By Karl Wyneken The fiasco in the wake of Pastor Rob Morris’s participation in the Newtown prayer vigil brings to mind a prediction made by Matthew Harrison during his run for the presidency of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. In 2008, several years prior to the attainment of his goal of unseating former President Kieschnick at the…
Read more
The Article on which the Church Stands or Falls By Karl Wyneken Matthew Harrison, recently elected president of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, foresees big things ahead for his denomination, thanks to the unrest in Christendom being created by one hotly debated issue. The issue is homosexuality, resulting in discord and division in some denominations that…
Read more
By Arnold Voigt Where one begins determines where one will come out. The New Testament is problem-solving literature. The writers are addressing audiences who lived in real-time real-world environments, environments that were frequently antithetical to the Gospel. Conflicting ideologies and theologies impacted communities of faith and demanded responses. Not only did the external environments raise…
Read more
By Mary Todd I have a number of friends who were quite sure that I would leave the Missouri Synod as soon as I finished my dissertation a decade ago. My work examined the synod’s identity over its 150-plus-year history through the lenses of authority and gender and used the issue of the service of…
Read more
By David Stein Kierkegaard wrote years ago: “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” To that end permit me to return [some] to the past, stand beside the present and pray with hope about God’s future for the church catholic and apostolic. It’s always easiest to go backwards, to dredge…
Read more
By David Stein “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there” (Job 1:21). The truth is “male and female were created in the image of God,” and God blessed them. And everything God made was very good. Three thousand years later the ancestral shepherd boy laments: “You have searched me…
Read more
By Arthur Simon Thanks to my father, I became aware at an early age of the reluctance within the LCMS to question the status quo regarding social justice. The scandal of racial prejudice and segregation within both church and nation were special concerns of my parents. Then when my brother Paul was first elected to…
Read more
The Future of Theology By Robert Schmidt Wither theology? One looks in vain for a current Barth, Brunner, Tillich, or Niebuhr. Yes, there is Pannenberg, and John Douglas Hall is worth noting. Yet, when a presidential candidate accuses another of “bad theology,” one asks, “by what criteria?” Is it the Bible or is it politics choosing selected…
Read more
By Robert Schmidt Ninety-four new congregations joined the Missouri Synod in 2003. Of these, sixty-two were made up of non-white ethnic groups. I have had the privilege of working with one of these new congregations. It started about five years ago among some dedicated Oromo people from central and southern Ethiopia. Seven immigrants met in…
Read more
The Babylonian Captivity of the Church By Robert Schmidt High sacramental doctrine should make men eager…to provide the sacraments for Christians, and to remove all hindrances which prevent men, anywhere, from using them; but we see those who most glorify the sacraments, glorifying them by external adornment and standing most stoutly for those very things…
Read more