Concordia Wisconsin – Ann Arbor

Because of Concordia and Seminex

The news broke about a week ago (writing in February 2024). The Ann Arbor campus of Concordia University, also known as Concordia University – Ann Arbor (hereafter CUAA) is in dire financial straits. The University has been special through my life, as multiple family members including myself eventually attended and graduated from CUAA. However, I have mixed feelings about the place itself, especially some specific parts of the theology taught and interactions with people there. I’ve written some about this in posts elsewhere.

At the same time as I was thinking about CUAA and the complex feelings I have about it, Seminex hit its 50th anniversary. Seminex was shorthand for Seminary in Exile, a schism in the LCMS specifically centered at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis that led to several professors and hundreds of students leaving the Seminary. A complete history of Seminex is beyond the scope of that post. Briefly, the rise of a militantly conservative wing in the LCMS led to calls of heresy against multiple professors at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis due to their teaching mainstream tools for biblical interpretation. Rather than filing formal charges, these accusations essentially acted as a kind of blackballing and besmirching of the names of those professors deemed unorthodox by this radical wing. It ultimately led to the majority of professors and students walking out to form their own seminary, which ultimately merged with other Lutheran groups, including what would be come the ELCA.

As I prepared to write this article, I sifted through hundreds of photographs I took from my time on campus. It was like revisiting an old friend, in some ways literally. But it was also painful. A lot of those old friends aren’t friends anymore. Some of them have messaged me to tell me I’m going to hell. Others set people I didn’t even know to do the same. Still others disappeared without a trace, turning into nothing but ghosts from the past, living their lives as if I don’t exist.

I also revisited some of the works I’ve read about Seminex. Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod by James C. Burkee tells the story of the conservative takeover of the LCMS. Like other denominations (eg. the Southern Baptist Convention), this takeover, when examined in the light of history, was less about the theological positions held by those involved than it was about power politics. Burkee himself taught at Concordia University Wisconsin, and tells the story from the perspective of a concerned insider, not an anti-LCMS outsider. It’s incredibly detailed, well-documented, and frankly alarming on almost every level.

But the book that has resonated most right now is No Room in the Brotherhood by Frederick W. Danker. Danker was one of the professors who left to be part of Seminex, and his telling of the way Seminex played out is both insightful and cutting in its analysis. His conclusion states explicitly that the various major names on either side of the conflict were not heroes or villains. Instead, the culprit was the “deep-seated conviction of the Missouri Synod that it was completely right. Any actions undertaken in concert with that conviction were therefore also right and it [the LCMS] was willing to perpetuate its institutional identity at any cost” (352).

The reason this resonated, and the reason my mind connected these two events–the possible closure of CUAA and Seminex’s 50th–is because the reaction and impetus seem so intertwined. I can’t tell you how many posts I’ve seen in the last week about how CUAA is the “city on a hill.” The language Jesus uses surrounding the city on a hill is that of letting Christians’ light so shine so that the good deeds of those will lead others to God. As Danker wrote, there’s this deep-seated conviction that the Missouri Synod (in this case, CUAA) is “completely right.” But it wasn’t completely right for so many.

It wasn’t completely right for gay people on campus who were mocked for who they were. It wasn’t a city on a hill for a woman who wanted to follow God’s call to be a pastor but was told she was disobeying God for wanting to serve. It wasn’t completely right for a Baptist friend who was told their view of baptism meant they were facing hellfire. It wasn’t a city on a hill when I witnessed pre-seminary men make fun of women, Jews, and Muslims. It wasn’t completely right for anyone perceived as “liberal.”

And here’s the hell of it: CUAA felt completely right so long as you were “in.” So long as you were LCMS, thought men should be in charge, and toed the party line, it felt like a city on a hill. I know, because I absolutely felt that way while I was there for a lot of the time I was there. Being an insider wasn’t just great, it was also, often, blissful ignorance that anyone was outside. After all, if we were experiencing this lovely joyful celebration of God, if we could really feel God’s working and presence in a chapel service or a late night call to prayer around a bonfire, how could it be anything but perfection? And how could anyone not want the same thing? And, importantly, how could they not want it in the same way?

