Lutherans Skirt Confrontation Over Abortion

Delegates representing the 5.2 million members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America sidestepped a head-on confrontation over the abortion issue during the denomination’s first churchwide assembly.

A statement on biomedical, reproductive issues, which was first endorsed by a vote of 588 to 265 on Tuesday morning, was immediately challenged by some delegates. The measure was reconsidered the same afternoon and amended so it could not be interpreted as favoring a pro-choice position on abortion.

The original phrase that drew objections had urged church leaders to “encourage free access to services.” There was no mention of “abortion” in the original statement or in the amended version.

Awaiting Study

The delegates avoided defining a position on abortion itself, leaving that for a two-year study on sexuality and decision by the next assembly in 1991.

Nevertheless, the resolution approved this week seemed to retreat from those approved by two of the three denominations that merged to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Before the merger, both the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America issued specific statements on abortion, each speaking of the sanctity of life. Although neither approved of abortion on demand, each allowed for circumstances where a woman could choose abortion.

During the current assembly, Bishop Lowell Erdahl of the St. Paul Area Synod, an anti-abortion leader, objected to the wording of the original statement, warning that it would bring headlines to the effect that the denomination favors free access to abortion services. He said he favored the proposed amendment, which was later adopted.

The approved statement asks the church to “call on pastors and congregational leaders to prayerfully consider the issues and to offer personal care, information, counseling and competent Christian guidance to help couples and individuals explore all the issues.”

Urgent Question

It noted that “the question of reproductive issues is most urgent in our country at the present time, creating need for study, ministry and advocacy to address with even greater urgency the mounting hysteria, fear, polarization and violence.”

Anne Guba, a nurse from Binghamton, N.Y., and a supporter of the original statement, told the delegates earlier that the issue before them was whether “Christians love and respect women enough to allow them to make their best choice, trusting in God’s grace.”

During the assembly, which concluded Wednesday, delegates were picketed by demonstrators objecting to abortions being performed at the church-related Lutheran General Hospital in nearby Park Ridge, Ill.

The approved resolution says the complexity of the issues requires new tools at all levels of the church to “educate, minister and empower groups and individuals to act on their Christian conviction.”

In another matter, officials of the denomination’s pensions board said they may not be able to comply with church’s insistence on rapid divestment from companies operating in South Africa.

“Whether the law will permit us to follow this churchwide directive, I can’t answer,” said investment specialist John Kapanke of Minneapolis, president of the board.

Deadline of 1991

The denomination’s legislative assembly on Monday voted that the Board of Pensions be completely rid of stocks in companies with “direct or indirect” business dealings in South Africa by September, 1991.

An estimated 80% to 85% of the 1,041 delegates voted for the deadline in a show-of-cards vote. At stake was the church’s $1.6-billion pension fund, of which $84.9 million is invested in companies doing business in South Africa.

Kapanke and Mildred Berg of New York City, board chairwoman, noted that the board was incorporated separately from the church and thus was not legally bound by its instructions, although sharing its purposes and principles.

“The board has a right not to accept it if we feel it is violating our fiduciary responsibility,” Berg said at a news conference. “But we take that mandate seriously in regard to investments.”