The National tribune., 1893-09-07
LUTHERANS AND
THE G. \, R.
Attitude of the Church Toward the
Funeral Services.


letter to Prof E. ]. Wolf, of the Lutheran
Seminary at Gettysburg, in regard to the
! Church's attitude toward the Order. Below
we give his reply:
| EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: Your inform
alton relative to the refusal of Lutheran preach
| ers to allow the ritual of the GAR. at the
| burial of veterans will bear correction.
| ought to be pretty well acquainted with
| the Lutheran Church and its practices, and
| l have to confess that the letter you inclose TO
me making mention of such refusal Is tho first
! intimation of the kind that has come to my
notice. That cases have occurred where the
| GAR. rites were disallowed | am of course
| not warranted in denying-t is impossible for
one person to know all that may happen in so
| large body, scattered over the whole Union
| but that such is generally the case do most
ernphatically deny.
First of all let me say, there are Lutherans
and Lutherans While all adhere to the same
| system of Christian truth. it is in accordance
with the genius of this Church that consider
| able diversity obtains in its application III the
practical sphere, both in the usages of the
| different bodies of Lutherans and Of the indi-
vidual congregations.
! The Lutheran Church is not governed, like
the Roman Catholic by single and supreme
head, nor like the Protestant Episcopal, by
Bishops, who direct in great part the practice
| Of the clergy, nor is a matter of this kind
| regulated even by Synods.
| The polity of the Lutheran Church is that
! known as congregational, which allows no au-
| thOrity over the Individual congregation, and
| recognizes the right of every congregation,
with its pastor, to regulate its OWL affairs and
! to fix its own usages.
| If certain Lutheran minister has anywhere
| ruled out the GAR. burial service he has done
| so either on his own responsibility at the in
stance of his congregation, the only authority
IN VIII ich ha ia tha oil hat
| his orders came " from his higher preachers, or
| Bishops, as they call them" is either a mis-
I take on the part OF your informant or mis-
representation on the part of the minister in
question, for the Lutheran Church has no
higher preachers" any where, and the name
Bishop" is unknown to the Church in this
country.
1t is not improbable that an individual min
lister has pursued the course com planned of. AS
there are Lutheran min listers who would de-
cline utilization even with ministers of other
denominations at burisl-yes with ministers
Of their own faith connected with another
bOdy-it would not be at all surprising if such
ministers could not consent to the G. Ar serv-
ice in connection with funeral at which they
otficiate. They have a conscience on the mat
ter of mixing rituals.
Lutherans, | may say, a rule. discounte-
nance secret orders, and especially their cere-
monial. Believing the religion which makes
Jesus Christ the center, the beginning and the
end, the all and in all, wOrshiping Him as God
and as One with the Eternal Father, accepting
Him as the supreme authority and mediator,
without whom man has access to Deity,
holding that all prayer must be offered in His
name and having for their faith the creed of
the Universal Church, without the profession
of which no one has admission to either the
Roman Catholic any Evangelical Lutheran
Church, they deem 1t a serious compromise of
their faith to give any recognition to associa-
tions which studousiy and distinctively ex-
elude from their ritual any allusion to the
worlds Redeemer
How minister of the Gospel can consent to
an interblendIng of the ritual of Christs
Church with a ritual which ignores Christs
Church. how he can join his prayers TO the
Lord Jesus with prayers that disdain his inter
cession, how he engage in religious
fellowship which, ipso facto, stamps him as a
denier of bis own faith, is a problem which the
writer has never been able to solve.
But no such problem arises in connection
with the ritual of the GAR. The Christians
faith is here assumed and recognized in ex-
plicit terms. Here, in fact, the problem is re-
versed, and it may be asked how anyone who
is not believer in Christ conscientiously
avow the principles taught and implied in the
ceremonial, or, again, with what propriety a
ritual SO distinctively Christian can be read
over the remains of veteran who in life
openly or virtually repudiated the Christian
faith.
The aims and principles of the GAR being
clearly understood and the Christian character
of its ritual being recognized, see good
reason for its rejection by Lutheran pastor, |
and am inclined to believe that the instances |
of such rejection are rare-nOne having ever |
occurred under my own observation nor within |
the sphere of my knowledge.
| have written for information to represent |
atives of three of the largest Lutheran bodies, |
whose practice, by the way, is known to be |
generally stricter than that of my own body. |
As two of them have failed TO reply, | conclude |
that they have nothing to communicate that /
rule obtains this subject in their respect |
i've bodies. The third one, an eminent pastor |
in the General Council, writes that his body |
has taken no action the matter of the burial |
service of the GA. K. or any other organization,
and any such impression IS without foundation. |
He adds: whilst the general sentiment of |
churchy people is against any other burial |
service besides that of the Church, it has never,
to my knowledge, been formulated into any
synoaical action.
ut is quite probable that individual pastors |
or congregations, acting only for themselves, |
may refuse the use of such ritual on their own |
burial grounds, but know OF no instances.
The general custom is to have the burial |
service of the Church first and after that to
allow even if not approving, the ritual of |
worldly societies. | have never heard of the
GAR. ritual being refused in this part of the |
Church." He lives in the midst of the densest |
Lutheran population in the country.
Granted, then, that there are isolated in
stances where Lutheran ministers object TO
have the GAR. ritual added to their own
burial service, this must not be Interpreted as
importing opposition to the noble organization
of veterans.
II undertake here, without any hesitation, to
speak as Lutheran for Lutherans, and to say
that so long as memory endures, and so long
as men retain the faculty of approaching
patriotism and heroism, there will not be found
within the Church that was the first to break
the shackes of bondage any opposition to the
society which enrolls the survivors of those
magnificent armies which saved the Republic
On the other hand, ministers of Christ can
undoubtedly be justified if. after having read
the service of their own Church over the re-
mains of one of their flock. they respectfully
decline to have any other ritual added They
would certainly not be disposed to admit that
their own service was defective or inadequate
for its purpose.
And if this answers its purpose, why add
another? Have Americans gotten so far away
from that simplicity which is one of the char
acterstics of free Government that they de-
sire ceremony heaped upon ceremony for the
sake of spectacular effect, and that in the dark
and awful hour when the hearts of those bereft
are bleeding in agony and anguish as the grave
opens to receive all that is mortal of a loved