Here's a follow-up on the Lutheran rift.
Rift in Lutheran Denomination Deepens
Pastor Who Suspended N.Y. Cleric Over 9/11 Service Loses Radio Preaching Post
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 20, 2002; Page A03
The host of "The Lutheran Hour," a St. Louis-based gospel program carried by more than 1,000 radio stations, has been temporarily removed in a deepening rift within one of the most theologically conservative Protestant denominations, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
Last month, the Rev. Wallace Schulz of Pacific, Mo., a vice president of the church, suspended a New York pastor for joining with Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Sikhs in an interfaith service at Yankee Stadium after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Schulz ruled that the Rev. David H. Benke was guilty of "syncretism" -- mixing Christian and non-Christian beliefs -- because he had prayed with "pagans" in the Sept. 23 service organized by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and emceed by Oprah Winfrey.
Deluged with criticism of that decision, the executive committee of Lutheran Hour Ministries -- an independent auxiliary of the church -- voted this month to suspend Schulz as the main preacher on its flagship "Lutheran Hour," the Missouri Synod's most prominent pulpit.
Schulz's removal means that both camps within the 2.6-million-member Missouri Synod, the 10th-largest church in the nation, now have victims of political infighting to rally around. Those camps defy easy labels, however. Some members speak of liberals vs. conservatives. But Benke said this week it is really a split between "conservatives and ultra-conservatives."
"I don't call myself a liberal; I don't call myself a left-wing person at all," Benke said, noting that like many Lutherans, he believes the Bible is the literal word of God, the theory of evolution is bunk and the only path to salvation is through Jesus Christ.
Schulz declined to comment on Benke's suspension or his own. He spent 25 years as the associate speaker of "The Lutheran Hour" -- the No. 2 job -- before being elevated to the top preaching spot June 22. He was wearing a different hat, as the second vice president of the Missouri Synod, when he ruled against Benke just three days later. The decision fell to Schulz because the president and first vice president had recused themselves.
The radio show was immediately engulfed in controversy, according to Jim Telle, a spokesman for Lutheran Hour Ministries.
"Our staff of about 200 people in St. Louis has been totally inundated and practically paralyzed on many days by phone calls on all sides of this issue," Telle said. "Some of [the callers] are fiercely upset that Dr. Schulz judged the way he did on Dr. Benke. We can't tell whether they're liberal or conservative. We just know they're furious, and the whole fallout for our church has been a black mark."
Telle emphasized that the directors of the radio program have not taken a position on whether Schulz's decision was right or wrong. "Totally unwittingly our organization has been caught in the crossfire," he said. "Our board of directors took the action to relieve him temporarily -- with full pay -- to cool down the situation and study how we in the church are going to get out of it."
Indeed, Schulz's removal is likely to be a major topic of debate at the Lutheran Hour Ministries' annual convention, which starts today in Ottawa. Benke, meanwhile, has appealed the finding of syncretism to a three-member church panel. And the synod's president, the Rev. Gerald B. Kieschnick, has formally asked Schulz to reconsider his ruling.
In a July 9 letter to church members explaining his decision, Kieschnick said the Missouri Synod "is experiencing a period of emotional anxiety and doctrinal disharmony." But in an interview yesterday, he said he prefers to view the situation not as a rift but as "an opportunity for defining who we are."
"The world has changed immensely in the last 50 years, even the last 10 years. When I was a kid, I didn't know a Muslim or a Hindu or a Sikh or a Buddhist," Kieschnick said. "Now we have people from all backgrounds, all colors, all creeds and beliefs who are very responsible members of the citizenry of the United States of America."
The key question facing the church, he continued, is "Do we take the gospel into the public square in a pluralistic, multicultural society? Or do we keep it more quietly in individual congregations and hope and pray that people will come to us?"
Kieschnick, who gave Benke permission to participate in the Yankee Stadium service, said his position is clear: "The mandate Christ has given us in the Scriptures is to go out and be a light in a world of darkness. It cannot be done in a vacuum, and it cannot be done in a closed, cloistered environment."
But to many members of the Missouri Synod, praying with people of other faiths is a profound betrayal of their history and beliefs. The synod was founded in the early 19th century by Lutherans who fled Prussia rather than accede to King Friedrich Wilhelm III's order to worship with Calvinists, and it has maintained a stricter theological line than its sister denomination, the 5.1-million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
"There are certain people who want to liberalize and Americanize this church. They care more about being well-liked by their peers than about upholding the faith," said Mollie Ziegler, 27, a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church in Alexandria. "I am so proud of this denomination for standing on the gospel and not caring whether Oprah Winfrey likes it or not."
© 2002 The Washington Post Company |
