The Record-courier. [volume] (Gardnerville, Nev.) 1904-current, 1924-08-15
REV. FELTEN TELLS OF
STAND OF LUTHERANS
His Church Is Not Opposed
to Mobilization Day and
Can See no Harm in Test
To the Editor:


In your last issue you quoted an
editorial from the Goldfield Tribune
rebuking a certain church federation
for taking a stand against the OBJ
servance of national defense day.
The daily press has also brought to
our attention within the last few
months the resolutions passed by va
rious national conventions of many
denominations against war and for
pacifism. The Federal Council of
Churches has been a consistent agi-.
tator for world court and is work.
ing toward that end with might and
main. The pressure of the churches
is being brought and is to be brought
upon the president and congress to
this end. In other words, the church
is mixing into politics and endeavor-
ing to make its influence strongly
felt in that direction.
Prompted by this allow me to de-
fine the Lutheran position on this
question. The Lutheran church is
strictly opposed to the intermingling
of church and state. The Lutheran
church is not a member of the Fed
eral Council of Churches. 1t has no
lobby in Washington, nor in any
state capitol. 1t believes in strictly
attending to it's own business, the
preaching of the gospel of Christ,
that is, the glad tidings of the grace
of God in Christ Jesus, as the Savior
of sinful man.
AS church, it does not believe in
using its influence in the field of
politics or diplomacy. That is the
field of the State. Therefore, it
takes no part in the present day at
tempts to influence statesmen and
government. "While we Lutherans
deplore war as calamity bringing
much sorrow and woe on mankind,
and while we shall always be seek
ers after peace among the nations
of the world and favor every honor
able and just measure for the pre-
vention of war and the furtherance
of peace, yet we, as a body of Lu-
theran Christians, hold that for us,
as church, to pass upon an act for
the declaration of war would be an
invasion upon the prerogatives be-
longing solely to the state; in other
words, it would be mingling of
church and state"
"The one and only purpose of the
church is the salvation of souls
through the preaching of the gospel
OF Jesus Christ, the Savior of the
world. Let it abide by this biggest
of all tasks, meanwhile exerting its
wholesome influence toward the pro-
motion of civic righteousness and
peace throughout the world and be-
ing ready and willing at all times to
serve God and country"
The quotation is from a resolution
passed by Lutherans in convention
assembled in Chicago. May | add
what the Chicago Tribune, one of the
greatest newspapers in the country
said editorially on this resolution?
Under the heading "Church and
State the Tribune commented as
follows:
AT the pastoral conference of the
Northern Illinois District of the MIS-
souri, Synod of the Lutheran church,
200 ministers, representing 100000
members of the church declared for
the separation of church and state
and resolved that for the church to
pass upon an act for the declaration
of war would be AN invasion of the
sole prerogative of the state
THE ministers affirmed themselves
as ardent seekers after peace, deplor-
ing the consequences of war and de-
string to prevent it. That is un-
questionably true, and the Lutheran
ministers should be applauded for
their conception of church and state
functions. They have recognized the
fact that this nation virtually in its
entirety is opposed to war. Its gov
ernment has been and is. We are
not threatened with militarism, but
with weakness.
Love of peace is ingrained in the
American people. Aversion to war
is its concomitant. That is not the
peculiar quality of any one group or
association of the American people.
They are pledged to peace; and if
they have war, it will be because of
some pressure from which there is
no escape.
Every government we have had
has tried to escape war before it ac-
cepted what it considered the policy
required by forces it could not con-
troll. That is true even of the war
of 1912 and of the Mexican war, the
latter being the one Americans least
try to defend. The force may be in
the instincts of the people, in their
passions, in their normal urgings or
economic pressure, but governments
try to avoid and not to precipitate.
"ln the end the state must decide,
and it has done it and will continue
to do so. The church does not yield
its moral influence when it affirms
it's belief in the constitution of the
country. 1t strengthens that influ-
ence in the field in which it can OPP
crate by withdrawing from the field
in which it should not.
"The position taken by the Lu-
therans is in opposition TO that of
other groups which are now trying
to defeat so simple and unalarming
plan as the general mobilization Of
military resources, September 18th.
Something in the paelfist complex
makes this undemonstrative test of
our military framework the very
work of the devil himself. 1t is