The slightly Lutheran congresswoman
When reports started circulating that Republican
presidential contender Michele Bachmann was a member of a congregation in the
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, I thought: this could be interesting.
The WELS is a small (400,000-member) denomination known
for its rigid confessionalism--a description that is not just mine but one used
by most other Lutherans. (See Lutheran Churches in the World, produced by the Lutheran
World Federation.) WELS adheres to a strict interpretation of the Lutheran
confessions of faith that were written in the 16th century, and its
rigidity is such that it broke off relations with the conservative Lutheran
Church--Missouri Synod in the 1960s and refuses cooperation with church bodies
other than those with which it is in total theological agreement. I don't think
there are any. (CORRECTION: That isn't strictly accurate: the WELS is in fellowship with one other church body in the U.S.--the tiny (40,000-member) Evangelical Lutheran Synod--as well as with some Lutheran groups abroad. --DH)
Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to have a
presidential candidate who is a conservative Christian not as in "conservative
evangelical" but as in conservative, creedal, sacramental, confessional
Lutheran. How would her Lutheran understanding of the two kingdoms, and of law
and gospel, shape her politics?
