Omaha daily bee., 1917-07-14
LUTHERANS ARE
LUTHER kUHNS
Editor of Luther League Re-
view, in Signed Article, Says
Members of Church Will
Fight Against Germany.
BY LUTHER M. KUHNS.
Editor Luther League Review.

The Lutheran church is Loyalty pa
triotic, Whatever may have been the
individual opinions, prior to the act OF
congress declaring that state of war
exists between the United States and
Germany, there now can be but one
opinion and one sentiment.
Men and women of the Lutheran
faith have loyalty borne their share
of burden and sacrifice in all the wars
of this country. Now that the country
calls its citizens to rally around the
flag, the illustrious example of Gen.
eral Peter Muehlenberg at Wood
stock, Va, who laid aside his robe as
a Lutheran pastor and displayed the
uniform of all officer in the continent
tai army and enlisted his own parish
toner's, is a reminder and inspiration
to the men and women of the great
Lutheran church of their duty as pa
triots.
Thousands of Lutherans are already
enlisted under the flag, either III the
army or navy of the United States.
From colonial times until the present
Lutheran men and women have borne
their full share of service for the
flag. In this national crisis Lutherans
will loyalty do and die for their coun-
try. The history of the past will be
proved by the deeds of the present.
Separation of Church and State.
While the Lutheran church believes
in the separation of church and state,
the doetrinal position of the church
presented at Augsburg in 1880 is plain
and explicit and leaves no doubt as
to its attitude of loyalty to the gov
ernment as an ecclesiastical body.
The sixteenth article of the Augsburg
confession explicitly says:
Uf civil affairs, they teach, that lawful
civil ordinances are gooG works of Sod
and that II Is right for Christians to bear
civil office, to sit as judges, to determine
matters by the imperial and other existing
laws, TO award just punishments, to engage
In just wars, to serve as soldiers to make
legal contracts, to hold property, to take
oath when required by the magistrates, to
marry. to be given in marriage.
This is the recognized doctrinal po-
sition of the Lutheran church on
which the entire body of Lutherans
stand and is test of Lutheranisr11.
Nothing in this article can be con-
strued as reasonable to the govern
n1ent--it is strictly loyal. 49,.
This statement is of binding force
today and no single man or pastor or
institution can alter or amend this
position of the Lutheran church as a
whole and claim any authority for so
doing; and to this confession today
every Lutheran minister at his ordi-
nation is obligated.
Reaffirmed at Chicago.
In fact, the binding force of this
confession was reaffirmed by the gen.
eral synod of the Evangelical Luth-
eran church at its recent session con-
vened in Chicago, July 20, when it
unanimously adopted subscription to
this confession as part of the doc
trinal basis for the union of the three
great English bodies in America,
namely, the General Synod, the Gen
erat Council and the United Synod
in the South. The General Synod in
cludes the Nebraska (English) Synod
and the German Nebraska Synod. On
July 5 at Atlantic City, n J., "The
Committee Oh Constitutional Revision
of the General. Council of the Luth-
eran Church in America" recon-
mended the adoption of this same
basis for the amalgamation of these
bodies and the General Council en-
braces the Augustana Synod which is
the Swedish Lutheran church in