The following correction was received from Rev. Don
Matzat regarding the Reclaim News Release sent on July 9, 2002 titled: "Kieschnick
Plans To Overturn Schulz Decision in Benke Case." Matzat is the
acclaimed former talk show host who used to be heard over the LCMS's radio
station, KFUO.
Jack:
I think you better check your facts. Kieschnick was recused based on the
Bauer appeal to the CCM before Preus was recused. Danny Preus called Benke
immediately after the recusal of Kieschnick and said, "I now have the
case."
Don
We thank Rev. Matzat for his correction. At this point there is no reason
to doubt Rev. Don Matzat's correction of the record. However, the main point
of our commentary was that regardless of who recused himself first, how can
Kieschnick claim the right to overturn Wallace Schulz's decision against Benke
after Kieschnick had already recused himself from the case?
Isn't Kieschnick saying, "I am the LCMS President and I will only
recuse myself as long as the decision goes my way?" This is what happens
when Dispute Resolution makes the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch the
same office. Dispute Resolution makes Kieschnick President and Supreme Court.
But we are told in the Synod that we can trust good people to do the right
thing when they are trusted with excessive power. But what happens when they
aren't so good? The Synod's Commission on Constitutional Matters (CCM) has
already ruled that apart from the Convention, the LCMS President is above all
judgment in the Synod, a privilege not enjoyed by the President of the United
States. The American President can be removed from office between elections,
but not the LCMS President.
Walther, the Synod's first president, was only able to steamroll the LCMS
into congregational polity and voter supremacy because of the embarrassment
created by the Stephan scandal. However, deep down, the LCMS Germanic mind
actually prefers the kind of supreme leaders created by our "new"
Dispute Resolution Process. Knowing my congregation, I regularly tell them to
follow the Bible and not the preacher.
The 1992 Convention Delegates were told that District Presidents choosing
all the Reconcilers, and District Presidents, Synodical Presidents, and
Synodical Vice Presidents sitting in judgment was a system more reflective of
the Gospel than the delegates electing their own adjudicators as they used to
do. Just 10 years ago, lay people would have judged the Benke case. But now we
have replaced those legalistic lay people, who pay for the entire Synod, with
more "Gospel oriented" LCMS executives and the scandal is all over
the media.
Thank God George Washington wasn't an LCMS Lutheran. Washington never had a
guilty conscience about getting rid of royalty nor did he feel a spiritual
need to follow the leader. We also know that Rev. Henry Melchior Mulenburg,
the first great American Lutheran, supported King George. Thank God his sons
rebelled against their confused father and King George.
At the next Convention, if the lay people don't get rid of Dispute
Resolution and start electing their own adjudicators again, there isn't going
to be a Synod.