“Law is to be used for political purposes, i.e., for taking care of people here on earth in as good, loving, and just manner as can be managed. Reason, i.e., critical investigation using the best available wisdom and analysis of the concrete human situation in given instances, is to be the arbiter in the political use of the law” (Forde, “The Viability of Luther Today,” Word &World 7 [1987] 27).
“Take Christ out of the Scriptures and what will you find left in them?” (LW 33:26).
“In our deliberations, the wisdom of Scripture and the tradition cannot be cited as ‘God’s answer’ to the matter, but neither ought that wisdom be summarily dismissed as irrelevant or outdated.”[1]
[1]Don Juel, “Homosexuality and Church Tradition,” Word & World 10:2 (Spring 1990) 168-69.