Herman Otten, the Accidental Editor Who Changed a Denomination

Jack Preus is on the far left (for once), cousin David Preus, ALC President, on the far right (for once). Robert Marshall, LCA president, is standing next to David Preus. I met all three men.

Herman Otten began a mimeographed newsletter to inform his fellow believers about covert changes in their synod’s doctrine. But he ended up changing the denomination, the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, electing new and more conservative leaders, and splitting its largest seminary, Concordia in St. Louis.

Otten was a young pastor in a small town, New Haven, Missouri, when he decided to start a newsletter called Lutheran News. Using some extra Christmas money from his wife Grace, about $40, he sent out the first issue of the newsletter on December 15, 1962. Since then the mimeographed newsletter has changed into a tabloid newspaper with a circulation of 11,500. The non-profit Lutheran News Corporation has published the Beck Bible (An American Translation) and many books related to Christian doctrine, such as the first translation of C. F. W. Walther’s Pastoral Theology.

Otten has published 2, 154 weekly issues of Christian News, its name changed from Lutheran News to include more denominations. Otten volunteered in one conversation that his paper broke ground by photocopying controversial material. Liberals would claim, “We never said that.” Otten countered by photocopying their exact words for the paper. This alerted many people to the changes in the LCMS that his opponents joked, “Otten was not born – he was photocopied.”

Otten began his career heading toward teaching. He earned a master’s degree in history from Washington University, located conveniently near the St. Louis Seminary. His accidental career in journalism nixed all possibilities of advancement within his denomination. His congregation stood by him as the liberals tried to remove him from preaching. The liberals even kicked the congregation out of the LCMS more than once. Except for his annual vacation, Otten kept publishing the paper, laying out the columns by hand each week.

Otten said, “I don’t even have to go to town on Thursday for layout. They send it all by computer. Can you imagine that? Oh, you can.” When I told him I teach and take classes on a computer at home, he said, “On a computer? I don’t even know how to turn one on.”

Otten is now 75, healthy from a lifetime of athletics. His wife and children help with the computer side of publishing. Otten often fields calls from all over. Although he is officially a pariah in the Lutheran groups, the same officials who shun him also want their spin on news stories. Christian News offers a cafeteria selection of stories from the Religious News Service, official denominational news, and independent stories.

John Warick Montgomery, another conservative Lutheran outcast, said, “Reading Christian News is like opening one of those old police gazette magazines. You wonder – what is he going to shock me with.”

Otten was instrumental in turning out the liberal administration and electing Jack Preus to the presidency in 1969 (Time Magazine, 1975). Preus gave Otten information to leak in Christian News. Once elected, Preus began working on the liberals at Concordia, St. Louis. The result was Seminex, a melodramatic “Seminary in Exile” and the religious news story of the year. Preus consolidated conservative control of the synod, with the help of Otten and voting lists at conventions. Preus also moved away from support of Otten to outright antagonism. This process was continued with the next two presidents, Ralph Bohlmann and Al Barry. Bohlmann and Barry sought Otten’s support, worked with him covertly, and then became antagonistic once they were elected to the president’s office. The current LCMS president, Jerry Kieschnick, belonged to the liberal faction in the synod. Kieschnick made a major effort two years ago to get rid of Otten, but that also failed.

Has Otten been influential? The editor responded, “People don’t read anymore. We have a website, but I never bother with it. Lutheran pastors have all these conservative blogs, but they never quote books. They just offer opinions and respond back and forth. They are not reaching people. They are just reaching the elite.”
Otten discussed the decline of printed newspapers, so I mentioned the slippage of the Arizona Republic in Phoenix. He is opposed to putting Christian News online. “If they want my wisdom, they can get a subscription.”

Reference
Time Magazine, (1975, July 21, 1975). Preus' Purge. Time, , . Retrieved December 16, 2008, from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,913312,00.html

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GJ - For my class in print journalism, I had to interview a journalist about his job, so I phoned Herman Otten. We had a long talk about a variety of topics. God willing, I will write my MA thesis on Otten and Christian News. I expect to have all the credits earned by the end of 2009. He was a bit shocked that I was working on a journalism degree.

Finkelstein on Process Theology, Stetzer, and WELS

Freddy likes the film Moby Dick.

Freddy Finkelstein has left a new comment on your post "Team Patterson - Mark Down This Conference in Your...":

"We wrongly think of God as static rather than dynamic and moving."

This entire paragraph smacks of the modern heresy of Process Theology, a movement with fond devotion among liberal Baptists (such as the Rev. Dr. Greg Boyd of the General "Babtist" Convention) and some Pentecostals that I know. It is the man-made theology of a changing god, producing a theology requiring man to pine and strive for spiritual renewal -- for continuous rediscovery of a god gone stale. In the end, it begs the question of whether God can be known at all, given that His only Special Revelation, by which He authoritatively reveals Himself and His Gospel to us, is long since obsolete.

God changes, according to the Process theologians among the liberal Babtists (like Ed Stetzer, supposedly), and so does the Church, according to our own WELS Church Growthers. Granting, in all charitableness, that Church & Change Church Growthers in the WELS are only Pollyanna Rubes, who in their Evangelical zeal have only the best intentions at heart, the question is, what do they really know about the theological challenges facing the Babtists? How much of the CG Babtist rhetoric they absorb is influenced by heresy completely unforeseen and unpredicted by them in their Lutheran "boredom," given their wholesome Lutheran training? How prepared are they to recognize damnable heresy cloaked in the garb of progressive, exciting, pop-church evangelical methodology? What, in their wide-eyed zeal, in their Confessional dismissivenes, have they assimilated from Babtists struggling from their own obscure theological challenges? After all, they deliberately choose the moniker "Change." Given their questionable associations, what, truly, is their inspiration?

This is not spouting, this is serious business. The methods of C&C Church Growthers in the WELS are an attack on Lutheran Doctrine via innovative practices -- whether they know it or not.

Rev. Jackson, I don't know if you hear it much at all, but I will state my appreciation for your blog, your journalism, your Lutheran "idealism" (for lack of a better term at this late hour), and your persistence. Freddy Finkelstein

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GJ - Here is an interesting note from Brother Stetzer, on his blog:

"Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is Missiologist at NAMB, an overeater, occasionally loses his temper, is often unsure of who He is in Christ, and has a thought life that could use some work. "

The blind lead the blind, and make them pay dearly for it.

Thanks Freddy, whoever you are.

Yale Endowment Drops 25%

Yale University's Harkness Tower, one of the finest carillons anywhere.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale University said Tuesday its nearly $23 billion endowment has dropped 25 percent to about $17 billion in recent months due to the recession, prompting the college to delay construction projects and take other cost-cutting measures.

Yale normally provides an annual update on its endowment, but Yale President Richard Levin provided the update Tuesday amid concerns over the effect of the financial turmoil rocking Wall Street.

Yale said in September that its endowment earned a 4.5 percent return in the fiscal year ending June 30, bringing total assets to $22.9 billion. Yale's "best estimate" of the endowment's value now is $17 billion, a decline of 25 percent since June 30, Levin said.

The 25 percent decline has a very significant impact on operations because income from the endowment supports 44 percent of the university's annual expense base of $2.7 billion, Levin said.