Walther: Freedom of Religion in USA — 1867; now, “It's not a war”?

      Freedom of Religion is certainly a hot topic today, but it was also in 1867, in Walther's day.  Walther commented on the situation at that time, and the extreme importance of this freedom for Christians (Der Lutheraner vol. 23, Feb. 1, 1867, p. 85-86; translation by BTL):

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Religion and the State. We have just read in a newspaper that the Supreme Federal Court has declared the notorious test oath to be unconstitutional and therefore null and void, which, for example, preachers in Missouri had to swear before they were allowed to administer their office in this state. At the same time, however, the Supreme Court declared that the Constitution forbids the Congress, but not the individual states, to limit religious freedom, or even to introduce a state religion. This is indeed a sad message. Up to now we have held the institutions of the state so high, above all, because we thought that through them, at least as long as they existed, religious freedom was secured. If, however, the individual states can abrogate this freedom without violating the Constitution, then it is in no less danger here than it is in Europe. With such prospects, even America ceases to be the last refuge, safe from man, of those persecuted for religion in all other countries, for which our United States has hitherto been regarded. If there is any point for which the immigrant Christians here should pray diligently and earnestly for this their new fatherland, it is therefore the preservation of the priceless jewel of religious liberty. Let this be said to you, Christians! The benefit of religious freedom has been abused horribly enough, both by the enemies of religion and by hopeless sectarians, and even Christians have not recognized it gratefully enough and have not used it faithfully enough, so it can easily happen that the just God will take away the shamefully abused and unrecognized benefit from us again, if we do not make ourselves a wall against his wrathful judgments through penitent prayer and correction. W. [Walther]

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      Walther points out what made America so great among the nations – Freedom of Religion.  Wernher von Braun came to America, in part, because he thought Americans were “people who followed the Bible”. The socialists and media would tear this country apart by whatever means at their disposal.  But the ideal of “Freedom of Religion” was equated with the United States of America, and other countries were pressured to at least appear to have some measure of the same.  Walther's comments show that this Freedom, more than any other freedom in America, has always been under attack.  But the forces against this freedom would appear now to be overwhelming in this country – so much so that it would appear that the States which are minded to maintain this freedom may have to consider joining forces and leave the Union.  What is more important than socialist democracy?  

Freedom of Religion.

      In an earlier blurb in 1866 in the same volume of Der Lutheraner, p. 13, Walther commented on a Southern state and its new constitution, apparently following the Civil War:

Religion and State. In the South, it seems that here and there the atheists and naturalists, even the Jews, are regarded as dangerous to the state and therefore want to keep them away as much as possible. At least the new constitution of North Carolina, which was adopted by popular vote at the beginning of August, stipulates that no one who denies the existence of God or the divine prestige of the Old and New Testaments may hold office. Since atheists and naturalists, as a rule, consider communism to be the goal of all earthly welfare, it is hardly to be blamed on a state, which has hitherto been held only by those who profess the Christian religion, if it takes such precautions. W. [Walther]

One may learn of today's media outrage over the fact that several states still have this law on the books by searching this topic in Google search. One media outlet wants to claim, on the war against religion, that “its not a war.” [2021-02-26: fixed link] Of course that is an obvious untruth because of its own non-stop attacks against the only true Religion, Christianity.  

Walther: “Politics in Church Papers”; vs Burkee & LC-MS

      In the 1877 Der Lutheraner, p. 39, Walther commented on the subject of our title, stating the point he made a year later in his 1878 lectures on Communism and Socialism. There are certainly those who would charge Walther with mixing Politics with Religion, and therefore dismiss Walther's counsel as overreacting.  One needs look no further today for socialist support than teachers and leaders of LC-MS schools.  

