To Confess and Defend the Church’s Daughters and the Christian Conscience of All People

Preamble On July 18, 2022, Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and James Inhofe (R- OK) filed Senate Bill 4543, “James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023,” which includes language that would require women at theageof18 to register for the military draft.

WHEREAS, God has created both male and female in His image, yet made them individually to be complementary but not identical to one another (Gen. 2); and

WHEREAS, The Word of God teaches that head ship belongs to man (1 Cor. 11:1–16); and

WHEREAS, God specifically commands husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church and laid down His life for her (Eph. 5); and

WHEREAS, Men,not women, (1Peter 3:7;1Tim.5:14;Titus2:4– 5) are to be required at times to enter combat and risk their lives in defense of their wives, daughters, family, and country; and

WHEREAS, In December of 2015 the Secretary of Defense lifted the ban on women serving in frontline combat; and

WHEREAS, Senate Bill 4543 includes language that would require women at the age of 18 to register for the military draft (James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, Section 521 (d): Modernization of the Selective Service System, Expanded Registration to All Americans, S.B. 4543, 117th Congress [2022]); and

WHEREAS, Such entrance into the draft may mean that our wives, mothers, daughters, and sisters would be forced to fight in frontline combat; and

WHEREAS, Because duties of war are given to men (as noted in the Bible passages referenced above, specifically1 Peter3:7; 1Tim. 5:14; Titus 2:4–5), Christian consciences of both men and women are rightly burdened by the state requiring daughters and wives to risk their lives; therefore be it

Resolved, That we object to the mandatory registration of women into the draft of the United States military; and be it further

Resolved, That we call on our district president to communicate to Wyoming and Nebraska U.S. Senators and Wyoming and Nebraska U.S. Representatives our intent to object on religious grounds to the involuntary service of women in the military; and be it finally

Resolved, That we memorialize The Lutheran Church— Missouri Synod, in its 2023 convention, to confess and defend the right of conscientious objection in the event of a national military draft which would include women.