|
The
Wall Street Journal Editorial page
Friday, November 7, 2003
HOUSES
OF WORSHIP
"Silence,
Please"
Dictates
and double standards among the Lutherans.
BY
MOLLIE ZIEGLER
The
Rev. Charles Henrickson will be giving a lecture tonight in
St. Louis
,
Mo.
, not that he has been encouraged to
do so by his church leaders. His subject will be interfaith services--the
arguments for and against them. It's an important subject, God knows, but
apparently not a welcome one. He risks a lot by going ahead with his lecture
instead of simply canceling it.
This
may seem odd at first. Tolerance and acceptance are the watchwords for
certain leaders of Mr. Henrickson's Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, not
least the Rev. David Benke. Mr. Benke became semi-famous two years ago for
participating in the interfaith "Prayer for
America
" at Yankee Stadium following
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks--against stated church policy. After a long,
legalistic debate within the church, he was suspended for it. He resumed his
duties in April of this year.
Mr.
Benke has always claimed that the Yankee Stadium event was secular, despite
the blowing of the shofar, Jewish, Catholic, Sikh and Muslim prayers, and
several Scripture readings. The category distinction is important to him
because he had been reprimanded three years before—also for taking part in
interfaith services--whereupon he had apologized and declared: "I
assure the Synod that I will not repeat this error in the future." But
he did.
Whatever
else may be said of him, then, Mr. Benke is tenaciously open-minded when it
comes to divergent religious views. But when Mr. Henrickson, who has been an
outspoken critic of the Yankee Stadium event, announced his plans to present
a lecture on interfaith services, Mr. Benke's open-mindedness suddenly
closed.
With
his fellow leaders of the Synod's Atlantic District, Mr. Benke sent Mr.
Henrickson a "stern and forthright warning" to cancel his lecture.
The letter announced that the topic was "unchurchly" and
"inflammatory." It went on to say that "continued divisive
activity such as that planned by . . . Rev. Henrickson is neither godly nor
edifying." The leaders promised that they would charge Mr. Henrickson
with ecclesiastical offenses if he would not censor himself. Such charges,
if upheld, would mean that Mr. Henrickson, a married father of three and a
former parish pastor who is now studying in a seminary doctoral program,
would be banned from taking a position at any synodical congregation,
college or seminary once he completes his degree.
If
this all sounds like much ado about nothing, it is not. Many religious
bodies actively participate in interfaith events and are proud to do so in
the name of multicultural harmony, but Missouri-Synod Lutherans are
different. On the basis of Christ's words--"I am the way, and the
truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (John
14:6)--they avoid presenting Christ as one of many equivalent spiritual
options. The interfaith question hits close to home for Lutherans, whose
forefathers fled
Germany
in the early 1800s when the
Prussian king forced them to worship with Calvinists. Those who resisted
were persecuted and imprisoned.
Thus
many Missouri Synod pastors were livid when Mr. Benke flouted the interfaith
doctrine and received what they deemed to be only minor punishment--and they
are still not happy. Laypersons are also upset. They launched a petition a
few months ago expressing dismay at the church's move away from its historic
doctrine--on interfaith worship in particular—and more than 1,100 of the
Synod's normally reticent members have signed it.
Now
they may add a double standard to their complaint. After all, the rallying
cry of Mr. Benke's defenders was "charity, not charges," begging
tolerance for wayward conduct. But what about Mr. Henrickson? He is getting
charges without charity. And by giving his lecture he will not even be
flouting doctrine in the way that one of his church leaders so obviously
did.
Luckily,
no church leader is above reproach. Mr. Benke is not the pope, and
seminarians are not required to be unquestioning subjects. When Martin
Luther was asked at the Diet of Worms to recant his teachings, he gave his
famous "here I stand, I can do no other" defense. Mr. Henrickson
would be wise to follow Luther's lead.
Ms.
Ziegler, a layperson in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, reports on the
federal government from
Washington
.
|