It requires unusual credulity to think that Stephan attained the position he did against his wishes. On the contrary only people who were subservient to Stephan succeeded in getting along with him. At least all the people who were allowed to advance to the Stephanite hierarchy and to play important roles stood in an intimate relationship of this kind to him....
In the eyes of his followers Stephan became the champion of orthodoxy, the defender of the faith. They firmly asserted that the means of grace were dependent upon his person and that, if he were silenced, the Lutheran Church would cease to exist in Saxony. Stephan’s doctrine was unerringly true, his solution of a question inevitably correct.
Walter Forster, Zion on the Mississippi, Chapter Three, Transformation of Stephanism into Separatism, 1953, p. 63.
***
Forster's book has 90-95% of the information to show that the Stephanite migration came to America as an abusive personality cult built around an adulterous leader.
The recent Church Growth Movement in the ELS-LCMS-WELS is consistent with the style and character of the Stephanite group.
Martin Stephan was a Pietist by training (Halle University), by birthright (Bohemian), by ministry (a congregation established for Bohemian Pietists), and by profession (cell group leader for the Walther circle and the Dresden congregation).
Cell group leaders often exert dictatorial control over their subordinates, and Stephan was no exception.
"Stephan's domination was not only accepted, but even welcomed by many of his docile converts." Zion, p. 65.
As I wrote before, the Walther circle's previous guru was Johann Gottlieb Kuehn - a severe and demanding cell group leader, a specialist in mortifying the flesh. In fact, he died a year into his first call, passing the leadership onto Stephan. The domineering style of both gurus cemented the clergy. They were the guard dogs of Animal Farm, always eager to protect their master from any and all criticism. The Walther circle saw no wrong in Stephan, only threats against their master.
The chosen followers got to enjoy all-night parties with Stephan, organized away from the church property, and always billed as cell group gatherings. The police were not so sure, since the congregation itself had permission to sponsor conventicles on the property, but not at inns and hotels, where Stephan would appear with a young lady in the wee hours of the night, after a walk with her in the woods. Zion, p. 67.
Stephan was blatantly immoral, with Louis Guenther as his primary bedmate. The urge to escape to America grew with the investigations of Stephan over his repeated associations with young women, his meetings with them and other followers in the middle of the night, when he took walks to relieve the symptoms of his syphilis. He lived with Guenther at the spa where he was treated for syphilis, but he had no time for his wife, whom he blamed for all his troubles. Walther echoed the slander against Mrs. Stephan.
Investigations of Stephan grew to the point of house arrest, just before the Stephanite group left for America.
The adultery continued on the ship and in St. Louis, so there was no surprise confession. Instead, there was an obvious outbreak of venereal disease, which sparked the mob action carefully organized by Walther.
What are the results today? The Synodical Conference leaders:
- Cover-up the sexual abuse of their staffers and church worker friends.
- Assume dictatorial powers in the Name of Walther, Amen.
- Promote cell groups came back in the name of Church Growth.
- Market Pietism as Lutheran Orthodoxy.
- Make a show of shunning all others as outside the Kingdom, even though they all work with one another and with ELCA.
