Why is American Lutheranism so chaotic? Well, because Prussia. This guy, "Frederick the Great," was an enlightenment freemason that passed legislation for the tolerance of jews and catholics in Brandenburg and all Prussia.
"Frederick the Great" was succeeded by this absolute unit, "Frederick William II," who had a bunch of affairs until he got sad about it and joined the rosicrucians. So then Prussia had a bunch of jews, and papists running around while crazy mystics got into the high court. He also destabilized the region through court intrigue.
Frederick William II of Prussia was succeeded by the predictably named Frederick William III. His goal was to restore religious order by forcing ecumenism down everyone's throats in what is called the "Prussian Union." That meant forcing Lutherans and calvinists to go to the same church services and to never let pastors say anything that would upset the apple cart...like what the Bible actually teaches
So this guy, Martin Stephan, leads the "Old Lutherans" who kept practicing Lutheranism properly, to America. By the way later on he was accused of a bunch of affairs and was followed by controversy everywhere he went until he died.
Stephan being kicked out of Missouri Lutheran churches meant this guy being the first "Official" president of the Missouri Synod, CFW Walther. He was a totally awesome leader who never made mistakes or said anything wrong, so thus was born a lasting peace and harmony among Lutherans and all of the Lutherans in America totally got their crap together. Lol, lmao.
There were Lutherans in America before the Prussian Union was established by the dysfunctional royalty in Brandenburg. There was the Pennsylvania Ministerium, the Ohio Synod, the Tennessee Synod, and countless others before we even consider the arrival of the Scandinavian Lutherans. When the LCMS was established in the mid 19th Century, they were caught flat footed as Missouri became the hot iron that threw heat at everything near it. In a sense, many of the crazy mergers and schisms between a lot of these groups was in response to Walther and co., as Missouri had quite the "my way or the highway" attitude.
Even with the mergers and schisms and all other sorts of difficulties surrounding defining one's organization as "we're not the lcms people," that didn't stop the lcms from continuing its influence on other Lutheran bodies. During the Seminex debacle, the LCMS kicked out some of their liberal professors, who went on to establish the AELC (Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches). Those guys promptly pushed for a merger between all the other Lutheran bodies, eventually forming the abomination we all know today as the ELCA.
So let's summarize. Why is American Lutheranism so chaotic and crazy? Because one Prussian king was a masonic nutcase and his successor was a far mystic weirdo; this made religion in Prussia a mess, so the third Prussian king tried to fix it by forcing everyone to violate their beliefs to get along. To rebel against that, a philandering bishop headed off to America and after he got fired his young pastor friend Walther helped establish the LCMS. The LCMS became a lightning rod of conversation and controversy, so a bunch of previous and succeeding Lutheran groups ended up making a bigger mess with a bunch of stupid mergers - the last of which was at the behest of former LCMS theologians/professors. So Lutheranism is chaotic here.
The nice thing is though, that same chaos and division has protected American Lutherans from the situation European Lutherans have found themselves in. Over in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, etc., the story is this simple: the state Lutheran Church has cucked but they have all the funding and ecclesiastical power thanks to the power of the sword, so you're hosed and have to travel 80 miles to maaaybe go to a faithful congregation in the middle of nowhere. God made America insane to protect American Lutherans from suffering the same fate.
@MeBigbrain I want every faithful European Christian to win control of their churches and establish Christendom again. Until such time, may they do a heckin' nationalism and stay in their homeland to save it.
@sapphire@SuperLutheran I blame a lot of modern America's problems on the influx of Catholic migrants in the early 20th century. Micks and Wops were the original spics.
Add comment