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LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2013, Page 362

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

362

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THEOLOGICAL DOCUMENTS—COMMISSION ON
ANDatCHURCH
RELATIONS
(CPHTHEOLOGY
item 092624) and online
www.lcms.org/ctcr.
Immigrants Among Us: Abbreviations

immigrants

among us
A Lutheran Framework
for Addressing
Immigration Issues

AE
Ap
KW
LC
SA
SC

Luther’s Works. American ed. 55 vols. St. Louis: Concordia and
Philadelphia: Fortress, 1955–1986
Apology of the Augsburg Confession
The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church,
Edited by Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert. Minneapolis:
Fortress Press, 2000.
The Large Catechism
Smalcald Articles
Small Catechism

Copyright © 2013 The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
1333 South Kirkwood Road, St. Louis, MO 63122-7295
Manufactured in the United States of America.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version,
copyrighted © 2001, unless otherwise noted.
Quotations from the Lutheran Confessions are from the Book of Concord:
The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, ed. Robert Kolb and
Timothy J. Wengert (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000).
The SymbolGreek II and NewJerusalem fonts used to print this work are
available from Linguist’s Software, Inc., PO Box 580, Edmonds, WA 980200580, USA; telephone (425) 775-1130; www.linguistsoftware.com.

A Report of the
Commission on Theology and Church Relations
The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

This publication may be available in braille, in large print, or on cassette tape
for the visually impaired. Please allow 8 to 10 weeks for delivery. Write to
the Library for the Blind, 7550 Watson Rd., St. Louis, MO 63119–4409; call
toll-free 1-888-215-2455; or visit the Web site www.blindmission.org.

November 2012

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Immigrants Among Us

Immigrants Among Us

A Lutheran Framework
for Addressing Immigration Issues

A Lutheran Framework
for Addressing Immigration Issues
Preface

Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Purpose of the Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
I.

Immigrant Neighbors Past and Present: How Should
Scripture Inform Attitudes Towards Immigrants Today? . . . . . . 11

II. God’s Law, Civil Law, and the Neighbor: On Christian
Obedience to God's Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
III. Living in God’s Two Realms: On the Activity
of Christians in the World as Church and as Citizens . . . . . . . . .29
IV. Who Is My Neighbor? The Place of the Christian’s
Vocation in the Immigration Debate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Concluding Remarks and a Final Exhortation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
V. Responding to Immigration Concerns: Some Guidelines
for Church Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47
Appendix I: A Framework for Considering Immigration
Concerns: Case Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
Appendix II: Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58

The following report is no more or less than the subtitle suggests: a
Lutheran framework for considering the complex and challenging topic of
immigration in the United States. To be clear, the document does not present
the “official position” of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod on current
debates in the United States regarding immigration. This is true for several
reasons: (1) The Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) does
not determine the official position of the Synod. Our reports are published
for the purpose of study and discussion, not as a final statement on doctrine
and practice. (2) The Synod did not ask for a perspective on immigration that
would attempt to settle all discussions or end debate in the LCMS (much less
the U.S. itself!). (3) In taking on an assignment from the Synod, the CTCR
attempts to address the assigned issue(s) on the basis of scriptural and confessional truths that are not limited to the fluid, constantly changing realities of
particular social, political, legal, or cultural circumstances. A document that
was determined, above all, to be “relevant” to current debates on this issue
would quickly become irrelevant. (4) As the document itself seeks to explain,
there are social, political, and legal issues that are not decisively addressed
by the Word of God and about which, therefore, Christians committed to the
same understanding of scriptural authority may disagree.
At the same time, the Commission does seek to provide here a helpful
resource for Christians—particularly Lutherans—to consider the challenging
issue of immigration. One of our goals is to help individuals with very strong
opinions to consider how and why there are conscientious, thoughtful Christians who have come to different conclusions about immigration. Above all,
the Commission wishes to remind readers that both the immigrant and the
fellow citizen are our neighbors—individuals we are called to love. Therefore,
the following report includes not only a theological discussion of some of the
questions raised by Christian citizens regarding immigration, but also two
Appendices. Appendix I provides a series of case studies. Appendix II consists
of two brief lists of terms, the first legal and the second theological, explaining
how these terms are used in the document. The “immigration terms” occur
frequently in national debates, while the listed “theological terms” are important for understanding the theological perspective of this document. You may
wish to review Appendix II before reading the report.

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