If you read this column by our synodical president from Lutheran Witness, it is pretty hard to avoid the impression that our synod has two types of doctrines. On one type of doctrine, deviation will not be permitted -- here is a list of these sorts of doctrines:

• That there is only one true God, who has revealed Himself in Holy Scripture as the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
  
• That this God created the world and everything in it, including the first man, Adam, and the first woman, Eve, in six days.
  
• That since the fall of Adam and Eve into sin, all people are born with original sin and are altogether incapable of pleasing God by their own merits.
  
• That God promised a Savior to Adam and Eve and, through them, to all people.
  
• That this Savior is Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, through whom alone we receive forgiveness of sin, life, and salvation.
  
• That Christians are called to proclaim to a lost and dying world the Good News that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself.
  
• That the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament are the written Word of God and the only rule and norm of faith and of practice.
  
• That the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church are a true and unadulterated statement and exposition of the Word of God.

He also adds "the deity of Christ, His virgin birth, and His bodily resurrection" (positively) and "the ordination of homosexual pastors who are living in 'committed relationships'" (negatively) as issues that are not even in contention in our synod.

All the more interesting then is the list of issues in which, despite the synod already having a position, he apparently thinks disagreement with this position is legitimate:

"Our national Synod also sees its share of discussions and even disagreements about matters of faith and life. It is our privilege, duty, and responsibility as a synod prayerfully and carefully to discern what God’s Word says about such matters as

• close(d) Communion,
  
• non-traditional worship,
• the service of women in the church,
• the role and authority of the pastoral office,
• and the priesthood of all believers."

(I added the bullets, but otherwise it's a direct quote).

An interesting list, which contains a particularly interesting conjunction. The LCMS is probably the only non-Pentecostal, non-Holiness church body in which 6-day creationism is required, but women's ordination seems to be at least discussable. This is certainly a major difference between the LCMS and all the other liturgical churches. We'll have to see if the former counteracts the latter in the operation of Krauth's law.

The Culture of Missouri's Zion?

Thanks to Rod Dreher's Crunchy Con blog, I came across this description of Fort Wayne, by Amy Welborn, who really prefers her new home of Birmingham, Alabama, thank you very much. Here's a bit of it:

A story: The job Michael had up there was previously held by a fellow who, when he first had the job, commuted, in a way, on a weekly basis, from a town about two hours away. At one point he decided that this was silly and that he would just move to Fort Wayne. He and his family lasted a year and then went back to the university town where they had originally lived. He spoke of the parochialism of the area. I wondered if he was just being a snob. (Sorry, Jim!)

After about a year myself, I got it.

Although in a way, I still don’t get it.

I’ve visited most, if not all of the major cities in the Midwest. Trust me, Fort Wayne is…different. I don’t know how you characterize a town. I don’t know on what basis you can generalize or describe a gestalt, an identity for a collection of 250,000 people.

I’ll try. There is just this very settled, inward-looking sensibility. From year to year (and we lived there 8), nothing much changed. A few more chain restaurants came into town, a couple left. Noises were made about downtown redevelopment, but nothing much happened (until this past year when a development centered on a new baseball stadium for the town’s AA team was constructed downtown - Harrison Square - I wish it well.) During the summer there are festivals in Headwaters Park, close to downtown, almost every week, but even they bear a certain stasis. I’ve been to GermanFest every year for seven years, and every single year, the 6 or 7 vendors of Teutonic Trinkets were arrayed in the exact same L-shaped arrangement on the west end of the grounds. Unchanging. Nothing new.

She goes on to describe it as a close-knit community where close-knit has come to be clannishness.

Now, Amy Welborn doesn't mention that Ft. Wayne is the Zion of "confessional Lutheranism" (I'm putting quotes around that, because I've known far too many great vicars from St. Louis who are 100% in accord with the Book of Concord to take "confessionalism" as something only in Ft. Wayne). Perhaps she doesn't know. Perhaps she's being polite. (Although a commenter on the blog did know and was not polite.) Mostly likely it was one of those unimportant facts about a different part of town and a different sub-community that no one she knew was curious about.

So here's my question, for any readers who might have spent time in Ft. Wayne (like, maybe, Josh?): does this description ring true? And if it does ring true, does it influence the environment at the Ft. Wayne Seminary? Is this part of the Ft. Wayne seminary culture? It would seem to me that any institution of higher education (whether traditional or modern in the approach to learning) would tend to mitigate these tendencies to parochialism. Does it? Or is what she calls parochialism a good thing? (One commenter on her blog argues exactly that.)

I'm genuinely asking, and I don't know the answers. I am curious. But I can't say that it would shock me if Amy Welborn's description was accurate.

What a Difference Three Years Makes

Was it only three years ago that the LCMS synodical convention was a scene of high drama that had even laymen like me on the edge of our seats, wondering how the synod would deal with the great clash of confessionalism vs. generic American evangelicalism? Well, in religion as in politics, three years has been a long time. At least in my neck of the Lutheran woods, one would hardly know the convention even happened. If I hadn't run across this post of Dan's at Necessary Roughness I would have completely overlooked it.

And you know what? Maybe that's not a bad thing. Compared to the fireworks at the convention which resulted in a complete rout of the confessional party, Pastor Stuckwisch reports, there was no partisan struggle this time which resulted in a most beautiful disaster. Of course this could just be "piety" (scroll down to Pastor Beisel's comment)!

If you want the resulting facts, here's a few news releases (Dr. Kieschnick's reelection, approving a new chorepiscopus program, funding restored for a Hispanic ministry at St. Louis -- commentary here, closed communion endorsed -- but not required, evangelism made a top priority, not the top priority, lay deacons studied). Here and here are Pastor Weedon's comments on some of the events. Pastor Beisel's more gloomy take: here, here, and here. I'm sure there's much more out there, but it's late and I'm tired. Have a good one!