To Address Use of Named or Anonymous Social Media Accounts to Create Strife and Division within the Church

Official Workbook overture source text

10-03 
To Address Use of Named or Anonymous  
Social Media Accounts to Create Strife  
and Division within the Church 
WHEREAS, Our Lord commands us to not bear false witness; and 
WHEREAS, Martin Luther, teaching on the Eighth Commandment 
in the Large Catechism (LC I , Triglotta), sharply reminds us that 
this commandment “forbids all sins of the tongue whereby we may 
injure or approach too closely our neighbor” (263), and reminds us 
that “here belongs particularly the detestable, shameful vice of 
speaking behind a person’s back” (264). He continues: 
Therefore, to avoid this vice we should note that no one is 
allowed publicly to judge and reprove his neighbor, although he 
may see him sin, unless he have a command to judge and to 
reprove. For there is a great difference between these two things, 
judging sin and knowing sin. You may indeed know it, but you 
are not to judge it. I can indeed see and hear that my neighbor 
sins, but I have no command to report it to others. Now, if I rush 
in, judging and passing sentence, I fall into a sin which is greater 
than his. But if you know it, do nothing else than turn your ears 
into a grave and cover it, until you are appointed to be judge and 
to punish by virtue of your office. 
Those, then, are called slanderers who are not content with 
knowing a thing, but proceed to assume jurisdiction, and when 
they know a slight offense of another, carry it into every corner, 
and are delighted and tickled that they can stir up another’s 
displeasure [baseness], as swine roll themselves in the dirt and 
root in it with the snout. This is nothing else than meddling with 
the judgment and office of God, and pronouncing sentence and 
punishment with the most severe verdict. For no judge can 
punish to a higher degree nor go farther than to say: ‘He is a thief, 
a murderer, a traitor, ’ etc. Therefore, whoever presumes to say 
the same of his neighbor goes just as far as the emperor and all 
governments. For although you do not wield the sword, you 
employ your poisonous tongue to the shame and hurt of your 
neighbor. 
God therefore would have it prohibited, that any one speak evil 
of another even though he be guilty, and the latter know it right 
well; much less if he do not know it, and have it only from 
hearsay. But you say: Shall I not say it if it be the truth? Answer: 
Why do you not make accusation to regular judges? Ah, I cannot 
prove it publicly, and hence I might be silenced and turned away 
in a harsh manner [incur the penalty of a false accusation]. ‘Ah, 
indeed, do you smell the roast? ’ If you do not trust yourse
lf to 
stand before the proper authorities and to make answer, then hold 
your tongue. But if you know it, know it for yourself and not for 
another. For if you tell it to others, although it be true, you will 
appear as a liar, because you cannot prove it, an d you are, 
besides, acting like a knave. For we ought never to deprive any 
one of his honor or good name unless it be first taken away from 
him publicly. 
False witness, then, is everything which cannot be properly 
proved. Therefore, what is not manifest upon sufficient evidence 
no one shall make public or declare for truth; and, in short, 
whatever is secret should be allowed to remain secret, or, at any 
rate, should be secretly reproved, as we shall hear. Therefore, if 
you encounter an idle tongue which betrays and slanders some 
one, contradict such a one promptly to his face, that he may 
blush; thus many a one will hold his tongue who else would bring 
some poor man into bad repute, from which he would not easily 
extricate himself. For honor and a good name are easily taken 
away, but not easily restored. (LC I 266–70)  
… 
But the true way in this matter would be to observe the order 
according to the Gospel  (Matt. 18:15) where Christ says: If thy 
brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault 
between thee and him alone . Here you have a precious and 
excellent teaching for governing well the tongue, which is to be 
carefully observed against this detestable misuse. Let this, then, 
be your rule, that you do not too readily spread evil concerning 
your neighbor and slander hi m to others, but admonish him 
privately that he may amend [his life]. Likewise, also, if some 
one report to you what this or that one has done, teach him, too, 
to go and admonish him personally, if he have seen it himself; 
but if not, that he hold his tongue. (LC I 276) 
and 
WHEREAS, The Synod has policies and procedures designed to 
allow those in disagreement to reconcile with one another and to 
reprove and correct those in error so as to restore them to Christ and 
His Church and not to cause public division, scandal, and shame; 
and 
WHEREAS, Church workers and laity of the Synod who use social 
media accounts so as to cause division within the C hurch do so in 
direct violation of the scriptural and confessional understanding of 
the Eighth Commandment and therefore engage in unrepentant sin; 
and 
W
HEREAS, Those who engage in such actions harm the public 
witness of the Church and greatly sin against their brothers and 
sisters in Christ; and 
WHEREAS, Those who engage in such behavior should in 
Christian love be called to repentance so as to be restored to the 
brothers and sisters they have sinned against and be forgiven; 
therefore be it 
2026 Convention Workbook
501ECCLESIASTICAL SUPERVISION AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION