or secular
colleges;

and

Whereas, Dr. Harold Roellig, who is on the 2000 clergy roster
of the LCMS, in his The God Who Cares—A Christian Interpreta-
tion of Time, Life and Man, agrees with the theory of evolution (pp.
33, 18-19, 15-16). Dr. Roellig writes:

2001 Convention Workbook

Man’s Place in the Animal World

When the long evolutionary continuum of life leading to
modern man is surveyed—-from the insectivore-like stage of 70
million years ago through the ape-like stage of 30 million years
ago and finally, rather rapidly, through a pre-hominid stage to
Homo sapiens of today—it should be plain how difficult it is to
separate our species in any significant way from the animals out
of which we evolved. Any distinction between man and animals
is purely arbitrary; man in actuality is but another animal upon
this earth, albeit highly specialized in certain characteristics (p.
33).

The origin of life obviously predates the remains of the old-
est fossils of three billion years ago. Given the complexity of
even the microscopic life of these earliest fossils, it is probable
that life originated through natural chemical and physical proc-
esses four to five billion years ago (p. 18).

The evidence indicates that many billions of years ago, in
an enormous explosion of sub-atomic particles, our universe had
its origin. Packed into that primeval fireball was all the matter
and energy that the present universe contains. Great vortices,
whirling gases, were hurled out into space from that tremendous
blast. As the masses of intensely hot gas composed of dissoci-
ated electrons, protons, neutrons, and similar particles started to
expand and thus cool after the explosion, the aloms of the ele-
ments that make up the universe began to form. In a relatively
short time after the explosion, many of the elements were syn-
thesized. Billions of years later, masses of matter, still spinning
and speeding away in all directions from the source of the
primeval explosion, began to draw logether and coalesce to form
the great galaxies of today and the stars that compose them.

In one such galaxy, our solar system was born. Five or six
billion years ago a spinning and coalescing dust cloud within
the Milky Way galaxy began to glow. Subsidiary whirlpools and
condensations of matter were also forming in a plane extending
out from the new star’s rotating equator. Some of these sec-
ondary masses were finally pulled together by gravitational at-
traction to coalesce and became solid bodies orbiting the cen-
tral star. In this way it is likely that our own sun and its planets
had their birth (pp. 15-16);

and

WHEREAS, Officials of the LCMS and several synodical con-
vention committees have been repeatedly shown Dr. Roellig’s The
God Who Cares and offered a copy of the book; and

WHEREAS, Christian News has photographed 12 pages of the
book and has given the LCMS International Center Library a copy
of the five-volume Christian News Encyclopedia, which has 12
pages from The God Who Cares; and

WuerREAS, Dr. Roellig has not retracted his teaching; therefore
be it

Resolved, That LCMS President A. L. Barry suspend Dr. Roel-
lig’s District President if he does not get Dr. Roellig to retract his
false doctrine or suspend Dr. Roellig.

Trinity, New Haven, MO; St. John, Waverly, IA; Faith,
Corning, NY; Redeemer, John Day, OR

5-27

To Provide Leadership and Healthy Family Training

WHEREAS, There are many things that challenge all professional
church workers in their leadership and in their responsibilities to
both family and the parish; and

WHEREAS, The concerns about leadership development and
healthy family practices need to be addressed; therefore be it

Resolved, That the Mid-South District memorialize the 2001
synodical convention asking Synod to address with the seminaries
and universities the need for leadership training and healthy family
education for future professional church workers and their fami-
lies; and be it further

Resolved, That we encourage congregations that share these
concerns to submit overtures to the 2001 synodical convention; and
be it finally