LCMS to close one- or both- of its seminaries?
Apparently there is a movement in the upper reaches of the LCMS anti-magisterium to sell one or both of the seminaries and go with a "divinity school model" at the Synod's undergraduate institutions.
This would be, of course, a great way for the Synod save money- and at the same time get rid of that pesky hotbed of Lutheranism in Fort Wayne. For that matter, by abolishing seminary faculties, it becomes an easy matter to downplay all this theology nonsense and facilitate the real mission of the Church: as Body of Christ, Inc. (c)
As a commenter on the blog to which this post links observed, the irony is that one of the original purposes of the Missouri Synod was to serve as a means of funding those very seminaries.
When I was a student at River For... er, Concordia University- Chicago, we did a satirical piece in the April Fool's edition of The Spectator proposing that the college- which was in the process of closing down its psychological counseling service for financial reasons- go the whole way and abolish the student body as a cost-saving measure. We pointed out that the College of Cardinals and the Electoral College, to name only two such institutions, function quite well without student bodies, and that Concordia College might well follow their example.
President Kieschnick, in case you or someone in the Purple Palace got this idea while browsing through the morgue in the Spectator office... we were kidding. And make no mistake: the idea of saving money for the Synod by closing the seminaries makes exactly as much sense as saving money for Concordia College by abolishing the student body. Both would matters of putting the cart before the horse, and defeating the whole purpose for which the institution seeking to economize exists in the first place.
This would be, of course, a great way for the Synod save money- and at the same time get rid of that pesky hotbed of Lutheranism in Fort Wayne. For that matter, by abolishing seminary faculties, it becomes an easy matter to downplay all this theology nonsense and facilitate the real mission of the Church: as Body of Christ, Inc. (c)
As a commenter on the blog to which this post links observed, the irony is that one of the original purposes of the Missouri Synod was to serve as a means of funding those very seminaries.
When I was a student at River For... er, Concordia University- Chicago, we did a satirical piece in the April Fool's edition of The Spectator proposing that the college- which was in the process of closing down its psychological counseling service for financial reasons- go the whole way and abolish the student body as a cost-saving measure. We pointed out that the College of Cardinals and the Electoral College, to name only two such institutions, function quite well without student bodies, and that Concordia College might well follow their example.
President Kieschnick, in case you or someone in the Purple Palace got this idea while browsing through the morgue in the Spectator office... we were kidding. And make no mistake: the idea of saving money for the Synod by closing the seminaries makes exactly as much sense as saving money for Concordia College by abolishing the student body. Both would matters of putting the cart before the horse, and defeating the whole purpose for which the institution seeking to economize exists in the first place.
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