American Lutheran Mythologies And the Truth

WELS - LCMS - Seminex - ALC - ELCA. UOJ all the way. Many people act upon falsehoods and repeat them. For instance, almost everyone seems to think that birds feeding at a bird-feeder will die of starvation if the residents go on vacation for two weeks. The birds do not depend on bird-feeders any more than humans depend on Fritos to stay alive. Nevertheless, the myth of the bird-feeder as songbird heroin continues. These are some of the mythologies spread by ignorance, lies, and PR smokescreens:

1. The Saxon migration took place for religious freedom. Truth - everyone came over for one reason only, to follow Bishop Stephan.
2. The Saxon migration created the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Truth - Loehe began a group and invited the St. Louis/Perry County associate to join.
3. C. F. W. Walther discovered Bishop Stephan's adultery and deposed him, taking charge as a heroic savior of the nascent Missouri Synod. Truth - Stephan left after being under house arrest for sexual abuse of his members, taking his mistress along but leaving his wife and children at home. Truth - Walther had to know about the adultery before they left, but he had to skip town himself, for kidnapping his niece and nephew from his father's parsonage.
4. C. F. W. Walther was an orthodox Lutheran who tried to set everyone straight, thanks to his study of Luther. Truth - Walther was a Pietist who continued his amalgamation of Halle Pietism and Lutheran doctrine.
5. The Old Lutherans battled the New Lutherans in America. Truth - All the American groups began with Pietism. The lager-Pietists from the Muhlenberg tradition (Pietism aged to perfection) took their Enthusiasm to the next level - revivalism. The General Council split continued their Pietism in some respects but worked toward fidelity to the Lutheran Confessions.
6. Walther was a hero. Truth - Walther left Europe a criminal and engaged in additional felonies in taking over the Missouri group, including the crimes of robbery, mob action, threatening the life of another person, and kidnapping.
7. The Syn Conference taught UOJ from the beginning and always has. Truth - The Missouri Synod had a justification by faith catechism in German in the early 1900s and still publishes a KJV catechism which is justification by faith. Gausewitz wrote a justification by faith catechism (German and English), which was used by the Synodical Conference until WELS replaced it with the UOJ Kuske monstrosity.
8. WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect are not in fellowship with ELCA. Truth - they have been happily working and planning together for decades, largely through LWR and Thrivent (AAL-LB) functions.