RESOLUTION #4:
Rejecting Proposed Social Statement and
Affirming Current Teaching Documents on Sexuality

DEFEATED

SPONSOR: the Rev. John Schraan (Pastor, Zion Lutheran Church, La Grande)

WHEREAS the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly will consider the adoption of Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust as a possible Social Statement of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; and

WHEREAS “Social statements and other resources on social concerns build on the rich legacy of the church bodies that united to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. As a confessional church with an historical sense, this church continues to look to the social statements of the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America for guidance, while it develops its own social statements and further deliberates on social concerns” (Policies and Procedures of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for Addressing Social Concerns); and

WHEREAS the Lutheran Confessions state: “We believe, teach, and confess that the only rule and guiding principle according to which all teachings and teachers are to be evaluated and judged are the prophetic andapostolic writings of the Old and New Testaments alone” (Book of Concord, Formula of Concord, Epitome, Rule & Norm); and

WHEREAS the Confession of Faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America states: “This church accepts the canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of its proclamation, faith, and life” (ELCA Constitution 2.03); and

WHEREAS in addition to Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions, the current teaching of the ELCA on human sexuality is guided by the ELCA Messages Sexuality: Some Common Convictions (1996) and Commercial Sexual Exploitation (2001); and by the social statements of the ELCA’s predecessor churches: Sex, Marriage, and Family—A Social Statement of the Lutheran Church in America (1970); Human Sexuality and Sexual Behavior—A Social Statement of the American Lutheran Church (1980); and Teachings and Practice on Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage—A Social Statement of the American Lutheran Church (1982); and

WHEREAS the adoption of Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust as a Social Statement of the ELCA would replace the ELCA Message Sexuality: Some Common Convictions and the predecessor church statements with a document that is less helpful than its predecessor documents and distances the ELCA from Scripture and from the rich legacy of the church bodies that united to form the ELCA; therefore be it

RESOLVED that the Oregon Synod Assembly thank the members of the Task Force for ELCA Studies on Sexuality for their work; and be it further

RESOLVED that the Oregon Synod Assembly memorialize the 2009 ELCA Churchwide Assembly to reject Human Sexuality: Gift and Trust as a proposed Social Statement.