Walther on first Women in Church Councils in America (1885)

      Our blog title indicates the subject of Walther's short news blurb in Der Lutheraner, vol. 41 (1885), p. 148: 

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Women on Church Council. In St. Lucas Parish of the Protestant Episcopal Church at Chadds Fort, Delaware Co., Pennsylvania, two women were recently elected to the church council. This is the first time such a thing has taken place in America. So reports the Philadelphian "Luth. Kirchenblatt". The Bible is now considered an old-fashioned book, which is not to be followed in these enlightened times. See 1 Cor. 14:33-35. 1 Tim. 2:12. W. [Walther].

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Let us read the Scripture passages that Walther references. 

1 Cor. 14:33-35

“Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”

1 Tim. 2:12

“But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence“

Walther, and orthodox Christianity, takes these verses as they read.  But it clear that the LC-MS is one of external church bodies that, as Walther describes, considers the Bible “an old-fashioned book, which is not to be followed in these enlightened times.”