After reading the Nov. 21, 2000 Wall Street Journal article on the LCMS Foundation loss of $40,000,000.00, we are a little tired of the drivel coming out of St. Louis that no LCMS lay people lost any money. In fact, hundreds of lay people, pastors, and institutions lost money.

Jeff D. Opdyke interviewed this writer in at least three telephone conversations in preparation for his article on the LCMS Foundation losses.

The lengthy title and subtitles say it all. "A Flock Divided: When a Church Made Some Bad Bets, Donors Say They Were Fleeced: Parishioners Sue Over Losses From Risky Investments By Lutheran Foundation: A Hope and Hold Strategy: A Church Takes a Big Loss on Its Earthly Possessions."

The article points out the LCMS was heavily invested in the same kind of home loan futures that cost Orange County, California tax payers billions of dollars in the mid nineties.

During my conversations with Jeff Opdyke, I realized that he, Dugan, and others, including his editor were all involved in the production of this article. It was a meticulous team effort to gather information from throughout the Synod, follow leads, and form a philosophical understanding of the Synod to help them put the pieces of information they were gathering together.

As I presented my information, I noticed Opdyke was more convinced that the Synod was more stupid than corrupt.

I tried to convince him about the political forces and cronyism. The liberal pastors and the majority of District Presidents openly campaigned for the election of Norm Sell for Synodical Treasurer and President of the LCMS Foundation in 1995 at the LCMS Convention. However, Opdyke was more convinced that this was further evidence of how stupid the majority of pastors and District Presidents really are.

I faxed him a copy of President Barry's 1992 campaign pledge for open financing in the LCMS. Opdyke asked what I meant by "open financing." I said congregations, pastors, and lay people can't see the books of the Synod's Financial Institutions. When we got close to seeing the books in 1995 through a law suit organized by Ed Hinnifeld of "Lutheran Concerns," a 100 year old Missouri Law, letting us see the books was changed 15 days before the Convention. Opdyke's reaction was, what kind of people would belong to an organization that didn't let its members see the books?

He asked me what I thought the solution would be. I said we need a Federal Law that forces nonprofit organizations to open its books to its members. Opdyke wasn't impressed with my suggestion because it ignores the fundamentals that allow organizations such as the LCMS to maintain their secrecy from of their members.

In fact, he completely ignored all my suggestions, the politics, the cronyism, Al Barry's failed attempt at open financing, and the District Presidents takeover of the financial institutions of the Synod in his lengthy Wall Street Journal article. These facts are simply extraneous to the real problem. Opdyke views the Synod as a body of unquestioning, religious zealots, lost in a cult of financial communalism.

Rather, Opdyke gravitated toward comments from LCMS investor Fred Sticht who lost the $40,000,000.00 with "a hope and hold strategy." This is the kind of line the New York based Wall Street Journal expects from LCMS officials who they suspect have dead dogs under their front porch and a still in their garage.

He ended the article with the following quote, "Parishioners at Rock of Ages this spring took a trip together-to an investment seminar in California. They have about $300,000.00 invested through the foundation, Rev. Wilhelmsen says, but are looking for new ways to invest. 'We need to take $100 from the offering plate and turn it into $300 or $400,' he says. 'And I'd rather have a smart pagan investment manager handle that than a stupid Christian.'"

Where I directed Opdyke to the need for reform from corruption, he only found naivety and a low Synodical IQ one would expect from weak-willed people involved in a cult.

The article talked about the farms and estates that were turned over to the Foundation and the losses people suffered. Is any of this much different from the losses suffered by 700 people who came from Dresden, Germany in 1838 to Perry County, Missouri, set up their own little commune out in the wilderness, and were taken to the cleaners by Martin Stephan?

Not only did they suffer constant humiliation in the St. Louis press, hundreds of them died of drowning, exposure, and disease while they built Stephan a large house, stocked his wine cellar, and he slept with 8 of their women. Now, 153 years later, it is deja vu.

Being on the LCMS clergy roster, I'm more concerned about the injustice of particular facts, but if Opdyke is correct, I've missed the real problem. Opdyke was not impressed by facts such as LCEF's Victor Bryant threatening to sue me because I want to know what the interest rate District Presidents and their staff pay for home, car, and personal loans. Or, that the Foundation gave funds to Norbert Oesch's PLI (Pastoral Leadership Institute) and now Oesch's former Congregational President is President of the Foundation. Or, that the LCMS is the largest denomination in the world that is actually owned by lay people, but the Seminaries and District Presidents no longer support Voter Supremacy as the official polity of the LCMS. For Opdyke, these details are just distractions from the real issue. Why don't the majority of the LCMS Pastors and Convention want the Synod's Finances open to its members?

Perhaps Doggett's lawsuit to recover losses from the Foundation will serve a greater purpose than he realizes. Maybe he will turn up some real bona fide crooks and we all aren't as stupid as Opdyke thinks we are. It is easier to preach about the Seventh Commandment, than against stupidity.

The LCMS has as much hope of operating without one standard for Church and Ministry, as Florida can run elections without election laws. The loss of $40,000,000.00 is just one of the symptoms. Neither Seminary faculties nor the LCMS District Precedents will support Voter Supremacy as the only polity for the LCMS. There are no rules. Rather, they want to make up the rules for running the Synod and its congregations as it suits them. If Walther hadn't invented Voter's Assemblies, the Synod would have ended in Perry County in 1841. It seems we are going full circle to the amusement of the Wall Street Journal.

A fool and his money are soon parted and a foolish layman is soon parted from his church property once he decides to let the clergy run the Synod and his congregation for him.