Official Workbook PDF page source text

LCMS 2026 Convention Workbook: Reports and Overtures, PDF page 345

2026 Convention Workbook
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 
W
HEREAS, 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 extra -
biblical 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 
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 Jewish -
materialist 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 s tate 
could force confessions onto churches and Christians that 
were in direct opposition to God’s W ord (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 able-
minded 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