Open questions

Last updated on: May 15, 2014 at 3:55 pm By Gene Veith

Rev. Matthew Harrison, president of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, posted a passage from the Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod (1932) regarding “Open Questions.” It makes the wise point that Scripture does not clearly answer all theological questions, and so the Church may not offer definitive answers to them. See the passage after the jump.

First, can anyone explain the confessional status of the Brief Statement? Is acceptance of this document obligatory for Missouri Synod Lutherans? Just pastors? Laymen? (The only requirements for formal subscription I’ve come across are to the Scriptures and to the confessions in the Book of Concord.) This statement affirms things like the inerrancy of Scripture and the Six Days of Creation, but it leaves out important Lutheran doctrines such as the Theology of the Cross and Vocation.

Second, what ARE some of these open questions? I suspect there are different positions on whether the Scriptures are clear or not on some issues. (more…)

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A pastor, a country music artist, & Honky-Tonk Gospel

Last updated on: May 6, 2014 at 3:59 pm By Gene Veith

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Some of you know Rev. Eric Andrae, a Lutheran pastor of note in Pittsburgh. He sent me an e-mail saying, “I have a very good friend who’s a local country musician of some renown,” Slim Forsythe. “we both just read your book Honky-Tonk Gospel, and we will have a radio appearance together next week [that is, THIS week, tomorrow, Wednesday].” Pastor Andrae adds, “Despite what the Dos Equis commercials claim, Slim Forsythe is actually the most interesting man in the world.” He’s also a case-study in vocation, someone who gave up a successful law career for a life in music, fronting a Hank Williams tribute band, playing Western swing, rock-a-billy, and gospel, and fulfilling his dream of living over a bar. Here is the announcement about their radio appearance tomorrow, which can be accessed online:

Pastor Andrae’s monthly appearance on WORD-FM (Pittsburgh) will be a unique one. . . . Slim Forsythe – well known country/gospel musician, recent inductee to America’s Old Time Music Hall of Fame, and a good friend of First Trinity Lutheran Church – will join him live on the air at approx. 5:10-6:00pm Eastern time on “The Ride Home with John and Kathy.” Slim will play several songs, including covers of Hank Williams (with Molly Alphabet) and Johnny Cash tunes, as well as an original, with Pastor Andrae offering theological/spiritual commentary. At 5:10pm on Wednesday, May 7, tune in at 101.5-FM or world-wide at www.WORDFM.com.

That they are going to discuss my notorious book, written with Tom Wilmeth, Honky Tonk Gospel: The Story of Sin and Salvation in Country Music, makes this interview even more frought with possibilities. More on Slim Forsythe, including a YouTube performance, after the jump. (more…)

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Back to the social gospel

Last updated on: April 28, 2014 at 8:36 pm By Gene Veith

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Hillary Clinton cited her commitment to the “social gospel” in a speech to United Methodists. That goes back to the 19th century when many Protestants said that instead of emphasizing the gospel of eternal salvation in Heaven through Christ, they should emphasize a gospel of building the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

The social gospel, which inspired all kinds of social reforms and progressive political activism, became the hallmark of liberal theology. After World War II, even in liberal theological circles, neo-orthodoxy reacted against the utopianism of the social gospel, though in the 1960s it came back with liberation theology. Conservative theologies, of course, rejected the social gospel, but today there is arguably a social gospel of the right. (more…)

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Adolescent Arguments

Last updated on: April 28, 2014 at 8:31 pm By Gene Veith

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In the context of an article criticizing President Obama, George Will says that the president continually uses “the four basic teenage tropes” that characterize the way adolescents argue. I give them after the jump, with my emphases in bold. I don’t really want to discuss what Will says about the president. And I don’t want to cast aspersions on Adolescent Americans. But just consider these as logical fallacies. (more…)

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Do Your Duty

Last updated on: April 23, 2014 at 8:25 pm By Gene Veith

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I published an article in Tabletalk Magazine about the concept of “duty,” tying it via the Small Catechism to the works of vocation. (more…)

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Totalitarian discourse

Last updated on: April 13, 2014 at 7:21 pm By Gene Veith

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Charles Krauthammer gives the name for handling disagreements by silencing and punishing those who hold opposing ideas:

The left is entering a new phase of ideological agitation — no longer trying to win the debate but stopping debate altogether, banishing from public discourse any and all opposition.The proper word for that attitude is totalitarian. It declares certain controversies over and visits serious consequences — from social ostracism to vocational defenestration — upon those who refuse to be silenced. (more…)

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