I was lucky enough to have a couple of Ethics classes with the late Dr. James Burtness at Luther Seminary, and in his Intro courses he would tell the class about when he took a guiding role in the drafting of the ELCA Social Statement on Abortion. It had the flavor of an epic in his telling, which sounds odd but the facts bear him out: if you're exercising the office of an Ethics professor at a seminary, this is as close to Achilles as one could expect to be, unless you're Dietrich Bonhoeffer (coincidentally a special favorite of Dr. Burtness).
From the composition of the group, Dr. Burtness suspected that there was an intended outcome on one side of the issue (the initial viewpoints were diverse but lopsided in his account). As they were making attempts to start a discussion, Dr. Burtness got up and asked if there was anyone who thought an ectopic (tube) pregnancy had an absolute right to be born. When no one raised his or her hand, he made a mark at the edge of the board he was standing next to. He then asked if anyone thought a woman in labor after 9 months of pregnancy with no health risks due to pregnancy and a healthy fetus had an absolute right to an abortion. When again no hands were raised he made a mark at the other end of the board. He then declared the existence of common ground: all that was left was to hash out the middle portion, between those marks.
Thus began months of intense and often angry debate, and more than once people went home crying. After much effort, they drafted a measured and nuanced document presented with the unanimous approval of the committee. There were amendments offered at the Churchwide Assembly, but the amendments were voted down and the statement was adopted unaltered.
What happened next?
Well, since presumably most of you reading are ELCA, and since the Statement was in some sense for you, I could leave the question for you:
- Has the Statement changed the way you think about abortion?
- Does the Statement at least inform the way you think about abortion?
- If someone from a different church asked you what the ELCA teaches about abortion, how would the Social Statement inform that answer as you gave it?
- Have you read the Social Statement?
- Have you heard the Social Statement mentioned in preaching or discussions with fellow Lutherans since the year it was approved (1991)?
- and the last in a scary series of questions for those involved in drafting Statements like this one: Are you aware that the ELCA has a Social Statement on abortion?
You might think that last question is going too far, but I suspect that there's an ample number of relatively well-informed ELCA members who are not aware of that Social Statement. Speaking for myself, at the time I heard Dr. Burtness's story, I'd heard that we had such a statement but had not read it. The couple of people referencing the Statement that I remember (1 pastor, 1 professor) characterized it as permissive or "for" abortion, and while I wouldn't characterize the Statement that way I don't think their inferences were borne of bad faith or were without foundation. And this is on the ultimate national hot-button social issue of the day for the last 40 years. What about the rest of our 10(!) Social Statements? Feel free to brag in the comments if you can name the subject of 8 of them without peeking (I've given you a free one). I only just managed to myself, and I've visited that page several times today and over the past week.
I haven't yet read the "Policies and Procedures of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America for Addressing Social Concerns", which should provide some clarity on the intended role of Social Statements generally in the ELCA. Before I do that, in my next post I'll give my current impressions of why it is that social teaching in the ELCA seems to go unheard and unheeded. Evidence to the contrary would also be welcome, but I don't think it's just me!
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