James  Burkee, a past administrator at LC-MS schools in Wisconsin and New York, in his much publicized book Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod (p. 161), ridiculed one who 

“touted C. F. W. Walther’s book, Communism and Socialism, and boldly stated that it is the Christian’s duty to oppose communism, defend the right of private property…”

But those parties in the LC-MS, and others who claim to be “Lutheran”, do not originate their charges and ridicule from a Scriptural basis, while Walther does exactly this in his lectures. So we will let Prof. Walther speak for himself on whether he is mixing “Power and Politics” with true Religion, that is the Christian religion (translation by BTL): 

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      Politics in church papers used to be a peculiarity of America; Germany knew little about it. In more recent times, this has changed. Few religious papers in Germany now keep away from politics, not even the so-called “Sunday papers”! In the Leipziger Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung of January 12, for example, we even read the following: “The barrier of the newspaper stamp, which otherwise closed the area of politics, has fallen; why do we erect a new one for ourselves by saying: Politics does not belong in a Sunday paper?” The writer does not consider that the main barrier, which separates a church paper from politics, is not a newspaper stamp, but the Word of the Lord: “My kingdom is not of this world.” [Jn 18:36]  It is true, however, that it is right for an ecclesiastical paper to raise its voice as soon as politicians publicly act against morality or religion; but this is not politicking; then the church paper remains entirely on the ground assigned to it. Thus, for example, it would not be at all against the character of a church paper if it were to bear serious witness against the atrocities currently taking place in politics in our America; all the more so because even political papers that want to be Christian take a position that glosses over these atrocities and thus dull the moral feeling of their readers through politics. Such papers that want to be Christian then do more harm than the papers of the unbelievers, because the ignorant reader thinks that what such a so-called “Christian” paper approves of must also be right. By the way, the borderline between politics and religion is so easily crossed, and the sectarian papers with their conscienceless and fanatical party politics are such a warning and deterrent example that the Der Lutheraner has so far fearfully avoided even any pretense of dealing with politics, and has therefore so far perhaps done too little rather than too much in this respect. W. [Walther]

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      Indeed the Old Missouri Synod knowingly refrained from political commentary in its publications, limiting it to only spiritual matters.  A notable example of this is that there is practically no mention of the Civil War during the years of that war. — The Old Missouri Synod never let up on its attacks against Socialism.  In the December 15, 1881 Der Lutheraner, p. 190, the editor reported on international Socialist activity:

“Socialism. At the recent Socialist Congress in Switzerland, a delegate spoke of the slow progress of socialism in America. This is most gratifying. But because of this, the Christian congregations must not put their hands in their laps, but must continue all the more joyfully in their counter-testimony.”

      Today that “slow progress of socialism in America” has completely reversed. One may think that opposition to Walther and the Old Missouri Synod is only prominent today, but Walther and the true Missouri Synod faced scathing ridicule in their day.  And so James Burkee, and those like him, have only joined the long list of those who call themselves “Lutheran”, indeed “LC-MS”, yet oppose, and ridicule, orthodox Biblical, Christian, Lutheran teaching.  Surely Mr. Burkee has to clear his throat if he now identifies himself as “Missouri Synod” or even “Lutheran” in his circles.

Walther: Communism and Socialism–a re-translation; labor unrest then, now racial; History restored (Part 1)

        This begins a series of blog posts to present a new English translation of C.F.W. Walther's addresses published in 1878.  That this topic is important in 2020 needs no justification. I am doing this for several reasons as explained below. I would give it a lengthy subtitle using the following from his concluding section:

"So let every Christian, if he still allows himself to be warned, be seriously warned against the agitations of the Socialists and Communists."

Politics or Religion?

      It may be wondered that in delivering these addresses, Walther was getting involved in political matters, not spiritual.  But that is not true.  There are indeed matters that may seem political, but it is only in a tangential way. To give a short quote from page 7, Walther flatly states:

“Politics does not concern us theologians at all; … It is not our office and calling.”

That the later publishers of a "revised English translation" in 1947 and 1964 may have begun to mix some politics into this writing cannot be ruled out, and that might explain why the currently available version does not contain the above statement.  More will be explained elsewhere. I wonder that the editor of either "Hope Publicity Bureau" or "Lutheran Research Society" showed some weakness by pushing Walther's addresses somewhat into the political sphere, while Walther's intent was only to address the matters touching on Religion.— There will be scholars of history who will, to some degree, differ from Walther regarding the motives behind these dual menaces.  That is to be expected, for the world does not understand the heart of Communism and Socialism.  At their core, they are about spiritual matters, not political.

