Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1954, Page 109

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Ev, Luth. Synodical Conference of North America, 1954 109

In defense of these negotiations the Fraternal Endeavor cites
a case where through the efforts of a number of pastors the AOUW
of North Dakota, a lodge featuring insurance, was prevailed upon
to drop all its ritual and come out as the Pioneer Mutual Insurance
Company. What is there objectionable about that? Nothing. This
was an insurance company with a thin religious veneer which could
be scraped off without changing the nature of the organization,
just as the Aid Association for Lutherans could eliminate all its
religious features and continue in business without interruption
as an insurance company, which it clearly is.

Negotiating with organizations like the Masonic Order is a
different matter. It is one thing to provide one’s brethren with
arms and ammunition to carry on a fight against an acknowledged
evil, it is quite another matter to carry on negotiations with the
enemy with the idea of bringing about a working arrangement.
The Masonic Order cannot be made over by the elimination of
a few bits of ritual. Eliminate all objectionable religious features
of that Order, and you have annihilated the Order. Be honest with
top officials of the Masonic Order, and tell them that you have
come to reform them and to take everything religious out of their
organization, and they will laugh at you. The very suggestion that
Masonry can be made harmless by removing certain religious
features throws dust into the eyes of the Christian and deceives
the simple into thinking that there is nothing so very wrong with
Masonry after all.

Is such negotiating unionistic? It is if it is suggested that
agreement can be reached by removal of external features while
leaving the inner evil intact.

In this connection St. Peter is quoted: “Be ready always to
give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope
that is in you, with meekness and fear.” By no stretch of the mind
can the approach to the Masonic Order be interpreted as a request
of that Order that it be shown the way of truth. Our call to
preach the Gospel does not include the commission to reform
worldly organizations so that our church members can join them.

Joint Prayer

Joint prayer at union meetings with bodies with which we
admittedly do not have church fellowship, we have said, is unionis-
tic in character. Under the same head comes also participation in
mixed religious meetings, such as baccalaureate services, union
Reformation services like the religious parade in Seattle in which
all denominations except the Roman Catholic took part; prayers
and benedictions at meetings of registrars, and other officers of
denominational colleges, and prayers and devotions at conferences
of groups that do not otherwise have religious fellowship with
one another.

We cannot always avoid these unionistic joint prayers. Often
they are forced upon a person. A Member of Congress, for ex-
ample, acting in the line of his duty, cannot avoid being prayed
over by a pastor not necessarily of his choice. In some cities
a citizen whose duty requires him to attend a meeting of the city
council may find that a Catholic priest opens the meeting and in-
vites all to join him in prayer. It has been reported that on the

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