50th Anniversary Year - Why This Newsletter

50th Anniversary Year
Why This Newsletter?

This issue, Volume 50, Number 1, Issue Number 2298, marks the beginning of the 50th anniversary year of Christian News. The first page of the first issue is reproduced on p. 20. CN began in the basement “dungeon” of the parsonage of Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Missouri on December 15, 1962. The editor cranked the hand mimeograph thousands of times. It was called Lutheran News until January 1, 1968.

The Statement of Policy on page 4 in each issue since 1968 was written by Dr. Kurt Marquart, who had been the editor’s roommate at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

Many of the names of those to whom the first issues of CN were sent by member of the State of the Church Conference, a group of Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod pastors and laymen concerned about the growth of the theological liberalism and a pro-communist attitude within churches. It began at the Mule Mountain Ranch in Bisbee, Arizona where a group of pastors and laymen concerned about a pro-communist attitude within some major denominations had been meeting annually after Christmas. Some of them heard about a recent graduate of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis serving as pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Mo. They invited him to speak for four hours on their program. It took him almost 2 days to get there by bus and hitchhiking.

The anti-communist pastors and layman had him speak some 12 hours during the days at the ranch. Plans were then made to combat the theological liberalism, which the recent seminary graduate had shown the group had infiltrated the LCMS. He told them that this theological liberalism could be far more destructive than the pro-communist position of many churchman which had been their primary concern. At the time hundreds of U.S. clergyman were members of Communist front groups.

When the pastors meeting in Arizona asked the seminary graduate for the names of leaders of “your” group opposing theological liberalism, the graduate said there really was no organized group but that men like Kurt Marquart and Harold Romoser shared his concerns. When the graduate suggested that the leader of the anti-communist pastors meeting in Arizona, Dr. August Brustat, would be a good chairmen of a group opposing theological liberalism, Brustat said this would not be wise since he was a member of the “44”, an organization of leading liberals in the LCMS. Lutheran Hour Speaker, Dr. Oswald Hoffman was the last living member of the “44”. Otten then suggested that Cameron Mackenzie: would make a good chairman. Mackenzie, a Detriot pastor, agreed to serve and immediately called for an organizing meeting in Detroit. Dr. Louis Brighton, later a long time professor at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, became a member of the executive committee of the conservatives at a meeting in Detroit which called for a “State of the Church Conference” in Milwaukee. A future editor of Affirm was critical of the conservatives who opposed liberalism in the LCMS. He wrote in his column “To Tell the Truth” in The Badger Lutheran of the LCMS’s Milwaukee Council of Churches that among the men associated with those calling for a “State of the Church” meeting in Milwaukee was a “a graduate whom the seminary has so far refused ordination, and a person officially connected with another fringe publication.”

The Church League of America
The uncertified graduate had done some writing for the Church League of America, including Parts I, II, III and IV of “What is Troubling the Lutherans? The series was sent to LCMS churches, throughout the nation. The seminary graduate paid for most of the $1,000 cost of mailing from his, at the time, $150 monthly salary. He also compiled the 1961 and 1962 State of the Church Documentation, about 200 pages each, printed by Cameron Mackenzie at his Detroit church.

Hundreds from all over the nation attended the 1961 SOC gathering in Milwaukee, about 400 “registered” voting delegates plus some unregistered guests.” Future LCMS President Jack Preus was among the registered delegates. He kept his registration badge inside of his jacket, in order not to displease any church officials. Among the speakers at the SOC conference were Dr. William Beck, Dr. Siegbert Becker, Dr. L.W. Faulstick, Moderator Machenzie, Dr. August Brustarts, William McMurdie, Harold Romoser, Ben Bryant, M.D., Arnold Gebhardt and Fred Bendewald.

Neither the secular nor religious press presented accurate reports about what was said and done in the Milwaukee SOC meeting. The conservatives recognized they needed their own publication to publish accurate reports.
When the seminary graduate married Deaconess Grace Anderson they went on a 5,000 mile wedding trip. Along the way they spoke to many groups on “The Crisis in Christendom.” Names gathered on this trip were also used for the first mailing of Lutheran News. Grace spent the 30 dollars she had saved for Christmas presents to pay for the first issue.

Reprinted in this is “Why this Newsletter?” from page 1 of the first issue of Lutheran News and “A Forty year Battle For Free Speech”, a 54 page (11”x17”) booklet published in 1995. It has the history behind the founding of Christian News. Next month CN will publish “Officials Urge New Haven-REMOVE YOUR PASTOR, the recorded transcript of a meeting at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Haven, Missouri, 4 days after the first issue of Lutheran News was published. After 50 years, the LCMS’ Council of President has not changed much. The COP call is still “remove your Pastor.” He is “an impenitent sinner on the road to Hell.”

For the entire article see Christian News, Volume 50, No. 1, January 2, 2012