Re-translation, not re-publication

      In 1878, the publishing house for the Old (German) Missouri Synod printed four addresses, or lectures, in the German language, that President C. F. W. Walther delivered at the request of his Lutheran congregation in St. Louis. I recall reading a translation of these lectures many years ago and realized that they presented the definitive history for Christians regarding the threat of Communism and Socialism.

       Background information on the history of translations may be found in the prefaces to the 1947 reprint published by "The Lutheran Research Society" in Detroit, an organization which has likely disappeared long ago.  Currently there are several copies of this text available online: CTS-FW Media has a scanned copy of the 1947 printed pamphlet (but missing pages 30-31) [2020-10-19: correct copy now on Internet Archive]; more recently Steadfast Lutherans blog has it (PDF); Intrepid Lutherans has it.  These all appear to have used the same source material to provide their copy.  But after reading this translation again and seeing how important the information was, I wondered if the first translation, done in 1879 and republished in 1947 with revisions, included all of Walther's narrative or not.  So I thought to re-translate the original German publication to find out. I was surprised to find that some portions were omitted in certain translation(s), but it is not known if these omissions were made in the original 1879 translation by "D. Simon".  The discovery of these omissions made me even more glad that I proceeded with this re-translation. These omissions are identified and fully restored in what follows and will be pointed out in due course. — Additional benefits of this re-translation include: (1) Walther's emphasized words and phrases are indicated with underlining, (2) dozens of hyperlinks are added for reference because of the extensive array of historical people and events introduced, (3) links are added for ease of navigation, (4) Bible verses are identified and hyperlinked, and (5) notations in red showing the corresponding 1947 page number are included. 

History restored, in two ways

      What is generally not so well understood among the population is what is the basis of today's unrest in America and the world. A proper history by a truly Christian teacher is greatly needed to rightly understand this kind of unrest which it has occurred repeatedly in the past, since the beginning of time. As I reviewed Walther's historical events in Wikipedia, it became apparent that what purports to be "objective" history today has in reality added subjective judgments mixed in, judgments that sometimes completely miss the heart of the matter, or even overturn it.  It was not uncommon to find reports attempting to mitigate the heinous nature of some of the actions of certain people and thus obliquely justifying violence and the use of force.  One thing is certain – Walther's history will not be accepted for use by The History Channel or even by Wikipedia because it would be considered to be un-objective.  It will not be promoted by today's LC-MS, even if a few of their pastors do. Dare I suggest that it would not have been promoted in the LC-MS even in 1947?

      The second way Walther restores true history is found in the portions which have been omitted in the currently available English translations (CTS-FW).  Suffice to say that the LCMS does not actually subscribe to the Lutheran Confessions (or Martin Luther) which firmly teaches that the Pope in Rome is the very Antichrist.  Surprisingly we will see evidence of this aberration even in 1947.

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      Because Walther presents such a profusion of historical events and people in such a short narrative, I was interested to learn more of the details of these that Walther had to omit for the sake of brevity.  Wikipedia was a great help in providing some of the details. But the German Lutherans at that time in 1878 were much closer to some of these events that were going on in the world in the 19th century – the 1848 uprising in Germany, the horrific events of the French Revolution, etc. So German Americans may not have needed the details because they were already aware of them.  But today, we seem far removed from them, at least it would seem so… until the events of June 2020 and afterwards in America.  Now we are living through this "history"… again. — Now we begin a fresh translation of the most authoritative history ever given of the menaces of Communism and Socialism. The "Preface" below aptly uses the term "a burning issue."

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Translation of Walther's 1878 Communismus und Socialismus by BackToLuther primarily using DeepL online translation service; highlighting and bolding are my emphases, red text within square brackets [] in are my comments, underlining is Walther's emphasis.

