David, you asked for a classification. I would classify it as adiaphora.
Ahhh. Interesting
"not regarded as essential to faith............"
https://wikivisually.com/wiki/Adiaphora
Adiaphoron (
/ædɪˈæfərɒn/,
/ædiˈæfərɒn/[1][2] plural:
adiaphora from the
Greek ἀδιάφορα,
the negation of διάφορα - Latin
differentia - meaning "not differentiable").
1313. diaphoros dee-af'-or-os from 1308; varying; also surpassing:--differing, divers, more excellent.
Rom 12:6
Having then gifts differing<1313> according to the grace that is given to us,
let us use them:
if prophecy,
let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
In
Christianity,
"adiaphora" are matters not regarded as essential to faith, but nevertheless as permissible for Christians or allowed in church. What is specifically considered adiaphora depends on the specific
theology in view.
Lutheranism
See also:
Law and Gospel and
Antinomianism § Lutheranism
The issue of what constituted
adiaphora became a major dispute during the
Protestant Reformation. In 1548, two years after the death of
Martin Luther, the
Holy Roman Emperor Charles V tried to unite Catholics and Protestants in his realm with a law called the
Augsburg Interim. This law was rejected by
Philipp Melanchthon, on the account that it did not ensure
justification by faith as a fundamental doctrine. Later he was persuaded to accept a compromise known as the
Leipzig Interim, deciding that doctrinal differences not related to justification by faith were
adiaphora or matters not essential for salvation. Melanchthon's compromise was vehemently opposed by
Matthias Flacius and his followers in Magdeburg, who went to the opposite extreme by claiming that adiaphora cease to be adiaphora in a case of scandal and confession. By 1576 both extremes were rejected by the majority of
Lutherans led by
Martin Chemnitz and the formulators of the Formula of Concord.
In 1577, the
Formula of Concord was crafted to settle the question of the nature of genuine
adiaphora, which it defined as church rites that are "...neither commanded nor forbidden in the Word of God."
[7] However, the Concord added believers should not yield even in matters of
adiaphora when these are being forced upon them by the "enemies of God's Word".
[8]
The Lutheran
Augsburg Confession states that the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike.
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