Lutherans in Columbus

Solid and sober as the great Martin Luther looked is U. S. Lutheranism, the intensely individualist faith of many a farmer and small-towner, many a Scandinavian and German-American who still speaks the European tongue of his forebears. Because of the sect's diffuse organization, there is as yet no great single U. S. Lutheran Church whose head might speak with the authority of a Catholic archbishop. Biggest Lutheran body in U. S. is the United Lutheran Church, formed in 1918 of three smaller bodies and today embracing 34 state synods, 4,000 churches, 1,000,000-odd confirmed members. Its busy, white-goateed head, re-elected every two years since that time, has been Manhattan's Dr. Frederick Hermann Knubel, now 66. As well-respected and well-qualified to speak for U. S. Lutherans as any man, Dr. Knubel last week turned up in Columbus, Ohio for the tenth biennial convention of United Lutherans. To 560 delegates he spoke typical, thrifty, self-reliant Lutheran words:

"We are hearing far too much of this supposed gospel of leisure. A true gospel of leisure will say that much may be found in work itself. . . . Vigor belongs to spirituality and indolence belongs to sin. Since when has youth come to demand security and ceased to cry just for opportunity? . . . A mania has seized men to get things and do things easily. . . . God alone can change human lives and the church must learn to put this truth into practice."

Questions facing the convention & answers:

P: Should the United Lutheran Church defer to progress and allow women on its boards and bureaus? The delegates stepped forward first by making the Women's Missionary Society an official body, later voting women eligible to the governing bodies.

P: Should the United Lutheran Church make bishops, as in Europe, of the heads of its 34 synods? President Knubel was dubious, pointing out that synod presidents are elected for terms, whereas bishops should hold their posts for life. The convention appointed a special commission to study the question, report at the 1938 meeting.

P: The convention came out flat-footedly against "spiritually destructive methods of raising money," such as church card parties and dances, by approving the American Missions Board's decision to withdraw support from 575 mission churches if they persist in so raising funds.

P: Still up for consideration at week's end was a bigger problem: should the United Lutheran Church move to merge with other U. S. bodies, notably the American Lutheran Church? That body, which was meeting simultaneously in San Antonio, had postponed action on the matter for two years.

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