An Open Letter to 40 Former Leaders In the LCMS, Jesus First and DayStar
Now that Matthew Harrison, whom you opposed, has defeated Jerry Kieschnick for the presidency of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the time has come for a peaceful division in the LCMS. The July 5 Christian News published a June 24 letter sent to all delegates to the LCMS’s 2010 Convention and signed by 20 former district presidents, a former synodical president and 19 other former and present leaders of the LCMS. This is the first time in the history of the LCMS that so many present and former leaders of the LCMS have asked convention delegates to vote for their candidates and oppose the candidate who received almost twice the nominations from congregations than their candidate. This unprecedented act is almost as significant in the history of the LCMS as when 45 out of 50 faculty members at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis walked off the campus of the seminary and formed Seminex. Many of the 40 signors of the letter asking delegates to vote for Kieschnick were on the side of those who formed Seminex. They were their professors. The majority of the present LCMS Council of Presidents voted for a supporter of Jesus First to be their chairman.
Several of the 40 signors are associated with Jesus First and Daystar. Christian News has frequently published the position statement of Jesus First which promotes women pastors. This year DayStar published A DayStar Reader which calls for women pastors and the teaching of evolution as a fact in the LCMS and the acceptance of homosexuals as pastors. DayStar said it sent it’s a DayStar Reader to key leaders in the LCMS including all district presidents. Some of the titles of the essays in A DayStar Reader are “A Case For Female Pastors and Theologians”, “Let’s include women” and “Teaching Evolution in a Lutheran University.” A DayStar Reader says: “For the sake of the gospel and the mission of the church, the contemporary LCMS ought to allow qualified women and men to serve as pastors and theologians. The Scriptures do not clearly prohibit women form serving in these offices” (p. 140). “It is the contention of this study that there is no ‘heavenly reason’ to exclude women form the pastoral office. . . There is no ‘earthly reasons either to persist with our present policy that needlessly discriminates against women” (152).
Resolution B (2010 – Today’s Business, p. 48), shows that Resolution 3-09 of the 1973 convention is still binding. Many of the 40 and at least some leaders of Jesus First and DayStar who defender Seminex vigorously protested against 3-09 and defended Seminex: 3-09 said the theology of those who formed Seminex is false doctrine and not to be tolerated in the LCMS.
Let us end the conservative/liberal battle. Each side should peacefully go its own way and do its mission in peace. Cool heads should be able to work out a peaceful division of assets and property according to the number of its followers. Possibly you could keep the International Center and the conservatives at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. You could take all the district office buildings since the conservatives will not need them. Their District Presidents will be pastors of congregations, the way they were they before 1960 when the LC. MS began having full time district presidents, losing members and increasing the number of bureaucrats not serving congregations from about 150 to 700. You could continue paying your president, district presidents and others in your bureaucracy several times the salary of the average pastors. Our president and district president should be paid about what the average pastor receives.
Each LCMS college could vote whether it wants to go with you or Harrison and those who elected him. All LCMS professors who do not appose evolution and women pastors could untie and teach in the same colleges. Those who oppose evolution, affirm the inerrancy of the Bible could teach in the same colleges.Christian News has repeatedly published the evidence showing that you want a church body broad enough to include on its clergy roster those who support the ordination of women, evolution, and the theology of Seminex, which the 1973 Convention said was false doctrine not to be tolerated in the LCMS. About half of you were members of the Council of Presidents which sided with Seminex and appointed an evolutionist to the CTCR. You could form your own church body or unite with ELCA or at least some conservatives in ELCA who are protesting ELCA’s stand on homosexuality but who have women pastors. Let’s end all the strife which has been going on in the LCMS. The time has come for a peaceful division.
Your church body can be part of liberal ecumenical movement with its anything goes churches like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Ours will then be free to work for a worldwide Reformation and Formula of Concord by the time of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation on October 31, 2017. This issue of Christian News includes some suggestions for such a 21st Century Formula of Concord.
During the 1970’s Christian News was accused of being the trouble maker in the LCMS responsible for the formation of Seminex and the big division in the LCMS. CN quoted I Kings 18:16, 18: “Then Ahab went to meet Elijah. When he was Elijah ,Ahab said, ‘So there you are, you troubler of Israel.’ ‘I haven’t troubled Israel,’ he answered, ‘but you and your father’s family have done it by giving up the Lords commandments and following Baal.”Christian News has not accused the present trouble and division in the LCMS anymore than it did during the 1970’s when more than 100,000 left the CLMS with the Seminex liberals you 40 present and former leaders of the LCMS who signed the letter to all LCMS convention delegates urging them to vote for Kieschnick and the Jesus First and DayStar liberals in the LCMS are responsible for the division and not trouble in LCMS. The time has come to end it with a peaceful division.If you do not agree then the time has come for some heresy trials in the LCMS. All those who want the CLMS to be open for pastors and professors who support women pastors for the CLMS and evolution should be given a fair open trial. If they do not repent of their false doctrine then they must be removed from the LCMS as resolution 3-09 of the 1973 Convention demands.
Sincerely yours,
Herman Otten,
editorChristian News
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