Preface.

Although the undersigned [Walther] only reluctantly complied with the urgent request of the local Lutheran congregation to have printed what he freely presented to them on the specific occasion of four evening meetings on Socialism and Communism, and were stenographically recorded, the editor hopes that the indulgent and impartial reader will excuse the unavoidable deficiencies that adhere to the form of these pages by the nature of their origin and, for the sake of these deficiencies, will not reject the truth represented therein without examination. May what is presented here, in which the special circumstances of the aforementioned congregation were the decisive factor, serve as a basis for making wider circles aware of a question that is also becoming more and more a burning issue for Christians, and for more thorough and all-round answers to it from Scripture, reason and history, so that those who are given more leisure than the

Publisher.

St. Louis, Mo.  March 1878.

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      Since these addresses were probably held in the church building proper, I would suggest that we think of ourselves now also sitting in a pew as we begin this journey. Find an open pew, take a seat, and let us sit at the feet of the American Luther and receive the great history and lessons for Christians, even reasonable people.

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Part 1: Intro: Politics or Religion?; Re-translation, not re-publication; History restored; "Preface"

Part 2: Prologue 1– Two causes for lectures: newspapers, labor unions; omitted section restored

Part 3: Prologue 2– no personal property?; Unions–preschool for Socialism; Karl Marx in England

Part 4: Reason, Nature, Experience 1: Men are not equal

Part 5: RNE2: Men are selfish by nature; Fourier's Phalanxes

Part 6: RNE3: Happiness not in earthly things, only in Word of God;“Johann the Soap Boiler”; against unjust rich and Socialists

Part 7: RNE4: Communists never achieved goal, only misery; Spartans, Pythagoras, Plato, Essenes, Catholics, peasants

Part 8: RNE5: Luther on oppressors; Münster; French Revolutions: 1st & 2nd

Part 9: RNE6: French uprising 1839; Saint-Simonianism; 1848 Revolution; "Young Germany", Weitling; "We aren't united now."

Part 10: RNE7: Paris Commune, Fourier, Icarians, Proudhon, Lecomte, Blanqui: "Achieved nothing"

Part 11: X†1: Christianity? Bible misused: Gen. 1:26-29 – Remember Cain and Abel

Part 12: X†2: No Personal Property, no peace & unity; man’s love for freedom, independence

Part 13: X†3: No Personal Property, No incentive, no justice

Part 14: X†4: Common property at Jerusalem congregation (Acts 4:32-38)

Part 15: X†5: Rich Young Man (Matt. 19:16-25); Vineyard Workers (Matt. 20:1–16)

Part 16: X†6: Contrary to: personal property, government power of sword, marriage, sin, etc.; 7th, 5th, 6th Commandments

Part 17-IIIa: Church hinders? Papacy, Crusades, Protestant State Churches— Walther uncensored

Part 18-IIIb: : Hinders? Dark history not of true Church; Tyrants not Christians; the tyrant, the Pope

Part 19-IIIc: : Blaming Church for class relations an injustice; Christianity changes hearts, so relations, also "race relations"

Part 20: Conclusion: mirage to deceived wanderer – be warned; One has come from over there

“The Church and the Secular Press.” by Pieper: "seducing Christians", "Cosmopolitan Christianity"

      The following short essay in 1899 Der Lutheraner magazine by Franz Pieper is striking for us today as the future of print newspapers dwindles because of the Internet media sources for news and information.  Yet the story remains the same if we substitute for "newspapers" the term "media".
      This essay follows Walther's writing from 18 years earlier on a similar subject in Der Lutheraner in 1881 – see my blog series "Godless newspapers".  — I have discovered additional information about German language newspapers in America from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) here (WayBack). Unfortunately, it takes no notice of religion among the native German people, and ignores any mention of church papers.  Yet it is striking how prominent the German papers were in America up to World War I. There is a good overview of the history of the newspaper Germania here. (WayBack) — My paternal grandfather came from Germany in the late 1800s.  Although I never knew him, I suspect he would have read the German papers in his day. — There is more than one striking feature in Pieper's remarkable article… "the power of Missouri"?
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Text extracted from Der Lutheraner, vol. 55 (October, 1899), p. 189; translation by BackToLuther; bold text is Pieper's emphasis, hyperlinks, highlighting, red text, text in square brackets [ ] are mine.

