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LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2016, Page 123

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

Special Presentation
by D r . Ryan An derson, Senior Researc h Fe llo w at th e H erita g e Fo un datio n

a nd Aut hor of T r u t h O v e r r u l e d : T h e F u t u r e o f M a r r i a g e a n d R e l i g i o u s F r e e d o m
66th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod • July 11, 2016
This is an edited version of the speech given July 11, 2016, at the 66th Regular Convention of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

Thank you. Thank you for having me address you at
this important convention.
I’ve been asked to say a few things about the Supreme
Court’s decision this time last year redefining marriage in all 50 states, and what it means for Americans and what it will mean for the free exercise of
religion and the freedom of the church.
I just want to preface this by saying I’m not a
theologian. I’m coming at this from the perspective
of a political philosophy Ph.D. who now works at the
intersection of political philosophy and public policy.
So I’m thinking about the institution of marriage as
a government-recognized institution, not as a sacrament or as a covenant as a religious institution.
But I want to suggest that what the court has done
will have consequences both for the public institution
of marriage and for the sacramental or covenantal
understanding of marriage.

was a liberal sociology professor at Harvard.
He then became the liberal democratic senator
from the state of New York.
Moynihan wasn’t a racist. He wrote his report
precisely because he cared about black people, and
he thought that one-quarter of all black children
being born to single mothers would have negative
consequences for those communities, for those
women and for those children.
Fast forward to today. In Moynihan’s time, it was 5
percent of the general population and 25 percent in
the African-American population. Today, 40 percent
of all Americans are born to single mothers. Fifty percent of Hispanic Americans are born to single mothers, and it’s 70 percent among African Americans.

I want to start, as any good conservative should
start, by turning the clock back 50 years. Thank
you for laughing. That’s intended to be a joke.
Half of my audiences don’t get it. Turning it back
50 years to the Moynihan Report. It was 50 years
ago that Daniel Patrick Moynihan issued his infamous report on the state of the black family in the
United States. Moynihan pointed out that births to
single mothers in the general population were at 5
percent. But within the African American community, they were at 25 percent. Moynihan was then
roundly criticized for being a racist, even though he

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