The Hardest Change of All: Me

By Charles S. Mueller, Sr.

In a previous article in this series on change I strung together a list of LCMS positions that call for discussion and possible correction. One reader skipped through the list and picked out two with an, “Aha! So that’s what you are up to. You want to subvert the longtime LCMS position on ____ and ____!”

Nope. I’m not into subversion. But I am for fraternal discussion. We must constantly review all of yesterday’s “absolutes” in the light of Scripture and Confessions, remembering how often in the past, in all kinds of areas, our take on truth wasn’t as complete as we had thought.

For example, when I entered the ministry, many (most?) were of the opinion that any contraceptive method was wrong, a thinly masked form of abortion disguising a lack of trust in God’s providence. Today? You tell me.

And, yes, we changed our position on whether LCMS preteens could be Boy Scouts. That was a pre-1950 no-no. How about dancing? Our public position was inflexible on that subject all the while thousands of Walther Leaguers were learning the latest steps on the sly.

Institutional Sin—and Change

I hate to even bring up our tragic stance vis-à-vis race! Andrew Schulze, Paul Streufert, Karl Lutze and others forced us to face our institutional sin—and change. Federal law and public opinion helped hurry us along toward higher moral ground.

Want to talk about the migrating LCMS position on the role of women in church and society? While we were gravely considering what is right in that corner of life, there were Far East angels of faith like Mary Esther Otten, Martha Boss, Gertrude Simon, Angela Rehwinkel and so many others whose holistic Gospel-based ministries of mercy made a mockery of our mainland hesitation.

Two more snapshots of movement:

In the picture of my 1953 seminary graduation ten of our class of 102 are wearing clerical collars, plus two of the then faculty of thirty-five. The more common belief then was that the clerical collar—or chanting or any chancel garb other than a black robe—evidenced “Romanizing tendencies” and betrayed the Reformation. Did the walls on that opinion ever come down! Almost overnight. Look at the Twenty-first Century seminary class photos or take a peek any Sunday morning at 99% of LCMS chancels. I see motion in worship and garb!

One of our earliest military chaplains, the sainted Martin Poch, had his pre-WWII request for LCMS clergy recognition as a chaplain held up for more than a year. When it finally came through, the defense for the endorsement was that his military adventure would create a parish    vacancy needed at a time when there was a surplus of pastors, so Pastor Emil Jaech received the call to the parish and Pastor Poch served the military. Quaint? Right.

Were the LWML, the LLL and the Walther League welcomed into the LCMS with open arms at their    borning? Not hardly! Even Sunday school and vacation Bible school came on board trailing a prodigality of nay sayers.

In the 1960s how about the on-again, off-again fellowship with the ALC or our bizarre history of membership in LCUSA and the Synodical Conference! We looked as if we were trapped in a revolving door impelled by the latest convention vote count.

The Burden of Infallibility

Prayer fellowship, whether engagement was tantamount to marriage, full-time synodical executives, assistant and/or associate pastors, the place of called teachers in public ministry, elders communing pastors: Examples of change mounted. Our history of change urged the sainted Dr. Theodore Graebner to draft a treatise entitled, “The Burden of Infallibility,” pointing out the problems of those who are so sure about things that actually are susceptible to a legitimate alternative interpretation. Any notion of organizational infallibility makes change very difficult. The LCMS’s historic method for changing is that on some kind of signal we just do an about-face and act like that’s the way it has always been.

No Absolutes?

Does this mean there are no absolutes? The answer is, “Of course there are.” Across the centuries the church has gathered absolutes, Biblical truths, “on which the Christian church stands or falls.” Believers bundled those truths into Creeds and have passed them down across the centuries to us.

Lutheran Christians wrapped another layer of protection around these truths via the Confessions. We believe that no one can be bound by anything that is not clearly defined in the Word or Confessions. That’s what we’ve said and, on our better days, still say. On our poorer days we try to bind people by on-again, off-again theological statements that a convention majority adopted.

Test the truth of these few paragraphs. Think about how we deal with one another in areas where there is no clear Word and where the Confessions are silent. Then reflect on what might be the best way to deal with children of God who see non-Biblical and non-Confessional issues differently than you. If we could get our Synod to deal with these two sentences, I think we might make a change—for the better.