Saturday, January 7, 2012

Revised and Expanded - More Details about the Syphilitic Founder of the LCMS,
Martin Stephan, And His Enabler
C. F. W. Walther


The story about learning of Stephan's adultery through a confession or two -
pure baloney - and admitted in Zion on the Mississippi.
The Mormon saga is more factual than the LCMS myth.

Chapter 4 – Stephan’s Halle Pietism Became Walther’s UOJ


            The official history of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is full of deliberate, bald-faced lies about its origin. Central to the deception is the C. F. W. Walther mythology, tales and claims that portray him as the American Luther, when he was really the American Pope, a treacherous and criminal usurper, a divisive figure who forced his imprint upon the Synodical Conference. The often-told story is familiar to most conservative Lutherans. The Saxon immigrants came over to America with Bishop Stephan leading them. They suddenly discovered he was an adulterer and forced him out, with the brave and noble Walther taking over and leading them until his death. Although Stephan is always called a false teacher and Walther a champion of Lutheran orthodoxy, with details too murky to decipher, the truth is unsettling.
            Many will portray the facts about Walther as a personal attack, but the truth needs to come out, to set the so-called conservative Lutherans free from the yoke of synod worship and Walther mythology. For too long the statements of Walther have been used to define Scriptural interpretation. His writings have usurped the Book of Concord in the same way that he usurped the position of the bishop he swore to support, the documents he swore to follow in case of a dispute. Walther also set up minions who would repeat his opinions post-mortem until they were established as canon law, best exemplified in the position of UOJ in the Synodical Conference today.[1]

