# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1916_S76
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

76 Proceedings of the twenty-sixth convention

world could resist, one ought to esteem and value men more highly.

"Furthermore this must be said, that the majority's vote at the convention in reality does not prove its preponderance in the whole body. When one has the whole machinery of the body in one's hand and almost all the officials on one's side; when one has two delegates from each of a whole number of small congregations; when, contrary to the provision of the constitution that each parish is entitled to only two delegates, some pastors appear with more than two delegates each; when the representatives of many a congregation who, according to the constitution, were entitled to vote at this convention are rejected, only because at the last regular synodical convention they had voted with the minority: then it is not particularly difficult to secure a large majority of votes.

"On the other hand it is to be said that even if the minority were ever so small in numbers, one ought not to tear apart the bond of brotherhood by which God for so many years has joined us in common faith and work, in order to enter into a union which God has not commanded.

"And even at this convention, at which a so strong popular sentiment for the union had been manufactured, the minority was not so very small after all. No fewer than 103 pastors and 100 lay delegates voted against the new constitution. Of the 21 pastors and 8 delegates who abstained from voting, the majority certainly sympathizes with the minority. If one adds to this the president of Luther College, the president of the Lutheran Normal School and three of the theological professors, as well as other teachers and pastors who did not vote but about whose position on the union question there is no doubt, the minority makes up a quite considerable party.

"If an investigation were made throughout the whole Synod, one would find in the great majority of congregations enough friends of the minority who take part with understanding in our church affairs. These minority people will surely know how they must protect their right of conscience if they are to be led out of the Synod and into a union without unity. There are among them men and women who are ready to suffer for their conviction. Thank God that there are still people in the Norwegian Synod of the spirit 'that endures a martyrdom.'

"V.

"What, then, is the situation now?

"On the one side stands a great majority which regards the union question as settled. They hold most of the offices in the Synod and the editorship of our church papers. According