The Church and the Secular Press.

[by Franz Pieper]

Presidential election – 1900:
William Jennings Bryan vs. McKinley

The Lutheran of October 5 [1899] expresses in an extended editorial the assumption that the Missouri Synod is preparing to make politics, and possibly to speak the decisive word in the next presidential election.

How does this paper come out with these strange thoughts? It is reported from the New York Tribune that Dr. [Hermann] Dümling joined the editorial staff of Germania in order to keep “objectionable matter” out of this paper. But this purpose of Dr. Dümling's new position does not make sense to the Lutheran. Rather, the terrible thoughts just mentioned above come to him. 

He thinks that if “one of the most capable pastors of the Missouri Synod” joins the editorial staff of Germania, it is probably for the purpose of possibly controlling the next presidential election through this “most widespread German newspaper”. The Lutheran says: “Many of us have come to know the power of Missouri in the German church movements of this country, and it is only natural that we do not like it at all when a Lutheran church body makes use of the secular press to make its influence felt in politics.”

We can calm the Lutheran down. First of all, the Missouri Synod as such has nothing to do with the fact that Dr. Dümling became editor of Germania. Then we also know and the Germania itself has announced that Dr. Dümling's appointment to the Germania has no “political” purpose at all, but merely to keep “objectionable matter” away from the Germania, not only from the “weekly” but also from the “daily” Germania. The policy of Germania is none of our business and has no interest in us. But because Germania is read in many thousands of our Christian homes, we have a great interest in keeping out of this newspaper all offensive reading material. And Dr. Dümling's entry into the editorial staff of Germania makes only this sense.

We can assure the Lutheran: No righteous Missourian pastor or professor, as long as he is able to work, gives up his ecclesiastical office to become politically active. If he makes the personal sacrifice of taking over the editorial work of a secular newspaper, this is done in the knowledge that in this way he is rendering a necessary service to his Church and to his Savior, namely for his part the service of keeping away the rubbish with which most secular newspapers pollute and poison Christian homes and hearts, year in, year out, and daily. There can be no doubt that the secularization and stagnation of modern Christianity is to a large extent attributable to the pernicious influence of the secular press, which so generally finds its way into the homes of Christians. 

The worldly press, as it is ordinarily constituted, is in a constant struggle against the Christian church. The secular press wants to make the church secular and thus does not seek less after the life of the church than the press of the false churches which spread false doctrines. On Sundays the pastor preaches to his congregation: “Do not love the world, nor what is in the world.” But six or seven times a week a newspaper comes into the home and is read by young and old, in which the sinful nature of this world is partly hidden, partly openly glorified and praised. Now it is true: We cannot protect our Christians and also our youth from all temptations on the part of the world. They come into contact with the world and should learn to fight against the world. But the Lord Christ also taught us to pray: “Lead us not into temptation.” Christian parents do not do their duty unless they try to keep temptation away from their own family. It is also part of this that they strive to exclude soul-poisoning reading from their homes as far as possible. 

The Last Day will one day reveal that, in the hearts of many people who, while they lived under the sound of the Word of God, were held back from their spiritual life, or again suffocated from it, through the influence of the worldly newspapers.

So it is truly worth the effort when Christians take it upon themselves to produce such secular newspapers which exclude all offensive reading material from their columns. If, for the purpose of this judgment, experienced people, be they pastors or professors, enter the editorial department of a secular newspaper, then one does not immediately sense politics behind it, as happened to the Lutheran, but one assumes—what is actually the case here—that it is a matter of the production of a secular newspaper that is not offensive to the Christian home.

