Fargo, USA - The bishop of the Eastern North Dakota Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America says a draft statement on genetics being reviewed by the nation's largest Lutheran denomination does not condemn farming with genetically modified seed.
Bishop Bill Rindy tells The Forum newspaper that the ELCA's proposed position on human, animal and plant genetics calls for a "careful and thoughtful" approach.
Congregation members at Anselm Trinity Lutheran Church in the southeast North Dakota town of Sheldon recently voted to leave the ELCA. The rural town is in an area where biotech crops are common.
Rindy says the ELCA's draft statement does not dictate what farmers should or should not plant.
The statement would have to be passed at an ELCA Churchwide Assembly to be adopted. The next assembly is in August 2011.