In the 1992 U. S. presidential election, James Carvill, a strategist for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, coined three messages to keep the campaign focused. Though originally intended for internal use, one of the three became a widely recognized slogan during Clinton’s successful run against George H. W. Bush: “It’s the economy, stupid.”[1]
In the context of two rogue online seminaries appealing to people of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod for support and students, we don’t need Carville’s impolite language of “stupid,” but we do need to gain more focus: “It’s the doctrine, friends.”
It’s the doctrine, friends, because:
- The rebellion and moral theft of Concordia University Texas first by rogue regents (regents legitimately chosen who later went rogue) and then by imposter regents (regents not legitimately chosen in the first place and hence imposters) at bottom are about doctrine.
- The rogue seminaries would begin where CTX is ending. More on this shortly.
Just as Carville had three core messages, to be effective, so should we, but so far, we have been focused only on two:
- Rebellion – How the actions of the President, Provost, and Regents violated the Fourth Commandment.
- Moral Theft – How the actions of the President, Provost, and Regents violated the Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Commandments.
Those are very important messages, and I have lent a great deal of my commentary on the CTX case to them. By no means should they be omitted or even diminished. But we have never gained the focus we should have on:
- Doctrine – How the actions of the President, Provost, and Regents at bottom are for the purpose of defecting from the doctrine of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. In other words, how they violate the Third Commandment about the Word of God.
This has been touched upon, but lightly, and without the central focus it deserves. Let’s look at it.
A majority of the board of regents of the university, under the leadership and influence of the board chairman, the university president, and the university provost who now is the president, threw off the control and ownership of the university by the LCMS on November 8, 2022. Without authority, they amended the university’s governing documents (articles of incorporation, bylaws, policy manual, and such); denied any control of the Synod’s school by the Synod (rebellion message); denied the right of the Synod to elect and appoint members to the board of regents (rebellion message); denied the right of the Synod to govern the selection of the president (rebellion message); and denied the Synod’s ownership rights in the campus and property of the university (theft message). These aspects were well assimilated by the delegates to the Synod in convention in 2023. That is why the convention voted overwhelmingly for Resolution 7-03.
Less well understood, I believe, was that the rebellion and theft were means to an end, not the end itself. Rebellion and theft were tactical methods for achieving a mission objective: a change of doctrine. Consider the amendments themselves. As amended, the articles of incorporation of CTX now say:
Article II, Purposes: “[T]he corporation is dedicated to the support and maintenance of an educational institution of higher learning that is aligned with, but not subject to the authority of or governance by, The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod.”
Article V, Board: “All determinations regarding the university’s alignment with the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod, including but not limited to, the university’s subscription and adherence to the Confession of the LCMS as currently outlined in Article II of the LCMS Constitution, and qualifications for board members and the presidency, will be subject to and determined by the sole and exclusive discretion of the Board of Regents.”
In many of the statements by CTX and its supporters, they appealed to LCMS people for support by suggesting that they are loyal to LCMS doctrine. They used weasel words like remaining “aligned with” the synod or “aligned with” LCMS doctrine and practice. What they hid from public view was that in the amendments themselves, “aligned with” means, “aligned with, but not subject to” as quoted above. Instead, all determinations about what “alignment with” means are to be determined solely by the regents. No longer does the Synod have anything to say about whether its own university’s doctrine “aligns with” the Synod’s doctrine.
Never mind the organizational independence of a child organization from its parent organization (rebellion message) and the property independence (theft message), this is doctrinal independence: defection or apostasy.
CTX was created over time by the people, congregations, and organization of the Synod. Then it took some 20 years from Dr. Kristi Kirk’s dissertation for the imposter regents to achieve doctrinal autonomy by means of rebellion and theft.
Now consider the two new seminaries of (1) The Center for Missional & Pastoral Leadership and (2) Luther House of Study / Kairos University / Unite Leadership Collective. These never have been synodical agencies or entities subject to the ecclesiastical supervision of the Synod like CTX. They already have the organizational and property independence from the Synod that CTX acquired by a 20-year process. As to organization and property, they start where CTX is ending. Their independence is native to them.
And that is what makes this more slippery. Neither CMPL or LHS/KU/ULC has rebelled or stolen from the LCMS. They start with their organizational and property independence. They never were child organizations of the LCMS as their parent. They never held property as stewards of the Synod to do the Synod’s work. Since they have no sin of rebellion or theft like CTX does, we don’t even see the doctrinal problem, the third issue, which should be the first issue. We have been seeing the situation like this:
I. Organizational Rebellion
II. Property TheftWe ought to see the structure of the three issues like this:
I. Doctrinal Defection
A. Organizational Rebellion
B. Property Theft
The problem is: With CTX, organizational and property independence are means to doctrinal autonomy, and these new seminaries already have doctrinal autonomy as the concomitant of their native organizational and property independence.
If these seminaries are supposed to be so good for pastoral formation for LCMS pastors, then why shouldn’t: (A) the professors be members of or accredited by the Missouri Synod; and (B) the seminaries be amenable to the ecclesiastical oversight of the Synod? How, without these guardrails, can one be assured of doctrinal fidelity to Scripture, the Book of Concord, and the Brief Statement of the Doctrinal Position of the Missouri Synod?
These seminaries cannot, by definition, defect from the Missouri Synod since they are outside of the Synod and never were part of it. But if elements of the doctrine they teach are alien to our Synod and were to be injected into the Synod by them from the outside, what would be wrong with the term infiltration? They would be infiltrating, and we would be defecting.
Who are the professors? What are the courses? What courses are missing? What are the course syllabi? Do they even have syllabi to compare with, for example, Robert Preus’ Syllabus for Course S-861 on the Atonement? What doctrine is being taught? What doctrinal elements are omitted? What are the required texts and reading materials? What texts and reading materials that should be part of a proper Lutheran seminary education are missing? What ecclesiastical oversight of any of this will the Synod have?
Doctrine is important. Jesus likens it to bread and still makes it more important than bread.
“How is it you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? –but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Matt 16:22-12 (NKJV)
We are not talking about bread – not about just property and organizational control. We are talking about doctrine. “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4, Deuteronomy 8:3 (NKJV) “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” Acts 2:42 (NKJV) That right there in Acts is synod: walking together. Let’s be careful to do that. True enough, seminaries were not instituted by Christ or the Apostles in Scripture, but continuing steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine was given for us to do. “Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 3 (NKJV) The connection between walking together, continuing in the apostles’ doctrine, and continuing with proper seminaries is obvious.
[1] “It’s the Economy, Stupid,” Political Dictionary, accessed May 14, 2025, https://politicaldictionary.com/words/its-the-economy-stupid/. See also, The War Room, directed by D. A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus (1993; Criterion Collection, 2020), DVD. See brief excerpt here: “It’s the Economy, Stupid!” | James Carville