The production of such newspapers was particularly important to the blessed Dr. Walther. We know that he traveled several times to persuade pastors to take over the editorial work of such secular newspapers. He repeatedly stated that he did not consider it a waste of energy to take the best pastors out of ministry in order to render this very important service to the Church. He said this to those who said that a pastor or a professor should not give himself up to be the editor of a secular newspaper.

Of course, one thing is necessary if the evil is not to become worse. The worldly newspapers, which are published by Christians, must now also really keep away all offensive things from their columns. If such newspapers are once again like the world, e.g. by displaying theaters, balls and other worldly entities, they are a double damage to the community. They seduce Christians into a cosmopolitan Christianity, into the deadly belief that Christ is in agreement with Belial. No Christian, let alone a Christian pastor or professor, can give himself up to this.

But such worldly newspapers, which really keep away everything offensive from their columns, are to be held up and valued as a precious gift of God. Such newspapers should not be obstructed, but encouraged and supported, even in cases where they hold political opinions which do not always coincide with ours. As far as politics are concerned, after all, every Christian has his own politics, that is, he does not let himself to be dictated by a party, by a newspaper, or by individual persons how he should vote, but he decides this himself before God to the best of his knowledge and conscience.          F[ranz] P[ieper]

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      In a more recent case of a related matter, we find that Concordia Seminary President Ludwig Fuerbringer's youngest son, Otto Fuerbringer, also joined a secular publication, Time magazine.  Unfortunately, although once considered a "conservative", yet his magazine in 1966 would, on the question of “Is God Dead?”, state that believers  “perhaps secretly fear that he is”.  How different that is from the situation above and indicative that it was the "cosmopolitan" Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, not the true Missourians, that practically led the world into a "cosmopolitan Christianity", even the "radicalism of the 1960s".

      I have news for the National Endowment for the Humanities – there were German Lutherans in America, even if they won't report about it.  And among those Lutherans of America, some even wondered at the "power of Missouri [Synod] in the German church movements of this country".  Better historians than those of the NEH (or Time magazine) do not ignore true religion in the history of a land.

American Civil War and... the Missouri Synod

      Continuing my project of presenting the full text of Franz Pieper's original Christliche Dogmatik....
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      About 20 years ago, as I devoured everything I could find of the writings of the "altlutherische" Missourisynode, I wondered at times how the Civil War affected them.  As I scoured the "Convention Essays", Lehre und Wehre, and Der Lutheraner through the early years, there was almost a strange silence on the matter of the war that ravaged America.  --  Today's church historians like to spend time discussing the Civil War, but this seems more due to their lack of understanding of the old (German) Missouri Synod.  The old (German) Missouri Synod barely even mentioned the war.  Why?  Today's history treats this war as having a major impact on everyone who lived through it, so why was there almost no information on the events of the American Civil War?  --
      Then Franz Pieper largely answered that question in his Christliche Dogmatik, Vol. 1a, pg 195 (page 167, n. 228 in English edition), presented below in my translation. All highlighting is mine:

We would like to make a point relating to the unity in doctrine. This complete agreement in doctrine has given offense in this country and also in Germany, and there have often been made quite irrelevant comments and even attempts to show this as a result of submission under the authority of one man.  Nothing can be more perverse. We have known most fathers of the synod in person. They were not only fundamentally different, but partly also very strong and independent characters, so that, humanly speaking, it could be expected that they would soon move apart in different directions. That this did not happen appeared to us ever more as a testimony to the unifying power of God's Word.  The various political views  at the time of the American Civil War, which now and then strongly made itself noticeable and stood out even in public meetings, could not destroy the unity of faith, by Scripture-based working of the Holy Spirit.  They said to each other: "Politics has not brought us together, neither is it to drive us apart."

One fact stood out for me -- that Franz Pieper personally knew most of the fathers of the Missouri Synod.  Not only could he speak first-hand about Walther, but also about most the other professors, teachers, and pastors.  And so the best judge of the old Missouri Synod is... Franz Pieper.  And he fills in the blank concerning the relationship of old Missouri to the surrounding Civil War -- there was none to disturb the God-given unity in His Word.