Social Statements

ELCA social statements are teaching and policy documents that provide broad frameworks to assist us in thinking about and discussing social issues in the context of faith and life.

They are meant to help communities and individuals with moral formation, discernment and thoughtful engagement with current social issues as we participate in God’s work in the world. Social statements also set policy for the ELCA and guide its advocacy and work as a publicly engaged church. They result from an extensive process of participation and deliberation and are adopted by a two-thirds vote of an ELCA churchwide assembly.

“This church shall develop social statements … that will guide the life of this church as an institution and inform the conscience of its members in the spirit of Christian liberty.”
—The Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective

ELCA Social Statements

Abortion (1991)

Caring for creation (1993)

Church in society (1991)

The church and criminal justice (2013)

The death penalty (1991)

Economic life (1999)

Education (2007)

*NEWEST* Faith, Sexism, and Justice: A Call to Action (2019)

Genetics (2011)

Health and health care (2003)

Human sexuality (2009)

Peace (1995)

Race, ethnicity and culture (1993)