LCMS Praesidium Continues to Adjudicate Werning vs Cascione On Trinity

By: Rev. Jack Cascione
The LCMS Praesidium has requested a retraction of the "Reclaim News" article
titled, "LCMS Praesidium Does Not Agree With Werning's Charges Against
Cascione."

Fourth Vice President, Dr. Paul Maier writes for the majority on June 18,
2003, "We find the header on May 28 [above] misleading: as well as your
subsequent claim, 'in its April 21, 2003 letter, signed by Dr. Paul L.
Maier, 4th Vice President of the LCMS and Secretary of the Praesidium, not
one of Werning's charges against Cascione were substantiated.'  It would be
ethical of you to retract such statements in a future posting."

"The clear implication to your readers is that the Praesidium adjudicated
this case and found no merit in Dr. Werning's charges.  This is absolutely
incorrect.  As you know, this case is still before the Praesidium and is
still being adjudicated."

The Praesidium appears to have changed its position on Werning vs. Cascione.
In their first letter of April 21, 2003, President Kieschnick and the
Praesidium did not say they agreed with Dr. Werning's charges against me.
Now Dr. Paul Maier claims it is wrong to say the Praesidium, " found no
merit in Dr. Werning's charges."  Werning's charges were based on the
defense of his false doctrine of the Trinity.

The Praesidium clearly changed its position on the status of the case.  On
April 21, 2003, Dr. Paul Maier wrote: "6. The Praesidium will continue to
monitor this case and reserves its right to take up this case again should
circumstances demand."  However, on June 18, 2003, Dr. Paul Maier wrote that
the case "is still being adjudicated."

This means that the Praesidium was not truthful when they said they reserved
the right, "to take up this case again" because the case is "still being
adjudicated" and they never put it down.

President Kieschnick has clearly supported those who defend Werning,
including South Wisconsin District Officers and President Ron Meyer.
Officers of the South Wisconsin District have accused me of breaking the
Eighth Commandment for publishing my objections to Dr. Werning's false
doctrine on the Trinity.

President Kieschnick writes on May 30, 2003: "Rev. Cascione apparently wrote
an article in Reclaim News entitled, 'LCMS Praesidium Does Not Agree With
Werning's Charges Against Cascione' [released 5/28/03].  That article
clearly violates both the spirit and the specific requests of the resolution
adopted by the Praesidium of the LCMS.  Of particular note is the extensive
criticism in the article of individual officers of the South Wisconsin
District, including its President."

I appreciate Dr. Maier's appeal for ethical conduct.  President Kieschnick
has asked the Synod's District Presidents to discipline those pastors who
sign doctrinal statements.  Doctor Paul Maier is a writer and signer of the
infamous "Evangelical News Letter" signed by the Michigan 102.  He has also
boasted that his father, Walter Maier, would have signed "The Statement of
the 44" were it not for his position on the Lutheran Hour.

We assume, that as a University Professor, Dr Maier is a member of the
America Association Of University Professors.  As a former member of the
AAUP, while serving on the faculty of Southern Indiana State University, I
subscribed to the AAUP statement on Academic Freedom which states in part:
"When they [professors] speak or write as citizens, they should be free from
institutional censorship or discipline . . . "  But now, Dr. Maier wants to
keep me from having the freedom to speak the truth about the Trinity in my
own church body.  The point being: Waldo Werning lies about God when he
publishes to the 2001 LCMS Convention:

1. "experiencing God in a three-fold manner"
2. "three manners of being (God above us, God among us, God in us)"
3. "three levels of reality [in God] (nature, history, existence)"
4. "three ways in which God reveals Himself"
5. "three forms of address [from God] ('You shall!,' 'You may!,' 'You
 can!')"
6. "one of the three ways in which God has revealed Himself"

On February 21, 2003, in a letter to the Presidium, I asked: "Yes, or No?
Does President Kieschnick support these six statements from Werning's book?
President Kieschnick should tell us, because I am being charged with
breaking the Eighth Commandment for calling all of these six statements lies
about God."

Thus far, the Praesidium has refused to answer the question.  The LCMS
Praesidium will adjudicate my case about the Trinity but will not answer any
questions about God.  They meet in secret and they follow no rules of
evidence.

Jesus Christ boldly confessed that He was God in front of the Caiaphas and
the Sanhedrin, but President Kieschnick and the Praesidium refuse to answer
any questions about the identity of God in the Werning case.

Evidently, the burning inner fire that President Kieschnick feels to save
the lost, of whom he spoke about to the Michigan District Convention, is not
matched by a burning inner fire to confess the truth about God.

President Kieschnick urged the Michigan District not to let over
purification of doctrine hinder the LCMS from getting out the message of
salvation.  He said, "This is not your grandfather's church."  After
Kieschnick spoke, the Convention voted 55% to 45% not include the phrase,
"as confessed in the Athanasian Creed" in a resolution titled, "To Clearly
Confess in the Public Square the true God . . ."

Doctor Maier and I shook hands in the back of the Convention hall
immediately after the vote.

President Kieschnick is eager to silence me on the correct confession of the
Athanasian Creed in the Werning case, while the Atlantic District President
publicly claims that the Moslems worship the true God.

The Praesidium speaks for the LCMS Corporation and defends its By-laws, but
they will not answer direct questions about God.

There will be a higher court to which we will all be held accountable for
what we confessed or refused to confess about God, regardless of the LCMS
By-laws.

July 15 , 2003