This is a preview of a 2015 documentary about a divide in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in the 1970’s.
Order a DVD of the full, 42 minute SEMINEX documentary today for $19. Our Indigogo campaign to raise funds for our next documentary, God’s Glory, Neighbor’s Good: The Story of Pietism ended on March 10, 2015. However, you can send me a check directly at:
Tim Frakes Productions Inc.
2 South Park Ave
Suite 2C
Lombard, Illinois 60148
and I will personally ship you a DVD.
On February 19, 1974, students and faculty at the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod’s St. Louis Concordia Theological Seminary marched through the campus – out the doors of an institution, church body and well established educational system – and into self-described exile.
This story begins in the 19th Century when a new method of Biblical interpretation known as the “historical-critical method”, tore many Protestant churches apart.
Were Adam and Eve real people? Was Jonah actually swallowed by a fish? Or, did ancient authors reflect their own historical situation when addressing the people of their time and place?
For Missouri Synod Lutherans, the full impact of these theological debates and culturally conservative verses more modern world views came to a head decades after other church bodies had divided and drifted apart.
The debate ruptured the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod at a time of vast American cultural and social upheaval: Viet Nam, the Civil Rights movement and Watergate. For many students, faculty, administrators and Lutherans throughout North America, the events in St. Louis took a personal toll. The walkout would divide families, split congregations and have a lasting impact on the future of the church.
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