# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S573
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

INTERSYNODICAL AND DOCTRINAL MATTERS 573

number of copies of Walton Hannah’s two books on Masonry
(Darkness Visible and Christian by Degrees).

Reports solicited from all District Presidents a year and a half
ago compel the Commission to conclude that, in general, our
pastors and congregations are fully aware of the lodge evil and
of Synod’s position concerning lodges, that they are testifying
against this evil, and that they are also, where the situation makes
it necessary, employing disciplinary measures in accordance with
Matt. 18:15 ff. Your Commission is pleased to report also that
groups in Synod whom we addressed on lodge matters gratefully
received the information we provided and manifested a Christian
readiness to be guided also in lodge matters by the Word of God.
We must, however, also record that there still are those in our
Synod who seem to show little or no concern regarding the lodge
issue and who are, in addition, causing grave offense. Brethren,
unless all our pastors and congregations view the lodge matter
most seriously and act in accordance with Synod’s stated policies,
we shall lose the war against lodges as other churches have lost
it long ago. Your Commission knows that especially some lodges
are employing almost every kind of device to pressurize our pastors
and congregations to relent regarding the lodge issue. But it
remains everlastingly true that the Lord of the Church has always
blessed and will continue to bless His fearless witnesses of the
truth, that there is only one Gospel, and that this one Gospel
tolerates no abridgment, no extension, and no substitution. May
all members of our Synod become more courageous in their witness
to that one Gospel.

Your Commission took under advisement the objections raised
to Scoutism by Rev. Edward C. Fredrich in his essay “The Military
Chaplaincy and Scouting,” which he submitted at the Synodical
Conference convention August 10 to 13, 1954, in East Detroit, Mich.
In dealing with these objections, it was our opinion that we should
make special efforts to bring to the attention of the Boy Scouts
of America statements and phrases in the handbooks of the BSA
which seemed particularly offensive to the author of the essay.
In a recent meeting with Dr. A. E. Iverson, Director Protestant
Relationships of the BSA, the Chairman of Synod’s Board for
Young People’s Work, Dr. Clarence Peters, and the Chairman of
the Commission brought these statements and phrases to the
attention of Dr. Iverson. We were assured by Dr. Iverson that the
handbooks of the BSA are being revised at this time and that
changes suggested by the Commission and the Board for Young
People’s Work could and would be made. We are sincerely hopeful
that the BSA will approve our forthcoming suggestions regarding