# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_October 1858_S307
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

True and False Exclusivity.     307

-excludes it. To exclude — strictly to exclude — every teacher in church and school must set aside everything that does not agree with the teachings of Holy Scripture, as these are set forth in the confessional writings. "In this sense, then, he not only may be exclusive, but ought and must be, unless he wishes to break his oath of ordination — that is, to put it plainly in German, to become a perjurer. In this respect the Ministry, too, must be exclusive; for it is bound and obligated by that same oath to combat everything that contends against the doctrine and against the confession of our church. The Ministry, too, must be exclusive, unless it wishes to violate its duty and its oath. But if someone, in denial of Christian love and in denial of all humility, considers himself something better simply because he stands firm on the confession, and despises or damns those of a different belief, that is a false, an altogether reprehensible exclusivity, one that stands in the starkest contradiction to the teachings of our church. The question now is, which kind of exclusivity was meant when exclusive tendencies were ascribed to the Ministry? In all the speeches held through two long sessions of the second chamber, not a single case has been named that would even to some degree give rise to the appearance that the Ministry could be charged with that false tendency toward exclusivity. Gentlemen, that which is complained of is precisely the correct, the indispensably necessary exclusivity — it is the holding fast to the confession. This, however, is not to be censured; it is rather to be praised. This one must require and demand of every ecclesiastical authority, and of the Ministry first of all. From this same standpoint one must also regard the statements made in the other chamber, which complain that of late faithfulness to the confession is being so sharply emphasized, and the statements which say that the Ministry of Worship must "stand above the parties." Gentlemen! The Ministry of Worship, as the church government of the Lutheran church, may stand neither above, nor beneath, nor within the parties; it must stand solely and alone upon the unshakable ground of the good confession of our church, and likewise, gentlemen, it is obligated, at every appointment, to inquire conscientiously and strictly into the confessional faithfulness of the candidate, since it is responsible for seeing that the confession and the doctrine are kept pure and unadulterated in the church. Every clergyman and teacher knows what this confession of our church is. If this confession does not harmonize with his personal view of belief, no one compels him to accept the position; but if he has accepted it, he must hold fast to the pure confession, or else he breaks his oath. In a word, he must be exclusive.... It only remains now to mention briefly the complaints about an exclusive party within the Lutheran church. Here again the question arises: is a false or a correct exclusivity meant by this? The party that is exclusive in the correct sense is very large and strong! It is, in fact, the whole evangelical Lutheran church