Martin Stephan’s Saga, Pietism and Syphilis


            Martin Stephan had a difficult early life, due to the effects of Roman Catholic persecution of Protestants, which prepared him for future hardships and the leadership of a Pietistic congregation.[2] He was born in Moravia in 1777, and Moravia was a center of Pietism. His pastoral sponsor was a Pietist, and so were his parents. He had to get by on his own for years, but he enrolled at Halle University for two years, 1804-06 “Although the University of Halle was no longer a center of pietism, it remained alive among some students even though rationalism was dominant.”[3]
He finished at Leipzig in 1809, the disruption in his schooling caused by the Napoleonic wars.
He served one congregation for a year and began his ministry at St. John’s in Dresden in 1810.
            St. John’s was a Pietistic congregation with a special charter to continue cell groups or conventicles when they had become suspect. The land for the church came from Count Zinzendorf, one of the superstars of Lutheran Pietism.[4] Stephan gloried in his cell groups, which are the essence of Pietism.[5]
Stephan was not a rationalist. At the time, the two major parties were the rationalists and Pietists. Since the Pietists emphasized Bible study and prayer, they attracted those who found no solace in human reason. Thus anyone who mentioned faith was accused of being a Pietist or a mystic.
Unfortunately, cell group leaders often become bewitched by their power over others. Stephan was unusually successful and well known. In court, testimony from his another woman stated that “among all those who followed Stephan there was the idea that if you entrusted  your spirit to him [Stephan] then you could also give him your body without committing a sin.”[6] Although some of his troubles came from his position as a successful Pietist, his other trials came from his immoral behavior. Accusations came at an early date in his ministry.
The book about Martin Stephan is honest about his problems with adultery, providing a considerable amount of evidence, which was known long before Stephan led 700 people to America “in pursuit of religious freedom.” He obviously wanted more than religious freedom, because he took his mistress, Louise Guenther, and his healthy son to America and left his wife at home – with all the sick children. The society paid for Stephan’s family to travel together to America, but he left them at home. Oddly, that son became the patriarch of some leading LCMS pastors, including one Lutheran Hour speaker, a singular honor.
Even in this age of hedonism, Stephan’s liberties were outrageous and well known. He was often caught taking evening walks with various women. He was investigated by the justice system numerous times. He installed a young woman in the parsonage attic and told his long-suffering wife it was none of her business – he was the master of the house.[7] When he took the cure at the spa, his mistress Louise lived with him. When his wife came to help, she was sent away and walked 20 miles home. The spa and the walks were excused because of his health, but why did he suffer so many chronic complaints?
Martin Stephan suffered from syphilis. He gave it to his wife, and passed it on to some of his children. Syphilis is the great pretender, mimicking one disorder and then another. A sore may appear at the first outbreak, but it goes away, giving false hopes of a cure. The carrier is still contagious even if his symptoms are difficult to discern at any given moment. Anyone with questions about this disorder should consult a physician and read the extensive information (with photos) on the Net. Reading the Stephan book and the Web sources will lead readers to an obvious conclusion.
Previous researchers have come to the same conclusion, but no one wants to admit that Walther and the other pioneers of Missouri Synod followed an obvious adulterer and covert syphilitic to America. The evidence demands this conclusion:
  • Primary syphilis erupts with one or more lesions, painless and non-itchy, which go away in about three months. Stephan could have contracted the disorder and passed it to his wife while thinking (or hoping) it was nothing, once the initial lesion went away.
  • Secondary syphilis shows itself with rashes, a major problem for Stephan. The rashes made him go for long evening walks and visit the spa for its comforting waters. Syphilitic rashes are very ugly indeed.  The disease attacks various organs, including the liver, brain, eyes and heart. The disease may become latent without treatment, with the rashes going away. The latent period can last many years. Modern medical sources do not agree about the syphilitic being contagious during that time, tempting the person to be careless.
  • Tertiary syphilis means obvious neurological and cardiac problems, possible open sores in various parts of the body and on the skin. These lesions are hideous.
  • Congenital syphilis is passed from the pregnant mother to the unborn child. Stephan’s wife was sickly and died before he did. Three of their daughters were deaf and had to be institutionalized. Deafness is one symptom of congenital syphilis. Newborns have many obvious symptoms, perhaps another reason for Stephan to leave his innocent children behind – their deformed bodies were a tragic testimony to his misdeeds.[8]
  • Stephan was quite ill before leaving for America. He was also ill during most of the voyage.
  • The violence of the upheaval against Stephan is not explained by a sudden revelation of adultery by two women, one of them his long-standing mistress, Louise. Historians concede that the colonists did not need to violate the confessional. Instead, it was likely the spread of syphilis in the colony that enraged the men and justified everyone in their violence and criminal actions. [9]
  • Stephan’s subsequent decline after sleeping outside one night is another indication of his STD. Exposure would have lowered his fragile immune system and brought on the symptoms with new force. Louise Guenther, moved to Illinois to live with him and help him recover. He did not live much longer.
There must be evidence of the disease in the official record.
            Celestine was the first of three daughters born deaf, and all three were eventually placed in an institution.  The first boy named Martin died at the age of three weeks, the cause not known. A set of twin girls died at the age of six months, in 1831, no cause given. Two daughters grew up and were married, one of them dying young in childbirth.[10] The profoundly deaf daughters probably had congenital syphilis. Perhaps the three who died in infancy were also afflicted.
The father’s symptoms are illuminating. Stephan “suffered particularly from eczema and some kind of liver ailment, especially after 1832 when another set of twins died.”[11] Although the author does not attribute the problems of the children and the “eczema,” the cluster of symptoms certain points to syphilis. He used the nearby baths to soothe his rashes. His mistress Louise Guenther came to spa to help him and wrap his legs daily. His wife and daughters visited him but did not stay there. Louise did. The same woman helped him when he was cast out of the Perry County experiment and forced at gunpoint to cross to Illinois.
Stephan also took evening walks, accompanied by various people. Court records called them the equivalent of groupies. His behavior with various women on these evening walks was the subject of investigation before the great migration to America. He was doubly suspected of conventicle and immoral behavior. The earliest accusation of adultery was 1814, although this seems to have been dismissed or finessed away.[12]
Stephan’s evening walks and stay-overs at inns were also the subject of official investigation and ecclesiastical dismay in 1836.[13] Stephan ignored the obvious problems raised by abnormal behavior and irregular church practices. Like many successful pastors, he seemed immune to charges and oblivious to the damage he was doing. His long-suffering wife Julia testified in 1838 that Martin lived with Louis Guenther at the spa and the vineyard inn. “At present he has disassociated himself from me completely, and although I have offered him my hand in peace and consolation, my efforts in this regard have been in vain.”[14] Julia also testified that Martin installed a young woman named Sophie in the attic, persisting when Julia threw her out and locked the attic. He broke the lock and invited the girl back. The attorneys Marbach and Krause, and a few friends, knew about Julia’s testimony, so the leaders willingly left for America with an adulterous Pietist. Even if many did not know the full extent of Stephan’s promiscuity, his adoption of Louise Guenther as a substitute wife would have been clear to anyone. Julia Stephan’s testimony has been available since 1937, according to Philip Stephan, so the continued myth-making of the Missouri Synod is difficult to excuse.[15]
Stephan was still under investigation and under house arrest before the Dresden group left for America in early 1838.[16] The charges were suddenly dismissed and he was free to go with his groupies. Since the official charges and testimonies included the names of various women and situations, no one could honestly claim that Stephan’s adultery was suddenly and shockingly discovered after a particularly effect sermon. The lawyers Marbach and Krause knew what the testimony was; Marbach and Vehse also helped in kidnapping the niece and nephew of C. F. W. Walther. The Saxon immigration was not so much in pursuit of religious freedom as it was a flight from justice, with the two famous leaders – Stephan and Walther - both involved in criminal activities.
           

