# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1864_S93
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Church-Related Contemporary Affairs.   93

and of the three ancient chief symbols as the doctrinal basis are correctly reported. But since no official report of its proceedings is before us for examination, we consider it fitting and expedient to enter, with it as a synod, only into a qualified connection, until we are put in a position, by further information, to act on this matter with due deliberation.

2) Resolved: That we fully approve the position taken by our delegates at that convention, that they earnestly contended for "our most holy faith."

A letter was read in the synod from the president of Roanoke College, Rev. Dr. Bittle, giving a very encouraging report on the religious condition and on the number of students of that institution. The doctor also urgently impressed upon the synod the necessity of taking steps toward the endowment of a professorship for the natural sciences at Roanoke College. The following resolution was passed on this matter:

Resolved: That we approve the proposal to found a professorship for the natural sciences at Roanoke College, and that we will earnestly exert ourselves to raise a sum of not less than twenty thousand dollars for this purpose.

Rich collections were also taken up for home missions and for educational purposes."
C.

"Church Discords Caused by Politics." Under this heading the "Observer" of January 8 of this year presents an essay that not only gives warning examples of how harmfully the blind political fanaticism of our day acts upon church affairs, but also contains some pointed remarks that deserve all attention. It reads: "Among the many great evils that spring from the present sad condition of our country, the presence of a spirit of contentiousness and division in many congregations is not the least. This unfortunate and deeply lamentable state of affairs is not confined to the Lutheran Zion, but prevails in almost every denomination of the Christian church. One can scarcely pick up the report of a presbytery, a classis, a conference, or a synod without finding an account of church discords that have arisen from a political difference of opinion between pastor and congregation members. Sometimes the pastor is a Republican and is decried as an 'Abolitionist' or a 'Niggerhead.' Sometimes he is a Democrat, and he must be a 'Copperhead,' a 'Secessionist,' or one 'who sympathizes with the rebels,' etc. In glancing recently over the report of one of our synods, I saw that no fewer than twelve charges had been brought against one Lutheran pastor, all of which stemmed from politics. I know a German Reformed pastor against whom his adversaries have brought twenty charges, and who has been hard pressed for over a year. The same holds true of a worthy Presbyterian pastor whose congregation was split by people determined 'to rule or ruin.' Some of these church discords have their origin within the congregation and are caused by the unbridled zeal of misled members, who love their political party more than their pastor or the church itself, and who are glad to see their pastor sacrificed on the altar of party spirit, and the peace and welfare of the congregation disturbed for the sake of achieving some political end. Sometimes these disputes are also stirred up by people outside the congregation. These are mostly harmful persons — tavern keepers or barroom politicians who wish to take revenge on the pastor because he has branded the tavern, with its coarse jests, its vulgarity, and its other soul-endangering features, as an unsuitable place for church members to frequent, or because he was unwilling to lend his influence, whether personally or from the pulpit, to further the claims of a political party through whose success some 'loyal patriot' hopes to attain his own private ends. Thus, through the combined efforts of misled people within the congregation and such schemers outside it, many a pious pastor has been driven from his position,