Economic Affairs During the Great Depression

A Statement of the United Lutheran Church in America, 1932

1932: Minutes, 8th Biennial Convention, ULCA, pp. 418, 419.

The Convention resolved:
That The United Lutheran Church hereby expresses its deepest concern on account of the distress arising from present economic conditions, especially on account of the sufferings of millions of unemployed people and those dependent upon them; and that it implores its members everywhere to use this opportunity to demonstrate the spirit of Christ through kind, sympathetic assistance wherever it can be given; and, since such conditions as now prevail may characterize any particular economic system, it declares it to be its conviction that the practice of true Christian Brotherhood and Stewardship is the only universally effective security for economic and social justice, and points to the promotion of the same as a basic duty of the Church in seeking to remedy causes, while it gives special aid for the immediate relief of present suffering.

1936: Minutes, 10th Biennial Convention, ULCA, pp. 374, 378.

The Convention declared:
We affirm the evangelical principle, for the conduct of all business, that Christian brotherhood must afford the spirit, and Christian stewardship must determine the practices by which injustice is removed and mutual good will and brotherly fair-play are established, as between employers and employees, and between producers and consumers, and by which a truly moral and sound economic order must be secured.