Word: preus
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Jacob A.O. Preus is a classics scholar who takes his Bible straight. He accepts literally the story of the creation-in Genesis, insists that Adam and Eve were historical figures and believes that Noah's flood covered the entire globe since Genesis says so. Because of Jesus' reference to the story of Jonah's sojourn in "a great fish," Preus accepts the tale as fact...
...this might be treated as one man's opinion were not Jack Preus also president of the 2.8 million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. For six years, mustering a solid majority of conservatives in his church, Preus has been increasingly successful in making such scriptural fundamentalism (TIME cover, Dec. 30) the single acceptable norm for the church's clergy. Last week, at the denomination's biennial convention in Anaheim, Calif, he won another victory. The delegates voted to give him the power to depose a group of dissident leaders: eight of the church...
...Preus has had to buck a strong religious trend. Most mainstream U.S. Protestants-and even many Roman Catholics-nowadays tolerate a wide diversity of theological opinion, and until Preus' election in 1969, the Missouri...
Synod seemed to be moving slowly in the same direction. Attempting to tighten discipline and doctrine on what he saw as a drifting ship, Preus cracked down. His main targets were faculty members of the denomination's major academic arm, Concordia Seminary of St. Louis. These teachers, who in the ensuing debate styled themselves moderates, take a less rigid view of the Bible, accepting modern interpretation that explains the story of Adam and Eve, for instance, less as history than myth. In 1974 Preus won the ouster of the seminary's president, the Rev. John H. Tietjen...
...Even if Preus declares the eight posts vacant, at least seven of the presidents are expected to be defiantly re-elected by their districts. Whether the confrontation will compel the moderates actually to break with the official church-or how such a rupture would come about-remains to be seen. Evangelical Lutherans in Mission, an organization of moderates that the convention declared "schismatic," will meet next month to discuss what...