Lutheran leader mounts ad battle against
pact with Catholics
Tension is building in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod as
the Rev. A.L. Barry, the conservative president of the 2.6 million-member
denomination, tries to draw the faithful back to a strict theology. Barry recently lost his temper when he was told that the moderate
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America had reached agreement with
the Roman Catholic Church on the theory of justification. The
traditional idea of justification is that Christians are saved
by faith in Jesus Christ. Further, salvation comes neither from
good works nor from a life of devotion but from simply believing
in Jesus Christ as lord and savior. That has been a Lutheran theological principle for 500 years,
since the days of the Reformation in Germany when Martin Luther
broke from the Catholic Church and began forming his own followers
into a denominational unit. And for half a millennium, that principle
has been at the center of Lutheran beliefs. When Lutherans and Catholics began talking about the issues
that divide them, the justification principle was at the top of
the list. Now, after 30 years of talking theology and arguing
history, Catholics have said they agree with Lutherans on the
issue of Justification. But Barry says the Catholics are not telling the truth. In
newspaper ads in 15 metropolitan journals and USA Today, Barry
says Catholic theologians are lying about the beliefs of modern
Catholics. The ads cost about $200,000, according to Missouri Synod sources.
But the money came from a small foundation in Earth City, Mo.,
that is funded by the Schwan family of Minnesota, purveyors of
ice cream and other food products. The ads, titled "Toward True Reconciliation," claimed
the Missouri Synod is busy working toward the day "when the
pure Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed with one voice."
Of course, critics of the ads wonder if that means the Gospel
of Jesus Christ as interpreted by A.L. Barry. Barry was not available for comment and seldom speaks directly
with the media. Yet he blames the "public media" for
misunderstandings about the agreement. So you can see many culprits
had a hand in this ecumenical effort, but according to Barry the
Missouri Synod is without blame. That is not the opinion of some Lutheran and Catholic bishops,
particularly those in Wisconsin who read the Missouri Synod ads
in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and decided to take on Barry,
who will face re-election during the summer of 2001. So another statement joined the conflict, and this time the
Wisconsin bishops said Barry's descriptions of Catholic doctrine
were so misleading that Catholics could not recognize their own
beliefs. The bishops said Barry is out of touch with modern Catholicism
and does not understand the ecumenical process. The Missouri Synod
ads, which appeared Dec. 19, may draw other responses. David Strand, director of public relations for the conservative
Lutheran denomination, said after news of the ecumenical agreement
reached Missouri Synod people, many asked for clarification. "It was not exactly a blitzkrieg, but there was some confusion
and questions," Strand said. "We felt the way things
got reported in the secular press that there might be a need for
interpretation. There were many manifestations of people's confusion,
so that we thought it might be a good idea to explain why some
Lutheran bodies did not participate in that declaration." Strand said there was an immediate response of hundreds of
communiques, but 75 percent to 80 percent favored Barry. "He knew he would be criticized." Strand said. In fact, the criticism runs so deep that the Rev. Ralph Bohlman,
the former president of the Missouri Synod, also criticized Barry's
ads, saying thousands of Missouri Synod believers are "chagrined"
by the misleading statements. Further, Bohlman said, ads in the
public media are not a helpful way for churches to resolve differences.
Clark D. Morphew
Posted For January 15, 2000