C. F. W. Walther the Pietist


            C. F. W. Walther took control from a power-mad, adulterous false teacher—who made himself a bishop— and instituted an era of Lutheran orthodoxy combined with congregational autonomy. That deception is the foundational Missouri Synod myth. The facts contradict this fantasy, which continues to be told to the gullible when they visit the Shrine of the Immaculate Synod in Perry County, Missouri.
            Walther was the opposite of Martin Stephan in many ways. Stephan struggled to survive, after losing his parents and escaping from Roman Catholic persecution. He found work as a weaver, enrolled as a student at Halle University, but found his education broken up by war. Stephan’s early life is shrouded in mystery because of those hardships, but it is known that he lacked the complete classical education of Walther, the son of a pastor.
            Both men identified with Pietism, but this was the late stage of that movement, when rationalism had already taken over Halle University. George Christian Knapp was considered a leftover Pietist when he taught at Halle, but he claimed the Trinity was a post-Biblical development! Tholuck, the mentor of Adolph Hoenecke, confessed that he was a Universalist.  Both professors prove that the remaining conservative side of Halle was midway to consistent Unitarian-Universalist rationalism. The clergy were dominated by rationalist leaders who considered faith to be a sign of Pietism or mysticism, their two derogatory labels for conservatives.  Those who were more conservative felt persecuted, which led to migration to America.
            Walther earned his degree at Leipzig, which was thoroughly rationalistic. His conservatism made it difficult to win approval from the examining board, but his father’s position as a pastor helped him overcome that obstacle. Walther moved among Pietists because he was one. Unfortunately, his guru put him and others through grueling self-denial, leaving him almost dead. He heard about Martin Stephan’s gentle, compassionate leadership and contacted him. Stephan did not practice the same severe kind of Pietism, so his initial letter of consolation brought great relief to the future leader of the Missouri Synod. Walther admitted that Stephan saved his life. Thus Walther and his older brother were drawn into the Stephan circle in Dresden.
            Cell groups are not merely central to Pietism – they are Pietism. Spener borrowed the concept from a Reformed leader, Labadie, who had been Roman Catholic. Those familiar with Roman Catholic devotional circles can recognize the similarity in emotional intensity and subjectivism: praying for hours, repeating the same mantras, and experiencing mystical ecstasy.[17]  Walther moved from the harsher Pietism to Stephan’s milder form. Stephan took great joy in his cell group ministry. The great migration took cell groups to Perry County and St. Louis. Undoubtedly Stephan’s grip on his subordinate ministers came from his spiritual dominance through the cell groups. The senior cell group guru knows the secrets and creates a powerful dependency in his subjects.[18] Lesser cell group leaders also have an inordinate influence over the lives of their charges. Some attribute Walther’s dictatorial attitude and need to control to his German culture. His spiritual birth and re-birth in Pietism probably contributed even more to this dynamic. The dates and activities of the Society show that Walther simply took over control of the group by breaking all the rules he agreed to follow, doing so with deliberate deceit and unprecedented guile.

