Preus' Purge

The Rev. Jacob A.O. Preus is a classics scholar who takes his Bible straight. He accepts literally the story of the creation-in Genesis, insists that Adam and Eve were historical figures and believes that Noah's flood covered the entire globe since Genesis says so. Because of Jesus' reference to the story of Jonah's sojourn in "a great fish," Preus accepts the tale as fact.

All this might be treated as one man's opinion were not Jack Preus also president of the 2.8 million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. For six years, mustering a solid majority of conservatives in his church, Preus has been increasingly successful in making such scriptural fundamentalism (TIME cover, Dec. 30) the single acceptable norm for the church's clergy. Last week, at the denomination's biennial convention in Anaheim, Calif, he won another victory. The delegates voted to give him the power to depose a group of dissident leaders: eight of the church's 35 U.S. district presidents, who are the rough equivalent of bishops.

Preus has had to buck a strong religious trend. Most mainstream U.S. Protestants--and even many Roman Catholics--nowadays tolerate a wide diversity of theological opinion, and until Preus' election in 1969, the Missouri

Synod seemed to be moving slowly in the same direction. Attempting to tighten discipline and doctrine on what he saw as a drifting ship, Preus cracked down. His main targets were faculty members of the denomination's major academic arm, Concordia Seminary of St. Louis. These teachers, who in the ensuing debate styled themselves moderates, take a less rigid view of the Bible, accepting modern interpretation that explains the story of Adam and Eve, for instance, less as history than myth. In 1974 Preus won the ouster of the seminary's president, the Rev. John H. Tietjen, on charges of fostering "false doctrine." Supporting Tietjen, the majority of Concordia's faculty and students walked out, starting a rival seminary in exile (Seminex), also in St. Louis.

Vacant Posts. A year ago, Seminex graduated its first 126 students. Challenging orders from headquarters, a number of district presidents found jobs for some of the graduates, and eight presidents even ordained them. In distress, the church's Council of Presidents turned to the Anaheim convention. By a vote of 626 to 466, the delegates passed a resolution ordering district presidents to require the endorsement of an official seminary before certifying candidates for ordination. Any president who does not do so must resign or have his office declared vacant.

Even if Preus declares the eight posts vacant, at least seven of the presidents are expected to be defiantly re-elected by their districts. Whether the confrontation will compel the moderates actually to break with the official church--or how such a rupture would come about--remains to be seen. Evangelical Lutherans in Mission, an organization of moderates that the convention declared "schismatic," will meet next month to discuss what to do.

If a split does occur, it is uncertain how many would leave the Missouri Synod. Tietjen predicts that more than 1,500 congregations will depart. Others put the figure much lower, at a maximum of 500 congregations encompassing some 250,000 members. Whatever happens, the moderates themselves reject the word schism.

"It isn't a schism; it's a purge," argues the Rev. Richard Neuhaus, Brooklyn pastor, author and political activist. "Preus won't let us stay in and believe and practice what we have for 20 years. We are not pulling out; we are being forced out."

*So do many other Americans. Last week marked the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the famous Scopes "monkey trial," in which Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan debated the merits of the theory of evolution. "Creationists" who still oppose teaching the theory have been trying to get it expunged from school science texts.

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