Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod Research Papers (original) (raw)

A short but significant episode in the debate over Lutheran identity in America.
Friedrich Schmidt, with the help of the Pennsylvania Synod, began a German-language Lutheran newspaper, in August 1838. His paper was the first, nor the last of its kind. Initially, Schmidt and his Lutherische Kirchenzeitung got along quite well with Benjamin Kurtz and the Lutheran Observer. Indeed, Kurtz chaired the committee that launched the Lutherische Kirchenzeitung and Schmidt’s first number spared no praise for the Lutheran Observer.
Each paper seemed to have an unwritten agreement to be the primary Lutheran paper for its own language sphere. However, over the years it became apparent that the differences between the papers were much deeper than the language. In 1841 Schmidt commented that the Lutheran Observer was always defending and recommending the new measures, which would include revivals and altar calls and so forth, while the Lutherische Kirchenzeitung was always defending and recommending Old Lutheranism. It seems as if Schmidt kept his concerns to himself until he published a letter to the editor in which the writer complained that the Lutheran Observer had, in poor taste, attacked the chorrock, the traditional liturgical garb of Lutheran pastors. The Observer declared that the LKZ was now its opponent. So Schmidt responded by denouncing the Observers various unLutheran, (Schmidt called them unchristian) views on Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and so on.
At the heart of the short newspaper war, which went back and forth like an ugly comment section on a controversial social media post, was the argument over the Church. Kurtz, SS Schmucker, and others would argue that the American Lutheran Church had never been strictly confessional. American Lutheranism was its own brand of Lutheranism. (It just so happened that it largely mirrored and conformed to mainstream American Christianity which was dominated by Calvinism). Schmidt was likely the first in 19th century America to so publicly argue that true Lutherans were identified by holding to the Lutheran Confessions because they correctly confessed the teachings of the Scriptures.
While some “American Lutheran synods” denounced Schmidt for being a divisive influence (he reportedly had 1800 subscribers compared to Kurtz 3000), the Pennsylvania Synod stood by him. Schmidt’s stand and battle, would challenge many heretofore indifferent Lutherans to examine doctrinal issues and ask, were they genuine Lutherans, or not?