To Confess Authority God Gave to Fathers and Mothers

Preamble Governmental, legal, and related institutional overreach has created severe challenges to divinely instituted parental authority. The following illustrations, sometimes more narrowly and sometimes more broadly, encroach upon God’s command to fathers and mothers:

• Children, without parental consent, are being permitted, encouraged, or otherwise coerced by some governments or governmental institutions to receive medical care or procedures (e.g., inoculations, COVID-19 injections, HPV vaccines, hormonal contraceptives, abortion, “gender- reassignment” treatments), even when their parents object. As an example, S.B. 5599, recently signed into law in Washington state, allows minors seeking abortion or “gender-reassignment treatments” to remain in licensed youth shelters without parental notification.

• Children in an increasing number of some government- sponsored schools are subject to evil indoctrination in divinely instituted marital issues of sexual morality and sexual identity (“sex education”; LGBTQ+ desensitization, tolerance, and promotion; transgender Committee 12 Chairman Benjamin T. Ball training and promotion; etc.), contrary to their parents’ beliefs and intentions for their children.

• Children in some government-sponsored schools are being permitted, encouraged, or otherwise coerced into adopting unwanted or evil social practices, contrary to the will and authority of parents.

• Children are increasingly indoctrinated in anti-Christian history and science contrary to the traditional norms of rigorous historical and scientific investigation, and contrary to the will and authority of their parents.

• Children in some government-sponsored schools are being subjected to the deconstruction of divinely mandated and given institutions (marriage and family, the Christian Church, government with its natural powers and limitations, natural and revealed law and justice, etc.) by the assumption of an anti-Christian worldview, by the corruption of sound and truthful language, and by the conspicuous absence of sound teaching in these matters, contrary to Scripture and the authority of parents regarding their children’s education.

WHEREAS, It is increasingly clear that educational authorities behave in ways which lead children to question the authority and competence of their parents and to reject other authority figures including grandparents and religious leaders in their life; and

WHEREAS, In the Fourth Commandment, “You shall honor your father and your mother that it may be well with you and you may live long upon the earth” (Large Catechism [LC] I [Fourth Commandment] 104, 371), God established marriage and provides moral and legal authority to husband and wife regarding their children; and

WHEREAS, We confess in the Large Catechism that “all who are called masters stand in the place of parents and must get their power and authority to govern from them …” (LC I [Fourth Commandment] 142 [Kolb & Wengert], 406); and

WHEREAS, In the Sixth Commandment, “You shall not commit adultery,” God defends the institution of marriage and provides moral and legal protection to the lifelong integrity and well-being of marriage, thereby also protecting children born to marriage; and

WHEREAS, We affirm and confess these truths in Large Catechism I (Sixth Commandment) 206–8: First, understand and mark well how gloriously God honors and praises this estate [marriage]. For by His commandment He both approves and guards it. He has approved it above in the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and your mother.” But here He has (as we said) hedged it about and protected it. Therefore, He also wishes us to honor it and to maintain and govern it as a divine and blessed estate because, in the first place, He has instituted it before all others. He created man and woman separately [differently], as is clear. This was not for lewdness, but so that they might live together in marriage, be fruitful, bear children, and nourish and train them to honor God. Therefore, God has also most richly blessed this estate above all others. In addition, He has bestowed on it and wrapped up in it everything in the world, so that this estate might be well and richly provided for. Married life, therefore, is no joke or presumption. It is an excellent thing and a matter of divine seriousness. For marriage has the highest importance to God so that people are raised up who may serve the world and promote the knowledge of God, godly living, and all virtues, to fight against wickedness and the devil (Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord, 382); and

WHEREAS, God has given the direct and full authority for the education of children to their parents, with the command to fathers to bring up their own children “in the education and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). In accordance with the truth that Christian doctrine and faith encompasses the whole person (body and soul), this scripture teaches that God has invested parents with His authority and command to educate their own children, including their spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical care and training; and

WHEREAS, Accordingly, fathers and mothers are to give and see to the education of their children in Christian doctrine and holy living. They are to be their teachers in all matters of marriage and marital intimacy. They are to provide all care and support of their children’s bodies, including such matters as food, clothing, health, etiquette, exercise, grooming, and the like. They are to educate their children for service in their own marriage, family, and workplace; in their church; and in their neighborhood or civil community. They may designate some other persons to assist them and act in their stead in all these matters (in loco parentis) without relinquishing this divine authority (cf. LC I [Fourth Commandment] 141); and

WHEREAS, The Holy Spirit teaches Christians in 1 Timothy 5:8 that “… if anyone does not provide for his own people and especially those of his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Here God authorizes and obligates the members of a household (family) to make provision for the care of its own members; therefore be it

Resolved, That we confess that fathers and mothers are not mere caregivers to their children. Rather, God has appointed them to feed, clothe, house, educate, give medical care, and above all, provide the spiritual service to their children’s body and soul, mind and spirit; and be it further

Resolved, That we affirm and defend the rights and duties of fathers and mothers toward their children as divinely commanded and given (Titus 2:1–8), and therefore not severable except in the case of the abdication of their office; and be it further

Resolved, That we reject every assertion and practice of civil government—federal, state, and local—that assumes or implies right or authority over children as children, that is, as though children were wards of government. Rejected here are assertions of governmental authority which are expressly contrary to the Word of God in the realms of education, medical care, physical care, the doctrinal and spiritual training of children, and the so-called sexual or gender identity of children; and be it further

Resolved, That we affirm the divine duty of the church to teach, encourage, strengthen, and assist fathers and mothers in doing their divinely appointed duties toward their children. We likewise recognize that no church or Christian school has rights or authority over children except what is granted by baptism, membership in that church, or enrollment in said school; and be it further

Resolved, That we confess and teach that fathers and mothers are obligated by God to bring their children to the Church for Baptism and the divine services of the church. They are to teach their children God’s Word in their home, lead them in prayer, and teach and discipline them in Christian piety and virtue, in accordance with the Holy Scriptures; and be it finally

Resolved, That we teach and maintain the discipline that a man and woman are to marry each other before sexual intimacy and the conceiving of children, and that they are to remain married and faithful to each other till death parts them, in accordance with God’s holy will. Parents are, by God’s grace, to live in daily contrition, repentance, and the forgiveness of sins, always teaching and holding before their children the divine institution and pattern of marriage and household as God gave it