Word: lutheranism
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...fight was unusual for the L.C.M.S., which is known for its familial German-American solidarity and its loyalty to traditional Lutheran doctrine. Indeed, in the Protestant spectrum, contestants on both sides of the L.C.M.S. battle are relatively conservative. The moderates simply prefer a degree of theological variety and a gradual opening up to other Lutheran denominations-the middle-of-the-road American Lutheran Church (2,600,000 members) and the more liberal Lutheran Church in America (3,100,000 members). The hard-line conservatives want to keep the L.C.M.S. theo logically exclusive and pure. But, as with earlier Christians, seemingly...
...jockeying began two years ago, when a grass-roots revolt before the 1969 convention brought conservative Classicist J.A.O. ("Jack") Preus into the presidency of the denomination. But moderates remained in command of the Missouri Synod's respected Concordia Theological Seminary in St. Louis, the largest Lutheran seminary in the U.S. Preus has since consolidated power with aggressive efficiency-moderates say with ruthlessness. Though a number of opponents stayed in untouchable jobs around him, he carefully nurtured grassroots support. The moderates' main complaint against their president stems from an investigation he launched last year at Concordia in response...
...Bible, evangelism v. social action, and a distrust of ecumenism v. an eagerness for church merger. U.S. Episcopalians felt the crunch of disagreement last fall (TIME, Nov. 2), Presbyterians and Methodists more recently. Nowhere is the clash currently more bitter than in the 3,000,000-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, whose biennial convention in Milwaukee last week boiled over into a savage debate over the future direction of the denomination...
...that key committees were in the hands of allies. Then he opened the week by laying it on the line to the nearly 1,000 delegates in a dramatic, unflinching call for theological law and order. He asked that the convention require L.C.M.S. members to accept not only traditional Lutheran Confessions of Faith but also all statements on biblical doctrines passed by Synod conventions. The "absolutism" of the presidential wing, wrote the angriest of the opposition newspapers circulating on the convention floor, resembled nothing so much as "gang rape...
Sometimes the church is not at fault. When young people began to come into the smoothly running, upper-middle-class congregation at La Jolla (Calif.) Lutheran Church, Pastor Charles Donhowe started evening meetings for them. Soon Donhowe had two congregations, the regular Sunday-at-11 variety and the new Christians in the evening. A minister for nine years, Donhowe was in effect converted by the youngsters to unstructured Christianity. He resigned and took his evening congregation with him. Some of his older parishioners joined the secession. Now known simply as "Bird Rock," they meet in Bird Rock Elementary School...