The United States Senate has been called “the world’s most deliberative body.” It carefully considers proposals for public policy and is, therefore, engaged in “legislative deliberation.” By contrast, this issue of the Journal of Lutheran Ethics focuses on the current commitment to and emerging emphasis upon deliberation in the life and work of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that is “moral.” Moral deliberation seeks to discern how the people of God are called to engage life and its various challenges and opportunities in the 21st century.