Kidnapping Two Children from His Father’s Home


            With the help of attorneys Marbach and Vehse, and the connivance of his future mother-in-law, Walther and his brother (another pastor in the group) kidnapped their niece and nephew from their father’s parsonage – while their father was deathly ill. The official Missouri Synod excuse, repeated at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, is: “The niece and nephew wanted to go to America.” Both children later died in America, perhaps without seeing their grandfather again. Even if this unrecorded childish wish were true, that would not justify breaking the law, because the grandparents were the legal, court-appointed guardians. Kinship kidnapping makes a mockery of the law, which is why arrest warrants were issued for Walther. His future mother-in-law (Buenger) was arrested and interrogated, because Walther used her to hide the children. The attorneys Marbach and Vehse also helped in hiding the children and getting them to America. Like Jonah, Walther jumped an early ship and wasted money to get out of town fast.[19] His appointed ship was lost with all lives aboard in an ocean storm, crossing the Atlantic. That fact has fueled the ludicrous LCMS claim that God graciously spared the life of Walther to fulfill His great plans for the Missouri Synod.
In fact, many of the most famous names involved in the migration were lawless fugitives: Martin Stephan, C. F. W. Walther, O. H. Walther, the Buenger family, Vehse, and Marbach. The state authorities and church faithful might have been happy and relieved to see them leave the country.
            The entire Saxon migration was well thought out and thoroughly organized. Their plans and regulations were established and printed. Other groups might have collapsed and scattered during the twin crises of house arrest (Stephan) and kidnapping (Walther). The only document left to sign was created and supported on the trip across. Landing in the Bay of New Orleans, the leaders gathered and voted for Martin Stephan as their bishop, which was announced January 14, 1839. Although C. F. W. Walther had resigned his position, he still signed as the “pastor of Brauersdorf.” His brother used a different wording – former pastor. On May 31, 1939, Bishop Stephan was:
  • accused,
  • threatened with bodily harm,
  • robbed of his money, extensive library, bedding, clothing, chalice, land,
  • forced across the river at gunpoint,
  • and left at a forlorn cabin with $100 and a few meager tools.
Walther was the leader of the revolt and the myth-creator. When the turmoil was over, he was the new bishop, but without the title. He was everything: in publishing, in teaching, in running the synod, in controlling the ministerium, and in Lutheran synodical politics. He became the American Pope

From Here to Rosebud: Syphilis Exposed


            Philip G. Stephan made a valid point in his book - the Saxon migration suffered from the same leadership crisis that many experienced in organized groups coming to America. Clergy and lawyers were prohibited from the New Ulm, Minnesota group because both professions were too divisive.  As reasonable as the theory seems, the events were far too explosive to be explained by sociology. Epidemiology is the most reasonable explanation. Stephan had an eye for unmarried women, and the leaders knew it.
            The curtain of myth in Zion on the Mississippi slips down to the floor in one admission, where the author conceded that Stephan was up to his old tricks in St. Louis – the same ones he employed in Germany. His female groupies were even more shameless in hanging around his abode. That was bound to attract attention and a possible necktie party in St. Louis. The society was already being lambasted in Europe and America by various periodicals. At first the pastors defended their leader. Soon they changed their tune.
            According to the hagiographers, Pastor Loerber gave such a good sermon on one particular Sunday that two women confessed their adultery to him after the service. One woman was Louise Guenther. The other name is not clearly known.
            Like many synodical cover-ups, this one is full of holes. A casual examination of Stephan’s antics in Dresden, recorded by ecclesiastic authorities and the courts, witnessed by many, shows him to be already known as a promiscuous adulterer. At least one reveals that Walther and Loerber did not violate the confidentiality of the confessional, because the adultery was already known! That is not much of a defense, because it means they all willingly followed an adulterer, a man who abandoned his sick wife and family, and they pledged their allegiance to him as a bishop.
            What changed? In Pursuit of Religious Freedom states that Stephan was quite ill before they left for America. “quotation here” He was also accused of being lazy and not preaching during the ocean voyage.
The most likely change was the period of latency being over just as they came to America. If he were contagious, or far more contagious, an outbreak of syphilis among the tight-knit group would have been explosive and alarming, especially in light of the attacks on them abroad and in St. Louis. The leaders changed from defending him to threatening his life. Syphilitic daughters would do that to anyone. I have confirmation that this information is well known among a few people. The loyalty to Walther was more likely based on his cover story and sparing so many from the shame Stephan brought to their families. Walther took the lead in providing a modified, limited hang-out (a Nixon era phrase), casting all the guilt upon one man, sparing the great enterprise and the reputations of its soiled doves.