That’s what makes this all feel so complex and, to use a sort of silly term, “yucky” about the whole thing. Because the second I was on the outside, I saw the willingness of people on the inside to perpetuate that identity “at any cost” as Danker wrote. A friend sicced an unknown seminarian on me to tell me that both I and my wife would be going to hell for thinking women could preach. Other friends disappeared, whether from the age-old Facebook friends list or entirely out of our lives. People I thought would be by my side throughout my life are no more than fragments of memory now. There was “no room in the brotherhood” for a man like me. And, like those attacked during the purge of the LCMS 50 years ago, I felt firsthand the equivocation between the perfection of the LCMS and the inerrancy they ascribe to Scripture. Questioning the LCMS view on anything wasn’t just questioning the LCMS, it was questioning Scripture and, by proxy, God!

So now, we’re here, and CUAA feels like this kind of epic thing in my life; a crucible through which I passed. Yes, there were good times–great times. That’s what makes it all so very hard. Because what was there could have been amazing. But if you stepped a toe out of line, God help you. The hashtag #becauseofconcordia is being used by people working to save CUAA. But I know that a few dollars–even the several million dollars that the campus needs to be in the black–aren’t enough to save CUAA. Only God can save CUAA and the LCMS. From itself.

Maranatha.

Links

Formerly Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) or Wisconsin Synod (WELS)– A Facebook group I’ve created for people who are former members of either of these church bodies to share stories, support each other, and try to bring change. Note: Anything you post on the internet has the potential to be public and shared anywhere, so if you join and post, be aware of that.

Leaving the LCMS/WELS– Not sure about whether to leave or thinking about leaving? Do you want to others who are thinking along the same lines? I created a group for those who are contemplating leaving these denominations, as well.

Why I left the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod Links Hub– Want to follow the whole series? Here’s a hub post with links to all the posts as well as related topics.

Be sure to check out the page for this site on Facebook and Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies and more!

SDG.

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The preceding post is the property of J.W. Wartick (apart from quotations, which are the property of their respective owners, and works of art as credited; images are often freely available to the public and J.W. Wartick makes no claims of owning rights to the images unless he makes that explicit) and should not be reproduced in part or in whole without the expressed consent of the author. All content on this site is the property of J.W. Wartick and is made available for individual and personal usage. If you cite from these documents, whether for personal or professional purposes, please give appropriate citation with both the name of the author (J.W. Wartick) and a link to the original URL. If you’d like to repost a post, you may do so, provided you show less than half of the original post on your own site and link to the original post for the rest. You must also appropriately cite the post as noted above. This blog is protected by Creative Commons licensing. By viewing any part of this site, you are agreeing to this usage policy.

LCMS President Harrison’s Letter to Board of Regents of Concordia University Wisconsin – Ann Arbor

I’ve written before about the storm brewing within the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod over controversy at Concordia University Wisconsin – Ann Arbor. The controversy, so far as I can tell, is at least in part due to the inclusion in the Presidential Search of having a need for “diversity, equity, and inclusion” on the part of the candidates. One professor wrote about how this showed that CUWAA had gone “woke” and “Marxist.” I wrote that that reaction was unchristian nonsense. However, Rev. Matthew Harrison, the President of the LCMS, apparently decided it was worth a visit to CUWAA, and after that investigation, sent a letter to the Board of Regents. This letter has been published on various sites, though I haven’t been able to find it on an official LCMS front-facing website. If anyone has such an official source or any additional information, please let me know.

I wanted to write a response to this letter. For one, I am intimately connected with CUWAA. For another, the letter is timely in all the wrong ways, and I believe that needs to be addressed.

Harrison’s letter, after saying he and his people were welcomed to the CUWAA and given full access to things they requested, goes over a bunch of supposed bylaw violations that occurred in the presidential search for the new President of CUWAA. Harrison writes about how the “visitation team uncovered the following concerns…” and then lists a number of those alleged violations. Intriguingly, one of the supposed violations includes a lengthy note about how the list of candidates given was 38 names instead of the approved list of 11, which “especially belittled candidates from the CUWAA theology and philosophy departments, and precipitated the Schultz matter.” What Schultz matter? The Schultz matter about the former Professor of Philosophy who wrote the screed I responded to in my link above.

