Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1958, Page 33

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Lutheran Synodical Conference, 1958 88

For my own part I would in such cases be willing to quote Paul
in Philippians: “What then? Notwithstanding, every way, whether
in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice,
yea, and will rejoice.” However, that hardly excuses those who
preach Christ in contention.

One may say, however, that most of the tensions of the com-
posite way of life arise in the fringe, not the central, areas of
Christian living. I jotted down a list of the practical situations
that have caused trouble in past years and in most instances
still do. I will mention them here with a minimum of comment.
I am not as a rule taking positions either for or against a par-
ticular view. My purpose now is merely to show that tensions
will arise, no matter how much we may try to avoid them. They
create heartaches and controversies, but we will perhaps have to
learn to live with them. Most center around the ministerial office
— at least, they have their origins in ministerial activity. But they
become congregational affairs only too soon.

Let me begin with a tension that has almost disappeared, that
of using the mother tongue — German, Norwegian, or Slovak —
in church schools and services. Almost 70 years have passed since
the Bennett Law was an issue in Wisconsin. Among other things
it stipulated that English should be taught in all grade schools.
That would have meant the closing of most of our parochial
schools, since few of them taught any English. Lutherans joined
with Catholics at the time in a surprising demonstration of co-
operation in externals to bring about the repeal of the law. But
they had also learned a lesson and shortly began to introduce
English courses into their schools.

German in services held out much longer. Even today a young
pastor occasionally faces the dilemma either of trying to preach
the Gospel in German for the sake of older members or for the
sake of thoSe very members — his command of the German being
what it is—refusing to do so. You will also hear distant echoes
of this almost extinct tension whenever contemporary critics
appraise it in the light of recent history. Dropping the foreign
language, it has been said, means that we have begun to come
out of our isolationist shell and to shake off the character and
stigma of being an immigrant church. We may admit that there
is a large grain of truth in that judgment and be proud of the fact
that we are now an American church. But surely we ought never
to lose the appreciation of our German — or Norwegian or Slo-
vak — heritage; On the contrary we ought to make every effort
to salvage the best in it by studying the language of our fathers
at least in our ministerial schools and by supporting such projects
as the current monumental translation of Luther’s works into
English.

Probably no one today believes that life insurance is wrong,
but in the first year of my ministry an earnest church member,
harking back to earlier objections, still quoted against it this verse
from Jeremiah (17:5): “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man
and maketh flesh his arm.” Or take the subject of free prayers.
I do not know the general opinion regarding them in our synods
today, but I do know that a pastor who delivered one 30 years ago
in a brief opening service was admonished by his brethren to.
abstain from this dangerous practice.