aka Chairman JAO
I was in the LCA when Jack Preus was elected LCMS president and newly ordained when Seminex erupted. Going to Notre Dame introduced me to LCMS President Pfotenhauer's liberal grandson, who moved his congregation into the LCA. Another Pfotenhauer grandson was WELS. Another was Pentecostal. That used to describe the three-way split of Lutherans in America: liberal, orthodox, Pentecostal.
I have read the documents about the split many times, from the apostate perspective, and from the conservative side. I wrote "liberal" instead of apostate at first, but apostate is far more precise. The Seminex leaders were evil, deceptive, and always howling about how mistreated they were. Doubtless some were not given fair treatment, but overall the Seminex split was a disaster for the apostates and a victory for the conservatives.
I admire Jack and Robert Preus for being polemical when they might have simply used their credentials for a comfortable life. Jack knew how to make a point. He was certainly a politician, playing both sides all the time. Nevertheless, the Word of God did the impossible, breaking up a system built to promote apostasy. Imagine moving schoools around today to do something similar, like getting rid of Church Growth.
Did the Barry administration do anything in nine years? Barry did nothing about Benke, reminding us of LCMS President Benken doing nothing about everything
Did Bohlmann do anything except protect the apostates?
Young pastors today do not realize the shock of having intellectual Lutherans (Jack and Robert) defend Lutheran Orthodoxy when all the denominations were in retreat. Yes I know that WELS and the ELS broke with Missouri a little earlier, but that failed to register on the radar of most Americans.
Jack Preus was loathed by all the LCMS headquarters people. He had many District Popes against him. The media excoriated him.
Robert suffered more abuse overall, in my opinion. Toward the end of his life LCMS officials went out of their way to humiliate him as often as possible. I remember a teaching offer dangled in front of him by Johnson at St. Louis. Robert wanted to do this summer school course and wrote that he did. Johnson "forgot" or overlooked that response. That was minor compared to other slaps and put-downs. The cross is never separated from the teaching of the true Word.
Christian News played a major role in getting the word out to people while bypassing the official channels. LCA pastors routinely denounced CN. Later I realized the WELS loathed CN for the same reasons - the information could not be massaged and controlled.
