Lutherans are the largest Protestant denomination in Minnesota. Some of them write to the Duluth News Tribune:

A headline in the News Tribune last week read, “Northland Lutherans oppose Minn. marriage amendment.” The story reported on a resolution passed by the Northeastern Minnesota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, or ELCA, in opposition to the Minnesota Marriage Protection Amendment, an amendment that would simply put into our state constitution our current law’s definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.

However, there are many other Lutherans who support the amendment. It is not only the case that many pastors and congregation members of the ELCA support the amendment, but there are also many other Lutheran pastors and church bodies that strongly support the marriage amendment.

Just as one example, a couple weeks ago at its tri-annual convention, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod’s Minnesota North District, which covers the northern two-thirds of the state, passed a resolution encouraging its pastors and congregation’s members to support, promote and vote for the amendment.

Other Lutheran church bodies and congregations, including the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), the Association of American Lutheran Churches (TAALC), the Association of Free Lutheran Churches (AFLC), and Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ (LCMC), also support the marriage amendment.

We are representatives of different Lutheran church bodies who agree with the historic and traditional definition of marriage. We believe the definition of marriage in the amendment as “a union of one man and one woman” is in agreement with God’s institution of marriage in the Scriptures (Genesis 2:24), a definition reaffirmed by Jesus Christ himself (Matthew 19:4-5; Mark 10:6-8), and used by Paul and others as a reflection of Christ and His bride, the Church (Ephesians 5:23-32).

Marriage as God designed it is foundational for our society. Redefining what marriage is will have adverse effects on children and on the order and stability of our broader community.