Walther – Saint or Wolf?
In Pursuit of Religious Freedom: Bishop Martin Stephan’s
Journey
By Philip G. Stephan (born 1935), New York: Lexington Books,
2008.
My citations will be In Pursuit of Religious Freedom,
instead of Stephan, to avoid confusion, since the author is a descendant of the
bishop.
I am all for declaring CFW Walther a saint, which may be a
demotion. The Bronze Age Missourians treat him as a god. WELS trots him out
when convenient.
To declare someone a saint in the Roman Catholic Church, a
Devil’s Advocate must argue the opposite side of the case, presenting all the
reasons why that person should not be elevated to that status.
An undeclared saint is more dangerous than an undeclared
war, so I am starting the sainthood process on my own as the Devil’s Advocate.
Myth – CFW Walther was an orthodox Lutheran who left Europe
with the Stephanite group to avoid the persecution of the Prussian Union.
Fact – Stephan’s congregation was directly connected with
Pietism, and Walther came to Stephan as an extreme Pietist who was starving himself
to death with fanatical acts of contrition.
They landed in New Orleans, April 29, 1839.
Martin Stephan began study at Halle University in 1804 and
spent two years there, finishing at the University of Leipzig. In Pursuit of Religious Freedom, p. 30.
“Stephan’s theological training prior to attending the university
was shaped by the Waldensians, Hussites, and Moravian Brethren. He had become a
follower of Luther after his parents’ own teaching. The Brethren practices
enabled him to feel at home in Lutheran pietism.” IPRF, p. 33.
2 comments:
I am happy to join you.
LPC
I think it's reasonable to start the process with the Devil's advocacy. Put Walther's faithful on the defensive.
I hope this isn't too much off topic, but I'm beginning to think the problem with Walther and his academic grandchildren is that they weren't/aren't worker priests. In Bible class our pastor made an aside about how if church-giving followed its current trend much longer, the Lutheran Church would have to rely on *gasp* worker priests. I raised by hand and asked: Which is worse for the ministry of the Word: Clergy who have to make a few tents, or clergy who are slaves to their synod of because they owe $250k worth of student loans? I continued, "I'd rather have a pastor who does a little tent-making--we want clergy who are beholden to nothing but the Word."
Well, even though I said it in an amiable way, I might as well have suggested we roast a baby for the next church potluck. The reaction from the pastor and many of the members was stunning. (something akin to pious horror)
But isn't that the problem with the whole tamale? Pastors make pastoring a profession. If the pastor doesn't break synod protocol, doesn't speak out of turn, doesn't bite the hand that feeds him, he realizes job security, salary, a cover-up of his sins, and a defense or even canonization of his dubious theology...and a cake when he retires. (I wonder if Walther got a cake.) On top of that, pastors don't only make pastoring a profession, but a divinely protected one. Notice how pastors never get a "divine" call to a smaller, poorer congregation? Divine, my eye! What would we get if garbage men were able to convince us that their vocation was a divine calling? Corrupt garbage men, that's what. The W/ELS LCMS system of the "Divine Call" is a farce.
I think Pastors oughta be required to work off-the-farm, so to speak. If a man can provide for himself in a real economy he sure as heck ain't going to be kowtowing to a synod, or at least, he has a better chance having a sole allegiance to the Word. Yeah, this would mean a reorganization of the church, but why shouldn't Congregation members be relied on to visit the sick, elderly, incarcerated, etc.? Why shouldn't the church appoint Deacons and Elders to fill certain needs of the church previously met by the Pastor? It's just Lutheran-High-Church garbage to suggest that only a Pastor can administer the sacraments---the mature wise Christian men of a congregation can certainly minister to those unable to make it to Divine Worship.
If you've got a sugar-daddy like the synod or a fabricated divine-call system, (or a sugar daddy like the Government or a Union, for that matter) you walk in moral hazard. We shouldn't be surprised at the corruption. We don't really have a system designed to help Pastors succeed, we have system that almost guarantees their failure.
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