The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1918-08-07
Kaiser Not a Lutheran


We have not anywhere seen a clearer and more
satisfying statement of the church situation in
Germany, in it's bearing upon certain msstate-
ments and misrepresentation that have been
afloat in this country to the detriment Of our
American Lutheran church than that which is
presented on another page in the address Of Dr.
"dearth Of information and the "deuge of con-
fusion" among Americans generally, and Luth-
Grams in particular, which are responsible for the
unenviable light in which church has been
PLACED in this country because Of its supposed in
innate relation with the Kaiser and the State
church of Prussia.
The later immigration has brought many
worthy Germans to- this country, most Of them
either Lutheran or Roman Catholic or those in
different to religion altogether, and when the
broke out in 1914 it was to be expected that
their sympathies should fall on the side of Ger
many. But when the United States declared war
in 1917 the vast majority, whatever their
victions might have been as to the necessity Of
entering the war, loyalty accepted the situation
and their full proportion of are either
in training or in the trenches in defense of their
adopted country.
A very few among them were foolish enough to
give voice to sentiments which would justly place
them in the list Of the disoyal. 1t is they who
have done not little to discredit our foreign
constituency in the eyes Of the American public.
And yet their number is very small to
make wonder how it has come to pass that
suspicion should have fastened upon the church
a whole; that seemingly studious effort
should have been made in the press and in
speeches to cast a stigma upon the Lutheran
church by associating it with the Kaiser and
with Prussianisn. It is hard to understand why
the Lutheran church should have been singled
out, and the Roman Catholic church, which is
the state church Of Austria and which has fur
nished the present chancellor in Germany, should
be spared. In spite of repeated statements. that
the state church of Prussia, Of which the Kaiser
as king of Prussia is the head is not Lutheran,
and that the Kaiser himself is not Lutheran, the
effort has continued and several millions OF
Lutherans, than whom no more loyal and pa
triotic citizens can anywhere be found, feel
themselves grossly Wronged. We are confident
that if all American citizens guilty of reasonable
and unpatriotic utterances were to be informed,
fewer Lutherans would be found among them in
proportion than in any other church OF German
or Irish extraction. We writing from city
where Pennsylvania German is abundantly spok-
en-, and we challenge any one to single out an
other city more intensely loyal than Il, and 1t
numbers Lutherans by the thousand
DR.. Scherers excellent statement Of fact as it
pertains to the Lutheran churchs relation to the
Kaiser and the State church of Prussia makes 1t
unnecessary to say anything further in that line
But assuming that the Kaiser were Lutheran
church in Germany-just as the kings OF
England have been the nominal heads Of the
Church of England-what has that to say as to
the loyalty or disloyalty of the Lutheran church
in America? That the Kaiser has at times had
Lutheran court preacher is as little to the point
as that he has at times had American dentist,
Like Prof. McCTffert and other Americans, he
has taken, his theology from Harnack. What
strange freaks psychology in America is playing
when 1t coTnpels Americans OF German birth or
extraction to prove that they and the Kaiser have
no ecclesiastical connection with each other, be-
fore they can be counted patriotic American cfti-
zens. This war has eliminated all church boun-
Diary lines Lutherans are fighting Lutherans,
Reformed are fighting Reformed Roman Cath
something wrong with American psychology
when it fastens a stigma a church that be-
longs to a government This is not war OF
church against church or race against race 1t
church has less to do with state than any other
church in Christendoul