Going on, another concern listed is “changes to the faculty handbook include referring to the president with the pronouns ‘he or she’ and ‘his or her,’ in violation of the teaching of Holy Scripture that spiritual and doctrinal oversight in the church and its universities is given to qualified men. Accordingly, Commission on Constitutional Matter rulings have consistently ruled that presidents of CUS schools must be qualified men. Mr. Polzin’s errant council to the Regents, even after I spoke at length with the Regents in person, about this matter, is unacceptable.” I personally seem to have missed the Bible verses about universities being run by men. Of course, this kind of assumed Scriptural precedent is what qualifies for argument in much of the LCMS discussion related to women in the church and home. When arguments are provided, they’re unconvincing. (See, for example, my series of posts analyzing a Concordia Publishing House book on Women Pastors.)

A primary problem, Harrison notes, is “concern over the introduction of secular diversity, equity, and inclusion language and initiatives into the mission of the university. This philosophy is laden with ideas antagonistic to the sacred Scriptures, including great lies about human sexuality and race.” Once again, Harrison doesn’t delineate any of these alleged antagonistic ideas. And, to be fair, that’s probably outside the scope of a letter like this. But when the question is whether racism needs to be addressed at a university is apparently a live question, and a professor on the philosophy department who Harrison explicitly names as having been “belittled” somehow by being included among others in a list of names for possible President of CUWAA comments about how racism cannot exist on that same campus, red flags should be raised all over.

This letter was dated May 9th, 2022. On May 14th, 2022, a white man entered a grocery store in a zip code he explicitly targeted due to its high population of black people and murdered 10 people, shooting others before his arrest. He specifically cited the “Great Replacement” theory in his manifesto–the notion that white people are being replaced by non-white people through migration, differing birth rates, and more. I can personally attest to encountering the Great Replacement theory in LCMS schools, including at CUWAA when I attended speaking in class about how we needed to have a higher birth rate to keep up with or surpass Muslims. I’ve written about the racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism I encountered among men training to be pastors and teachers. I’ve also written about the unity of nationalism and Christianity I was taught in LCMS schools. Maybe the allegedly “secular diversity, equity, and inclusion” isn’t the bogeyman we need; maybe we need to refocus and acknowledge that racism is a real, true threat and that explicitly racist theories have been spoken out loud in classes at CUWAA before. I can’t attest whether that’s still happening, but the fact that it did happen and did so without any investigation from the President then suggests that actual, real life racism might be a more urgent issue to address than the latest right wing buzzwords.

Now would be a great time for President Harrison to take a step back and call out racism. Now is the time to acknowledge that it exists in the LCMS, in schools and churches, and to repent of it. Now is the time to strongly condemn the Great Replacement theory, which I personally have heard from LCMS pastors. Now is the time to take real, lasting steps for change that will work to bring God’s Kingdom here on Earth, as we pray daily. I hope and pray that President Harrison will rethink his dismissal of social change and instead work so that one day, we truly can have a church that reflects Galatians 3:28.

Links

Formerly Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) or Wisconsin Synod (WELS)– A Facebook group I’ve created for people who are former members of either of these church bodies to share stories, support each other, and try to bring change. Note: Anything you post on the internet has the potential to be public and shared anywhere, so if you join and post, be aware of that.

Why I left the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod Links Hub– Want to follow the whole series? Here’s a hub post with links to all the posts as well as related topics.

Be sure to check out the page for this site on Facebook and Twitter for discussion of posts, links to other pages of interest, random talk about theology/philosophy/apologetics/movies and more!

SDG.

——

The preceding post is the property of J.W. Wartick (apart from quotations, which are the property of their respective owners, and works of art as credited; images are often freely available to the public and J.W. Wartick makes no claims of owning rights to the images unless he makes that explicit) and should not be reproduced in part or in whole without the expressed consent of the author. All content on this site is the property of J.W. Wartick and is made available for individual and personal usage. If you cite from these documents, whether for personal or professional purposes, please give appropriate citation with both the name of the author (J.W. Wartick) and a link to the original URL. If you’d like to repost a post, you may do so, provided you show less than half of the original post on your own site and link to the original post for the rest. You must also appropriately cite the post as noted above. This blog is protected by Creative Commons licensing. By viewing any part of this site, you are agreeing to this usage policy.