Dr. Siegbert Becker

[jenley]

This is just one man's reasons for leaving the LCMS

I was looking him up for pastor, looking for something else he had written and thought this series of articles he wrote in 1963 and 1964 were interesting

http://math.ucsb.edu/~mgscharl/BeckerWhy.htm

 

[RadMan]

Behnken and Harms and Scharlemann were just catalysts for what came almost immediately after that with Dr Teitjen and his parroting of the same nonsense. Seminex was the culmination.

 

[DaRev]

I'm still not sure of your reasoning for posting this.

 

[jenley]

It was just interesting to me. History is interesting to me. This was over 40 years ago and some of his word usage is interesting to me as a secretary...

He obviously was very passionate about what happened.

Oh, and lutheran News is not now Christian News. Someone bought a domain name on the internet and just has it parked, hoping someone will want to buy the name. They linked the words Christian News to get more search hits. and this is a .info, not .com or .net or .org

I will remove the link if you like. I was not trying to cause hurt or trouble. Just sharting something I thought was interesting

 

[DaRev]

Oh, and lutheran News is not now Christian News.

He mentions several times in his articles that they were published in "Lutheran News" which was a publication of Herman Otten and is now known as Christian News.

 

[RadMan]

It was just interesting to me. History is interesting to me. This was over 40 years ago and some of his word usage is interesting to me as a secretary...

He obviously was very passionate about what happened.

Oh, and lutheran News is not now Christian News. Someone bought a domain name on the internet and just has it parked, hoping someone will want to buy the name. They linked the words Christian News to get more search hits. and this is a .info, not .com or .net or .org

I will remove the link if you like. I was not trying to cause hurt or trouble. Just sharting something I thought was interesting

Don't worry about posting the info. The truth really makes some people take a look at their misplaced loyalites to some of LCMS' atrocities.

Otten's paper was the Lutheran News before it became Christian news. This article by Becker only reinforces that Otten was on track, and still is, with his paper. People are finally realizing that he was on target with most of his comments. Check out WT and see that people wish they had listened sooner.

 

[jenley]

He mentions several times in his articles that they were published in "Lutheran News" which was a publication of Herman Otten and is now known as Christian News.

I was looking online.... It was 40 years ago...
sorry

 

[DaRev]

I was looking online.... It was 40 years ago...
sorry

No sweat. You're forgiven.

 

[joshn13]

It is slightly strange that the site you reference appears to be hosted by Dr. Scharlemann himself, or at least somebody with the same name.

 

[Tofferer]

What seems strange to me is that some of the posts in this thread seem out of order.

 

[DaRev]

What seems strange to me is that some of the posts in this thread seem out of order.

Remnants from when the site was messed up.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

It was just interesting to me. History is interesting to me. This was over 40 years ago and some of his word usage is interesting to me as a secretary...

He obviously was very passionate about what happened.

While I was a child when this hit the fan 40 some years ago, I did witness the bitterness, and some of the other repercussions of this time of "unpleasantness". I know what happened, I know why it happened.

What troubles me most of all is the why and how it was allowed to happen. How could Synod be so blind to not see it coming?.

Pastors that I have known who came out of Sem. as few years prior to the trouble were zealously conservative (at least the ones who came up to Canada). The ones who came shortly after tended to be less so, particularly the second career guys.

I feel that the LCMS is on the verge of something similar, and we in LCC are also. Being Canadian though it seems to be more latent. We are better at living in denial than our brothers and sisters south of the border.

This time though, it's not just going to be a Sem., I think it will happen on a Congregational level. I do not know of a Congregation that is not split doctrinally. In talking to Pastors and members of other councils most of our congregations would be about 20% confessional as defined in the Synods Constitution, and the other 80 %, varying doctrinally from extremely liberal Lutheran, to full out Calvinists.

How did this happen?

Possibly some of the blame does rest with those in authority (again I am talking about the last 40 years). Most of the problems come through the availability of information from Reformed and Non-Denom. media and programming. 50 years ago we lived in our little communities which still revolved around our Church.

My first three years of public education were in a one room school, right beside my Church. Not a Lutheran school, but my teacher was a member of the second congregation in our dual parish. 80+% (The rest were either Catholic or EUB) of the students were members of one or the other (at that time) LCMS congregations. We had little understanding what it was not to be Lutheran. Other than in the mission field we had no concept of heathens of pagans (when I was very young in Sunday-School one of our missionaries disappeared in some "savage" land and was never found. Rightly or wrongly He was presumed "eaten").

Our Pastors, for the most part preach right doctrine 10-20 minutes a week, our members go home and listen to "feel good, born again prosperity preachers", and then discuss it with their cronies all week, then the come back for another 10-20 min. sermon.

We wonder what happened to programing like "Issues Etc." Also, I often listened to some of the better programing on short wave from "Catholic Radio" (WTWN I think), they disappeared at the same time as IE was canceled.

I have no answers.

Mark

 

[Tofferer]

I'd argue that the Lutheran church as a whole is serious trouble. The sooner responsible people start taking positive action, the better.

 

[RadMan]

The problem has been excelerating since the early 20th century when ALPB and the American Lutheran were started. There have been conservative lulls but it's mostly been onward and upward with the "church growth" movement.

Wohrabe says:

During the first half of the 20th century, the Missouri Synod became involved in intense internal struggle over the tension between doctrinal integrity and outreach.
Brought on largely by the forced language transition and anti-Germanism of the First World War, the Synod faced a growing movement for change from within, organized primarily around the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau and the publication [FONT=Times New Roman,Times New Roman]American Lutheran[/FONT]. The issue of prayer fellowship and continued unity attempts with other American Lutheran church bodies created further tension. Was prayer with others to be considered part of church fellowship? How could Missouri Synod pastors participate in civic events that involved other clergy? Furthermore, a differing position on the doctrines of church and ministry developed within the Wisconsin Synod, which carried into the Missouri Synod and was adopted then by those who strongly advocated the position of parochial school teachers. Was the difference over church and ministry in fact a matter of application instead of a matter of doctrine, while the issue of the military chaplaincy was a matter of doctrine and not application? Was church fellowship associated purely with the marks of the church, Word and Sacraments, or did it encompass more, including prayer and work in external matters? As the members of the Missouri Synod struggled over these issues--and therefore over the tension between doctrinal integrity and outreach--there were some who perceived an emphasis on maintaining doctrinal integrity as loveless legalism, particularly those associated with the ALPB and "A Statement." They thereby emphasized outreach above or to the exclusion of doctrinal integrity and sought to change the long-standing position of the Missouri Synod. This would lead to further erosion of doctrinal integrity in years to come. This tension and division that developed would lead to a split within the Synod during the second half of the 20th century.
In later years, according to one report, Dr. Behnken (former synod president) was asked how Concordia Seminary filled up with liberals on his watch. He broke down in tears and exclaimed, "What could I do when they lied to me?"​

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

"What could I do when they lied to me?"​

That answers my question.