"America's Martin Luther" Lectures on Communism and Socialism

In my previous post, entitled EU President: 2009 to be First Year of Global Governance, I made much of the progress of Socialism, particularly the fact that the upcoming climate conference in Copenhagen is intended to result in a legally-binding agreement among nations – a treaty which will (1) produce a new government with (2) enforcement powers, the intention of which is to (3) distribute wealth worldwide using a measure of each nation's CO2 output as the basis, that is, on the basis of factors directly related to each nation's economic activity (production and transportation of goods and services). This treaty, in setting up a “distributor of wealth” in the interest of supporting an equal “right of sustainable development” for all people and nations, sets up, in effect, a worldwide Socialist government, to economically equalize the world under the guise of a now defunct “Climate Crisis." The key is to recognize the essential function of “government” under this treaty -- to evenly distribute limited resources to all affinity groups. The only rulers in a Socialist society are the “distributors.”

Some commented to me privately on my last post, asking, What's wrong with Socialism? Indeed, I heard through my (rather disgusted) Pastor last Fall, before the 2008 Presidential election in November, that a number of our Canadian pastors were indifferent to the prospect of a Marxist president, reportedly suggesting that A little Socialism would be good for America.

Perhaps we Lutherans pride ourselves a little too much in holding religiously sterile political perspectives! True, in the Kingdom of the Left, Natural Law considerations will predominate, but the notion that this somehow precludes any consideration of religiously influenced convictions is nonsense. In the case of Socialism, Natural Law arguments against it are overwhelming, but religious arguments against it are also warranted, as Socialism overtly militates against Creedal distinctions, against the institution of Family and Marriage (all resources, including family, belong to the community), and against several other positive doctrines of Scripture, such as respect for personal property, the distinctions between classes of people (like husband and wife, parent and child, employer and employee, magistrate and citizen, rich and poor), or the fact that misery in this world is caused by sin, not by relative possession or position, and it's cure is to be found outside of man's effort. But I am not about to argue this. On the contrary, Dr. Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther is.

Dr. C.F.W. Walther, still referred to by some as “America's Martin Luther,” was a 19th Century Lutheran theologian who emigrated from Saxony in 1838 with a group of laymen and pastors, lead by Martin Stephan, for reasons of religious conscience. Late 17th-Century Pietism having eviscerated Lutheranism in Germany, the Enlightenment which followed (c. 1750) nearly wiped Lutheran orthodoxy completely out, Valentin Ernst Loescher, the last of the Lutheran theologians from the Lutheran Age of Orthodoxy, having died in 1749. A remnant remained, but when the Prussian Union (1817 & 1830) forced a merger of what was left of the Lutheran Church in Germany with the Reformed Church, true Lutherans were rousted out of Germany. The Stephanites were among them, settling in Perry County Missouri, and later under Walther's leadership, forming the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod in 1848. Walther, being convinced that only Lutheran theology clearly taught the unalloyed doctrines of Scripture, was an ardent proponent of Orthodox Lutheranism and Confessional Unity, and highly influential among Lutherans in America.

The second half of the 19th Century saw the appearance of solidarity movements among the laboring classes in America, giving rise to labor-unions. While a compelling case can always be made for the need of laborers to have their interests fairly represented and defended, the activities of labor-unions of the 19th Century were largely orchestrated by European socialists eager to use unfavorable working conditions as a pretext for establishing schools of communism and socialism among the laboring classes. The thought seems to have been to exploit envy against employers and the political establishment, and under the pretense of “equal happiness through common resources,” use the angst and power of united labor to force them to resign ownership and control of their own property. We don't hear much today about a religious case for it, but since so much of Communism and Socialism flies in the face of basic Scripture teaching, some sort of case has always been necessary in order to route Christian suspicions -- at least temporarily. Such a case has long existed, a rather flimsy case which is largely a gross mis-use of the Scriptures.

As a result, many of the German Lutherans in late 19th Century America, especially those in municipal areas who had access to the periodicals of the labor-unions which directly preached the virtues of Socialism in various ways, were thrown into confusion. In St. Louis, Dr. Walther acted by giving a series of four lectures on Communism and Socialism, concluding, No reasonable man, much less a Christian, can or should take part in the efforts of Communists and Socialists. Typical of classic Lutheran polemic, he is delightfully direct and forceful, offering definitive conclusions on the basis of both Natural Law and Scripture doctrine, where applicable.

This series of lectures is preserved for us in English under the title, Communism and Socialism: Minutes of the First German Evangelical Lutheran Congregation, U.A.C. at St. Louis, Missouri, yet is available nowhere today – neither in print, nor out of print, nor have I found it anywhere on the internet. When I found out about this work many years ago, I searched for years, finally finding an old 1947 reprint. I offer it here, one lecture a day, over the next four days, in hopes that the reader may find it an edifying and welcome change from the notion that political ideals are to be completely divorced from religious convictions.

"America's Martin Luther" Lectures on Communism and Socialism (Contents and Prefaces) -->