In his May 17, 2000, letter Professor Kurt Marquart gives some excellent statements from the Brief Statement, Bible, and Walther regarding Congregational polity.

Regretfully, neither he, nor the faculty at Fort Wayne, nor the Chairman of the Board of Regents, who once said the whole faculty supports Voter Supremacy, will endorse the official and historic polity of the LCMS.

Marquart writes, "Legally or civilly, on the other hand, any religious body has, under the First Amendment, the right to maintain whatever nonsense and humbug it wishes, so long as no one's rights are violated."

Lets try some humbug from six constitutions of LCMS congregations in my file.

"The supreme authority in all congregational and religious affairs is vested in the congregation." Saint Paul's Lutheran Church, Lakewood, Ohio.

"The Congregation through its Voting Assembly as a body shall have the supreme power in the external and internal administration and management of it own ecclesiastical and congregational affairs." Resurrection Lutheran Church, Detroit, Michigan.

"The voting membership as a body shall have the supreme power in the external and internal administration and management of its own ecclesiastical and congregational affairs." St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Cullman, Alabama.

"The congregation as a whole shall have supreme power in all matters pertaining to their congregation." St. Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church of Macomb Michigan.

"The congregation as a whole has the power of the Office of the Keys and therefore it has the supreme power in all matters pertaining to the purpose and objectives of the Congregation." St. Paul's Lutheran Church, St. Clair Shores, MI.

"In general, the Voters' Assembly as a body shall have supreme power to administer and manage all its external and internal affairs." Redeemer Lutheran Church, St. Clair Shores, MI.

There are thousands more where these came from.

Isn't it amazing how the same supreme "humbug" gets around? The Board Chairman and the faculty at Fort Wayne probably haven't a clue as to how all that voter supremacy got there.

Marquart wrote in a previous letter, "Here, at last, is the proper place for 'voter supremacy'- in the civil, temporal sphere, not in the sphere of spiritual, churchly rule and government."

In his latest letter he ignored my objections: "What about voting on Calls, voting on excommunication, voting on association with a Synod, voting on the hymnbook and form of worship that will be observed, voting on doctrine for convention resolutions, and judging the pastor's teaching and preaching?"

Aren't all of these about the Kingdom on the right and not the left?

If the members can't vote on the doctrine how do we know they agree with it? At the last LCMS Convention they voted on the use of the Creeds. The Creeds passed 83% to 17%.

We only have about 440 members at Redeemer. We recently went through a unanimous vote at our "Supreme" Voters' Assembly to excommunicate a young man who was living with a woman without the benefit of marriage. We had given him a year to get married.

On Mothers' Day, the entire congregation, every man, woman and child, was informed about the vote from the pulpit and they were told that anyone in the congregation could come the Elder's meeting and overturn the vote by their individual objection.

We do not have woman suffrage but a woman could have stopped the excommunication. One man came to the Elders' Meeting and told them to keep up the good work.

If any person in the congregation couldn't have stopped the excommunication by their objection, how do we know they really supported it? This is their faith and their church.

There must be Voter Supremacy or the pastor and/or a few others manipulated the lay people into doing the right thing against their will. They must have the freedom to do the wrong thing or else their confession and good works will be fruit decorating a dead tree.

Ron Hunt was convicted and sent to jail because his congregation, Holy Cross Lutheran Church, in Dallas, Texas accused him of criminal trespass.

The case was overturned by the Court of Appeals when it was determined that LCMS lay people own their church property.

If Hunt's lawyer had asked for an opinion from Fort Wayne about Voter Supremacy, Hunt would still be in jail.

Should we imagine a congregation where the lay people have complete authority over the property but not the doctrine? The doctrine is obviously more important.

There is no question that the Voters cannot change Article II on doctrine in the LCMS Constitution and remain in the LCMS.

But the Voters have the right to be wrong, which is why the authority to be wrong must rest in their hands or how do they have the authority to be right?

Will Professor Marquart tell us that the Voters' Assembly has supreme authority over calls, voting in new members, excommunication, voting on doctrinal resolutions for the Convention, judging their pastor's preaching and teaching, voting on the hymnbook and worship they will use, the frequency of the Lord's Supper, and voting on their association with a Synod?

At this point, 6 of the professors out of 33 at Fort Wayne agree to Voter Supremacy and 3 out of the 50 at St. Louis.

From this percentage, Rev. David Anderson may be correct in saying that Fort Wayne is the greatest seminary in the world.

One fears that the so-called current shortage of pastors may be insignificant in comparison with the future shortage of lay people, as they discover they have been disenfranchised by their seminaries.