My view
work in God’s world is important. Pat Schroeder Shawnee, Kan.
Good job on sin Peter W. Marty has done a great job in making clear the dichotomy of sin and sins (April, page 3). He made Romans 7 easy to understand. Thanks for this reminder of a central teaching of
Lutheranism. The Rev. Lester F. Polenz Mansfield, Ohio
Leave university out of it Marty asks what sin looks like, smells like, tastes like. As a Buckeye fan, I strongly protest his assertion that the two color choices to describe sin are
scarlet and gray. Ken Beckwith Grove City, Ohio
Tell whole story The puff piece on Martin and Katie Luther (May, page 41) is typical of the pap I was fed as a youth. A few years ago, visiting the Holocaust Museum with my teenage daughter, I found myself face to face with the anti- Semitism that made Luther a darling of the Third Reich. My daughter was horrified, and I was embarrassed at my ignorance. As long as the Lutheran church tells only one side of its name- sake, future daughters and sons will be
similarly surprised. Arden J. Olson Eugene, Ore.
Send “Letters” to: Letters to the Editor, The Lutheran, 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago, IL 60631-4183; fax: (773) 380- 2409; e-mail lutheran@thelutheran. org. Please include your name, city and state. Your letter will be considered for publication unless you state other- wise. The Lutheran publishes letters rep- resentative of those received on a given subject. Be brief and limit your letter to a single topic. Letters may be edited for space and clarity. Letters must be signed, but a request for anonymity will be hon- ored if the subject matter is personally sensitive.
“My view” submis- sions should be 400 words on a societal event or issue or on issues in the life of the ELCA. All submis- sions are subject to editing. Send to: “My view, ” The Lutheran, 8765 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago, IL 60631; e-mail: lutheran@
thelutheran.org; fax: 773-380-2409.
By Barbara Jurgensen
The way it really was Best intention turned into startling ‘news’
H
Jurgensen, a retired ELCA pastor, semi- nary professor and a member of Hope Lutheran Church, Columbus, Ohio, served on the Com- mission for a New Lutheran Church. Visit her website at www. lutheransonline. com/bjurgensen.
as someone ever taken something you said or did, something reasonable, something commendable, and twisted it to make it sound deplorable?
I remember the day in February 1984 when 70 of us on
the Commission for a New Lutheran Church were work- ing on the constitution for the ELCA. When we got to the section about the Trinity in the church’s confession of faith, one of the members, a man, suggested that we should see if we could find language that was less male-oriented. Edgar R. Trexler, the editor of The Lutheran at that time and continuing after the merger, tells about the moment in his book Anatomy of a Merger (Augsburg, 1991; page 59): “In support of inclusive language, Elwyn Ewald
(AELC, lay) moved to insert ‘triune’ for ‘one’ [God] and delete ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit’ from the first sentence of the statement of faith. The sentence read: ‘On the basis of sacred Scriptures, the Church’s creeds and the Lutheran confessional writings, we confess our faith in the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit ….’ ” After we considered substituting “Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier” and other wordings, the commission voted 33-30 to retain the traditional language.
The next morning a local (Minneapolis) newspaper reported that we had discussed eliminating the Trin- ity from our statement of faith. Either the reporter didn’t understand what he had heard (unlikely) or he purposely amped up the rhetoric to make a more sensational story. Papers around the country, and world, echoed the star-
tling “news.” Now, 27 years later, a friend sent me a copy of a mail-
ing some members of his congregation sent out (available at
www.lutherancore.org/pdf/crisis-timeline.pdf). The very first item, the opening salvo, states: “70 ALC, LCA, and AELC leaders planned for the new church (ELCA). 30 of 63 voted to remove ‘God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit’ from the proposed confession of faith (1984).” There’s an old saying: A half truth is a whole lie. The
implication here: the commission considered tossing out the whole concept of the Trinity, whereas we were only looking to see if we could find more inclusive language that would say the same thing. We couldn’t, so the ELCA’s confession of faith retains “one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” I wonder how many congregations have struggled with ELCA membership as a result of one reporter’s misrepresentation. M
June 2011 49
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