Religion and the Family
A Statement of the United Lutheran Church in America, 1928
1928: Minutes, 6th Biennial Convention, ULCA, pp. 585-86, 595.
The Convention reaffirmed its conviction:
That the family is a divine institution and that the orderly governance of the life of mankind is directly dependent upon the preservation of its integrity and stability.
That, in view of the unique relation in which parents and children stand to one another, any social arrangement which tends to separate children from their parents arbitrarily or unnecessarily is opposed to the common good and needs to be condemned.
That the unity and stability of the family can be maintained most effectively through the cultivation of a mutual good will which will constrain each member to seek the good of all and not a merely selfish happiness.
That genuine good will between the members of a family can best be cultivated through the power of true religion.
Therefore, be it resolved,
- That pastors be urged to testify clearly and emphatically to the value and necessity of religion in order that the family as an institution may be maintained against the forces which are tending to undermine it at the present day.
- That, inasmuch as the example and precept of godly parents is of far greater potency than any reform or prohibitive measures which may be proposed or attempted to combat the divorce and other evils which threaten the family, Christian parents be exhorted to make the home the true nursery and training school of Christian living.
- That the Church seek in every way to assist parents in the discharge of this duty, by encouraging the practice of family worship and by introducing into the curricula of its schools such material as will help to inculcate Christian ideals of marriage and family life in the youth.