Little Falls herald., 1922-05-19
l|hllll!clRl N I | | ] ! ] | FOR |
Re ELIGIlI !.
e T Founders Of lutheran Missouri.
Synod Came to America q
Gain Religious Freedom. 4
LEFT MATERIAL ADVANTAGES


band ct faithful men and women came
to our shore to found q relig igious coun-
try, OF: the Lutheran. Sspersuasion, id
America and became instrumental ii
founding the Evangelical Lutheran Syn
cd Of Missouri, Ohio and other states.
This body is celebrating the seventy
NTH anniversary Of its organization
during the present year. The organiza-
tion was effected at Chicago on Mon
day, April 26, 1847. , =, = - e..
The causes back Of this emigration
must be understood from conditions
prevailing in the homeland of these
emigrants. It was not, as usual, the
pressure Of unfavorable economic con-
dftions in overpopulated Germany that
induced them to leave the fatherland
and seek q new home and better living
conditions in America. The emigrants
who ten years after their landing in
st. Louis took the lead in organizing
the Missouri Synod, did not come to
America as beggars. Many quilted
their homeland at considerable sacri-
flee of material advantages. Their
party consisted not only of Saxon
weavers and stocking makers, but
there were among them merchants,
men of the medical profession; jurists,
officers of the civil government, paint
ers, etc. These people could hope for
very little material advantages in the
new country In which they came to
settle. Their reason for coming to
America was an entirely ideal, or
spiritual, one. They were looking for
a home for their religious convictions,
where they could, without hindrance
from the government, worship God ac-
cording to the dictates Of their con-
science and propagate their faith.
German Religious Intolerance
They were not allowed to do this In
their home country. Already long be-
fore the emigration scheme was ma
tured among their leaders they had
suffered considerable because Of their
religious convictions. They hailed from
parts Of Germany in which, owing to
the rayages Of pietism and rational
ism, Lutheran confessional fidelity had
become rare thing. In 1917 the then
Prussian king, Frederick III, issued a
union-edict. by which: the amalgama-
tion Of the two parts Of the Protestant
Church, the Lutheran and the Reform
ed, was to be effected, Prior to- that
time these two parties had existed: as
separate" bodies, maintaining their
separate confession, churches and re:
ligious activities. The edict Of Fred
erick III. was unquestionably part Of
the Prussian governments scheme for
the Capitalization Of power. It wrought
a good deal Of havoc throughout Ger
many, where church and state were
not separate as in the United States.
Most Of the other German countries
initiated the policy Of the Prussian
king and issued similar union -edicts.
But even in countries Ike Saxony,
where this was not done, the union
tendency was the dominant tendency
in state and church. As a result, both
Lutherans and Reformed who still ad-
hered to their confessional principles,
but mostly the former, had to suffer a
great deal from the intolerant govern
ments. Permission for organizing a
Free Church, Independent. .of state con-
troll, could not be obtained, although
many attempts to get such a ,permis-
sion were made.