Overture to the 2016 LCMS Convention to “Condemn the Conscription of Women"

In the closing remarks of his first letter to the church at Corinth, the church where men had abdicated their duties, and women had stepped into the void the men created, St. Paul wrote this: “Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love” (1 Cor 16:13–14).

“Act like men.” “Be strong.” “Let all that you do be done in love.” We know what a man’s love for others looks like. It moves him to lay down his life. This is what acting like men, being strong, and loving is all about. It’s unseemly for a man to ask his mother, his wife, or his daughter(s) to lay down their lives for him. He is to love as Jesus has loved, by dying for them, not the other way round. This is standing firm in the faith, remaining steadfast to God’s Word.

With this in mind, a number of pastors have signed in support of the attached overture to the 2016 LCMS Convention. The rationale for this resolution is stated well in a blog post on The Brothers of John the Steadfast:

As you undoubtedly have heard in the news, the Department of Defense announced on Dec. 3rd that they will indeed be opening up all combat positions in our nation’s armed forces to women. 

As exclusion from combat was the legal rationale for also excluding women from the selective service system, the possibility of women being required to participate in the selective service system, and thus potential drafts, is now coming down the tracks at full speed.  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2015/12/07/pentagon-opening-combat-jobs-to-women-alters-factual-backdrop-in-keeping-them-out-of-the-draft/ 

Pastors, please consider bringing this overture to the attention of your Board of Elders and to your Voter’s Assembly, so that they can send it on to the Synod to be included as a Resolution in the 2016 LCMS Convention. The deadline for submitting overtures is February 20.

The full text of the Overture, along with a PDF version and directions for submission to the Synod Convention, may be found at: http://steadfastlutherans.org/2016/01/overture-to-condemn-the-conscription-of-women-for-the-2016-lcms-convention/