LCMS Commission on Constitutional Matters — Minutes St. Louis, Missouri — September 10, 1960, Page 4

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Exhibit "D"

Welfare Review and Control in the Atlantic District

In a laudable fashion, the Welfare Committee of the Atlantic District
requested Synod's Board for Social Welfare to survey the District's welfare
program and opportunities, and to make its recommendations. When the
voluminous report was published, it was evident that there was much in it
which was good, It will stand as a monumental work for its purpose.

One paragraph of the report, however, capsules the recommendations
made in regard to support for the program, and both your Public Relations
Committee and your Executive Committee take strong exception to it. The
Executive Committee requested that it be presented to the Board for its
consideration and discussion. It also directed that your Executive Director
dra w up an appropriate resolution concerning this matter. It is in the
Resolution section of this book.

The paragraph in question is as follows:

"It is recommended that all Church-connected agencies of any kind
in the field of social welfare, both local and national, seeking -
support at this time, or any time in the future, from the congre-
gations or from individual members of the Atlantic District be
required to obtain permission from the Welfare Committee for
such solicitation, that they agree to submit to such regulations
and restrictions as the Welfare Committee may see fit to impose,
and that, if possible and practicable, such solicitation be inte-
grated with the appeal of the Welfare Fund."

The problem to which this recommendation is an answer, is that in the
past some ill-advised projects in the field of social welfare have been pro-
moted, arid congregations and individuals have supported them, sometimes to
the detriment of worthy charitable enterprises. The problem is certainly
a real one, and the question to which the recommendation addresses itself
is valid. Everyone grants that a problem exists.

The Public Relations Committee and Executive Committee, however,
insist that the foregoing recommendation is not the best, or even a good
solution,

Letters outlining our objections were addressed to Synod's Board of
Directors, the Atlantic District Welfare Committee, and Synod's Board
for Social Welfare.

The objections chiefly, are these:

1. Synod has established a method for dealing with part of this problem
through its Board of Directors, and for another part through the Council
of Lutheran agencies.

2. The review of a national organization by a District Committee is
burdensome for both. Admittedly, the Atlantic District report is a
“model report'' and many of its recommendations will become part and
parcel of the directives of other District Welfare Committees. This,
being the case, it seems wasteful of a national organization's resources
of time and money to justify its existence to 32 different committees.