Collection › LCMS Convention Workbook (St. Louis, Missouri) › 2026 · 69th Convention, Phoenix › Page 310
LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 2026, Page 310

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

310

LIFE TOGETHER

welcome here except ICE,” facebook.com/L4RacialJustice,
accessed Mar. 19, 2026), potentially exposing congregations and
schools to legal and financial risks and blurring the distinction
between Christian mercy and political activism (FC Ep III); and
WHEREAS, Certain rostered pastors and teachers within the
Synod are publicly associated with LRJ as founders, contributors,
or promoters, raising pastoral and ecclesial questions regarding
confessional fidelity, public witness, and doctrinal unity; and
WHEREAS, LRJ’s partnerships and resource curation draw
significantly from heterodox entities such as organizations affiliated
with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and groups such
as Global Refuge (formerly Lutheran Immigration and Refugee
Service), whose theological frameworks and public advocacy
priorities differ from the Synod’s confessional positions; and
WHEREAS, LRJ endorses or promotes authors and materials
associated with social-gospel theology, liberation theology, and
other interpretive approaches that risk subordinating the Gospel to
social or political agendas, thereby creating confusion regarding the
proper distinction of Law and Gospel; therefore be it
Resolved, That the Commission on Theology and Church
Relations (CTCR) be directed to examine LRJ’s official claims,
public resources, partnerships, and advocacy in light of the Holy
Scripture, the Lutheran Confessions, and adopted Synod
resolutions; and be it further
Resolved, That the CTCR clarify for the Synod the proper
Lutheran understanding of justice, mercy, and public witness,
distinguishing clearly between confessional teaching and extrabiblical ideological frameworks; and be it further
Resolved, That the CTCR evaluate whether LRJ’s public
teaching and resource curation create confusion or conflict with
Synod doctrine, and provide theological and pastoral guidance
accordingly; and be it further
Resolved, That should the CTCR find LRJ’s teachings or
practices to be inconsistent with the Lutheran Confessions, it
recommend appropriate admonition and corrective steps under
Synod Bylaws; and be it further
Resolved, That the Synod reaffirm both its condemnation of
racism and its commitment to pursue justice and mercy within
confessional and lawful bounds, rejecting both ideological
extremism and political coercion as incompatible with faithful
Christian witness; and be it finally
Resolved, That congregations, schools, and church workers be
encouraged to rely on confessional Synod resources when
addressing matters of race, justice, and mercy, rather than materials
that may obscure the Gospel or compromise the doctrine of the two
kingdoms.
Circuit 12 (Western Michigan)
English District
Ov. 4-16

To Task Commission on Theology and Church
Relations to Write Report and Accompanying
Study addressing Positive Christianity
(aka German Christianity) and Its Deviation
from Orthodoxy and Orthopraxy
WHEREAS, Positive Christianity is in reaction to Positive
Religion (aka German Religion) which was a movement to return
2026 Convention Workbook

to the pre-Christian pagan religions practiced in Germany before the
preaching of the Gospel and was being promoted by some Nazi
officials in an effort to remove “all Jewishness” from the German
people through the 1920s–1940s; and
WHEREAS, Point 24 of the 25-point National Socialist German
Workers’ Party (NSDAP) Program presented by Adolf Hitler on
February 24, 1920, reads as follows:
We demand freedom for all religious denominations in the State,
provided they do not threaten its existence nor offend the moral
feelings of the German race.
The Party, as such, stands for Positive Christianity, but does not
commit itself to any denomination. It combats the Jewishmaterialist spirit within and without us, and is convinced that our
nation can achieve permanent health only from within on the
basis of the principle: The common interest before self-interest.
and
WHEREAS, Positive Christianity was never officially
systematized as Adolf Hitler and his cohort of Nazi leaders planned
to do away with any and all Christianity once the war was won in
their favor and only used Christianity and religion as a tool to come
into and maintain power; and
WHEREAS, While Positive Christianity was never officially
systematized, all efforts to do so put forward theologies with the
following contours:
• A theology that is antisemitic and that tried to remove any
“Jewishness” in Christianity. This included but was not
limited to: rejection of the entire Old Testament; rejection of
the Masoretic texts and adherence only to the Septuagint;
and declaring that Jesus was Aryan by blood, fathered by a
Roman centurion, and not the same God of the Old
Testament, among other Marcionite heresies.
• A theology that is racial. As clearly shown in the above quote
of Point 24, the paramount concern of Positive Christianity
is that it “[does] not threaten [the State or the] existence…of
the German race.” The multicultural and multiracial make up
the Church (Rev. 7:9, etc.) was and is anathema to Positive
Christianity.
• A theology that is syncretic with a National Socialist
government/state. The state would be the final overseer and
arbiter of orthodoxy, not the Scriptures. As such, the state
could force confessions onto churches and Christians that
were in direct opposition to God’s Word (much like the
Prussian Union did in the 1800s).
• A theology that redefines neighbor from anyone (or anyone
in need, Luke 10) to include only the able-bodied and ableminded Volk of Germany. Points 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 23 of the
NSDAP Program clearly delineate who is, and who is not, to
be considered a neighbor. This definitional change changes
God’s Word of “love your neighbor as yourself” to exclude
wide swaths of humanity in a sinful fashion.
• A theology that conflates the “Leader” (der Führer) with
Christ. Positive Christianity turns people to a worldly leader
as savior, often conflating a worldly savior with Jesus Christ.
Scripture commands us to not put our trust in worldly princes
and teaches that it is Satan himself that sets up worldly
saviors as antichrists to draw people away from the One True
God;
and