Opposition
Says Anybody But Kieschnick
By
Jonathan Coyne
The United States uses a
process of political primaries to “nominate” candidates for
president from each of the two major political parties. In
this process, candidates campaign for a fixed number of
votes, attempting to garner the simple majority of their
party votes. In many ways, the “nomination” process in the
United States is more like a mini-election, determining the
person who will lead each political party.
The Lutheran Church –
Missouri Synod (LCMS) uses a process of nominations which
may seem similar, but really is quite different than, the
process used in our civil government. First, in the LCMS
there are no “political parties.” Political parties are
formed around ideological platforms in competition with one
another. The LCMS has one theological platform, Scripture
and the Confessions. Over the years there have been
organizations like Jesus First and others who support one or
more men for the office of president, but these support
groups are not political parties, since they each support
and defend the Scriptures and the Confessions.
Over 6,000 congregations
have the opportunity to nominate pastors to the office of
President and First Vice-President, but only about one-third
of our congregations participated this year, since
submitting a nomination is not mandatory. As you can see,
with this system the total number of nominations is not
representative of the entire church. Nevertheless, the
process allows the church to identify five men who consent
to serve if elected.
A Process to Identify Leaders Willing to Serve
In the United States in an
election year, or most recently a process that dragged on
for nearly two years, political pundits will talk about
momentum as a candidate begins to garner more or less
nominations. Likewise, newscasters will begin to speculate
about who will win with fancy charts and graphs to prove
their prediction. In the LCMS, it would be easy to engage in
the same thinking, but it would be inaccurate. The
nomination process in not about momentum, or speculating who
will win, it is simply about identifying the people who will
serve if elected.
Nevertheless, there are
people who believe that the nomination process is incredibly
important. Rev. Charles Henrickson is a featured writer on a
website where most articles criticize LCMS leadership, and
he posts on another site, both filled with people intent on
removing the LCMS president. He wrote the following on the
LutherQuest website in 2008 (barely one year after the last
convention): “What we need to do is to get networked and
ORGANIZED, district by district, circuit by circuit, and a)
elect ABK delegates in as many circuits as possible, and b)
generate as many congregational nominations for SP as
possible for the guy (even two guys, since each congo gets
two noms) with the best chance of beating Kieschnick. Both
tasks are doable, if we have the will and the energy to do
them.”
For those of you who do not
understand the acronyms, ABK means “Anybody But Kieschnick,”
a term which I find offensive in a church body professing
that God ultimately calls our elected leaders. SP stands for
Synod President. “Congo” is short for congregations and
“noms” is short for nominations. Earlier on this website
Rev. Henrickson wrote the following: “This is why it so
important to ELECT CONFESSIONAL DELEGATES AT THE CIRCUIT
FORUMS IN 2009. That is how we can defeat bad proposals--and
defeat our bad president--in 2010.”
Speak Well of Your Leaders
I strongly disagree with
these kinds of critical, pejorative statements, particularly
on public websites. What is our witness when our pastors
speak poorly of their leaders? It seems to me that the
witness is contrary to the 8th
Commandment which reminds us to “…speak well of him (our
neighbor), defend him, and explain everything in the kindest
way.” Jesus First has never called a president “bad” and
never campaigned against someone by stating that “anyone”
would be better. It seems insulting to those candidates
supported by Rev. Henrickson and others, that these
candidates would be considered to be just “anybody.”
However, I congratulate Rev. Henrickson and all of the
people who accomplished their goal of getting two candidates
enough nominations to be on the ballot.
Many years ago when Jesus
First recommended Rev. Gerald Kieschnick (LCMS President)
and Rev. Donald Muchow (LCMS Chairman of the Board of
Directors,) we worked to get enough nominations that each
one would be on the ballot. This year we realized that
President Gerald Kieschnick and First Vice President William
Diekelman would easily receive enough nominations to be on
the ballot. There seemed to be little reason to rally
congregations to create more nominations.
The same websites that
“networked and organized” to create a large number of
nominations for their two candidates are now filled with
claims that this is a shift in momentum against the
President and First Vice President and toward their
candidates. I suppose we could not expect anything less from
them. However, it is more accurate to look at this from a
church perspective rather than a civil government
perspective. This process is not about momentum, it is about
identifying the five men who, if elected, would serve as
president or first vice-president of the LCMS.
Pray for the convention
Please consider doing the
following things for the future of the LCMS. 1) Encourage
your delegates to read the 10 brief newsletters that Jesus
First will send to them. Our newsletters represent less than
5% of the total mailings and bulk of paper they will receive
from influence groups prior to the convention. 2) Pray that
your delegates will be able to discern God’s will for the
church as they cast their votes for elections and other
decisions. 3) Remind all people, how we speak about our
current President and Vice Presidents is about the 4th
Commandment. We all have a right to support any candidate,
but we are sinning when we use harsh, derogatory words to
harm the reputation of our current leaders.
Jesus First continues to
support President Gerald Kieschnick and First Vice President
William Diekelman in 2010. We give thanks for the fact
that with no Jesus First effort beyond an announcement in
this newsletter, both men are on the ballot.