[1] The Synodical Conference officially broke up, but the three synods work together with the ELCA through Thrivent. Their dramatic loss of members and the decline of their schools will soon force some type of merger, although it may be dressed up in different clothes.
[2] Philip G. Stephan, In Pursuit of Religious Freedom, 2008, p. 25f (hereafter cited as IPRF). Martin’s parents died while he was a teen-ager. He and his sister fled home because of Roman Catholic oppression.
[3] IPRF, p. 32.
[4] Zinzendorf’s furtive trip to America (under a false name) caused Lutherans to send Henry M. Muhlenberg to America (from Halle) to serve them in 1741. Zinzendorf, who gave us the “Come Lord Jesus” table grace and two hymns, was controversial but also extremely influential. He was a bridge to Wesley and Methodism, a major influence on the pioneers of the Swedish Augustana Synod.
[5] Cell groups are Pietism, just as yoga exercises are Hinduism. The cell group is the real church, according to Pietists, a rejection of the Means of Grace. “There is also a family oral tradition about the hat drawn in the seal. It was believed that the hat represented the hat that Martin used when he preached. This preaching hat may have represented Herrnhut, which translated into English means ‘the hat of the Lord.’ Herrnhut was always an important place in the Pietist tradition. It was in Herrnhut where two families of Moravian Brethren came to live on the estate of Nicholas Ludwig, called Count von Zinzendorf. The count donated the land for their community that grew and then they built a church on the donated property that was near Dresden…Zinzendorf was born in 1790 only seventy miles from Dresden. He had a profound influence on the ‘awakening’ movement, on Pastor Stephan, and on the Bohemian founders of St. John’s Church in Dresden.”
#31, IPRF. p. 64.
[6] IPRF, p. 105. These records have been available since 1986 at the Concordia Historical Institute, where Dan Preus and Paul McCain have been directors. #18, ibid, p. 109.
[7] His wife kicked the girl out and locked the attic, keeping the key. Stephan broke the lock and re-installed the girl. Sad to say, many church officials imagine they also have the same rights and duties today, and their clergy pals look the other way.
[8] Hutchinson's triad is a common pattern of presentation for congenital syphilis. It consists of:  1. Interstitial keratitis, 2. Hutchinson incisors, 3. Eighth nerve deafness. Hutchinson's triad is named after Sir Jonathan Hutchinson (1828-1913). http://classictriads.com/hutchinsons-triad
[9] The neurological damage might have made Stephan less capable of dealing with the incredible tensions around him. At least one writer seemed puzzled that someone once so aware found himself uninformed and unaware. On the voyage across the ocean he was accused of doing little work. He also gave a severely critical sermon against his shipmates. Although exhaustion and depression might be understandable at that point, the symptoms also fit his STD.
[10] IPRF, p. 41f.
[11] IPRF, p. 79.
[12] IPRF, p. 82f. Philip Stephan is willing to believe the best about the bishop, but he is also frank about the many recorded situations with women.
[13] IPRF, p. 86.
[14] IPRF, p. 92f.
[15] IPRF, p. 94.
[16] IPRF, p. 102.
[17] Lay cell group leaders soon adopt the posture of being ordained pastors, or even apostles, especially when they are women usurping authority from men. They are eager to destroy anything that gets in the way of their honor, power, and perks.
[18] The struggling new synod kept cell groups for a period of time. Cell groups rose up with a shout again in recent times because the liberal and unionistic leadership chose to unwrap a covert Pietism which never left the Missouri Synod.
[19] Herman Melville’s preacher makes much of this fact, that “Jonah paid the fare” when he grabbed the ship sailing to the farthest corner of the globe, away from Nineveh. A guilt-free passenger would have dickered over the price. KJV Jonah 1:3 But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.