Lutherans in America | Casual Historian 

Interesting how being conservative theologically was once a recipe for marginalization in America. Good video man. I've enjoyed your other stuff on Christianity, which people should check out...wink, wink

I'm finishing my confirmation in the my church which is Lutheran in a month. I would just like to say thank you for expanding my knowledge even more.

I liked the video, but the background music could be turned down a bit

As a Norwegian/Namibian i found this interesting. In Norway we have church elections with different groups advocating for the church to take on different positions.

As a German Lutheran it was very interesting to see you explain how the same denomination developed on the other side of the pond. It is interesting to spot the small differences between Lutheranism in the US and in Germany. The "sola scriptura" thing isn't really present in Lutheran life/services etc. and it`s not actually as conservative as its US American branch seems to be (obviously there are always exceptions).

My father is a Lutheran and my mother is a catholic, so i think it’d be really cool if you could do a side video on the relationship between all the different Christian denominations in the US

I am a recent LCMS convert, the history in book of Concordia and Luthertubers provide a respite and church community for Christians burnt out by Big Box Merican Evanjellysm and their works riteousness

Very enjoyable especially since I spend Fridays & Saturdays editing together my Lutheran church's Sunday service video. Thanks for a good "Why I Video" booster.

Didn't hear much about the WELS here. My dad was a Missouri synod pastor/missionary, and ended up becoming a WELS pastor over the social issues, mainly abortion. This was in the late 80s/early 90s. One of the churches he was the pastor at had a school attached to it, which I attended. We did study what other religions/denominations believed. I can't remember the numbers on it, but a surprisingly large percentage of private christian primary schools are WELS. Great video!

this is a fantastic, well-edited video. I love the maps. you hit all the right points tying together theology and politics. the story at 13:00 is especially interesting, a little window into how America started to split up in the 1960s

Evangelical Quaker here. This is a most fascinating video. I've always been a passionate student of church history, and it's interesting how American cultural shifts affect different denominations in similar ways. The Friends Church also divided along liberal/conservative lines around the same period Lutherans did. I've been binging your videos all day, and I am most impressed with their research quality and logical progression.

Fantastic Video! Thanks for linking your resources.

Slavery in the Bible is not what we know as slavery. It was indentured servitude much more like military service than African American slavery.

An excellent overview of Lutheranism in America. I would be interested in a series that went into more depth about how the various Lutheran denominations of today grew. I am an LCMS Lutheran, and my favorite little known factoid about the LCMS is just how close it came to falling apart before it began, largely because of Martin Stephan. I joke that the LCMS logo should incorporate a rowboat as a reminder of what happens to corrupt bishops.

Could you do a similar video on Catholicism in America?

Hey there, I found your channel about three days ago, and I've got to say I really enjoy the content. I was very pleasantly surprised by a very unexpected reference to "Horus Ruins Christmas" in another video of yours, considering the audience for that channel is so limited. It's great to see another Lutheran RU-vidr out here, especially another LCMS Lutheran! It sure is a small world. Keep up the good work! "Simul Iustus et Peccator."

Wow...sheesh. I had to watch this more than once. And go through your sources. Ty for doing this.

Thank you for the history of the Missouri synod. It left out ELCA ( mostly) ALC , Wisconsin, and the new breakaway groups NALC, LCMC.

good video but the music is too laud.

My great x8 grandfather was Reverend Anthony Jacob Henckel. He came over and settled in Germantown, Pennsylvania. I am in Germany working and just visited his church in Eschelbronn where he was ordained.

I really enjoyed this video! (Thank you Cypher!) As I commented on his video, I was raised (and remain) a Lutheran. I spent my first five years as a Weslyian (which descended from Calvanism), but after my mom remarried, we adopted my step dad's Lutheran beliefs (and boy howdy is there a difference between the two beliefs!). The school I attended was a parochial school run by my church, and it was K-12. We actually had catechism as a scheduled class. After my time in the Navy, I moved here to Eau Claire, WI to attend our college and seminary to become a teacher within our schools, though quickly realized that I didn't want to teach gradeschool or high school. My synod is actually a seperated branch of the Misouri Synod called the Church of the Lutheran Confession (CLC for short). We tend to be very conservative, though apparently there have been talks with the Missouri Synod to re-establish fellowship. Fun stuff. Anyways, I actually have a friend whose great (great?) grandfather was a Norwegian immigrant and Union soldier in the Wisconsin regiment that wrote letters to his sweetheart and later wife during the campaign. She kept every letter and my friend recently translated them and published them in a book (whose title I unfortunately forget at the moment, but will endeavor to remember to put here at a later date when I find it again).

I grew up in a community that was Scandinavian Lutheran, but was raised as a Unitarian. So both of these videos were quite interesting to me.

thanks for increasing my knowledge

Very interesting! You did almost skip over the non-german Lutherans. One other point you might want to consider is Luther's teaching on the two kingdoms. I believe this teaching is another reason Lutherans have not been as involved in politics.

I can not thank you enough for this video because you provided answers to questions I've had for decades - EVEN though I am LCMS! My Mother's father and mother were second and third generation from West Prussia and what was then, The Kingdom of Hanover - which was Saxony. I had no problem with the Prussians because they came over and assimilated into the LCMS (NW Missouri) easily and stayed. But it was the ones from The Kingdom and another German State that joined with one of the first German immigrant churches in the city. This was where I found records but was very confused when I discovered that this congregation was a mixture of Lutheran and Reformed which in the 50s morphed into what is know the United Church of Christ. This was confusing even to my Grandmother who told me she didn't understand as she always knew she was a Lutheran. So I have been trying through internet research to understand this and discovered the roots (as you point out) went back to the German Unification of the Lutheran and Reformed at the time when my ancestors were leaving. I cannot tell you how this video as helped and I will keep it and will add it to my website for future generations. - hopefully to see after I'm gone.

Outside of Europe and North America, the largest numbers of Lutherans can be found in Indonesia, Namibia, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Brazil. Others can be found in China, Japan (Kumamoto and Tokyo area), South Korea, El Salvador, Argentina, and Australia. Largely some are the result of immigration (Brazil, Argentina, Australia), some the result of missionary work (China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, El Salvador, Ethiopia) and some the result of colonization (Namibia, Tanzania). The largest amount of Lutherans in the world is probably in Asia (Indonesia) or Africa (Tanzania) or a close tie.

Good content but is heard to watch because of how distracting the music is! It's too loud and not complementary!

As a Lutheran thanks for giving our church here in the US some history .

Thank you for an engaging history lesson from a fellow Lutheran!

Great video! The Cynical Historian sent me here. Subscribed.

LCMS? We’re all over the Midwest!

You have created a sound description of the origin and history of Lutherans and their idea that Sola Scriptura is their guiding first principle. Thank you!

"Here I stand, I can do no other" One of the all time great quotes

“The Lutheran civil war” loool Great video as always, sincerely from another brother in Christ

Very interesting video earned a sub

Hi! My maternal grandfather was a Lutheran minister, serving churches in farm towns in rural Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois. Grandpa grew up in an area of Minneapolis where Norwegian was commonly spoken, even though great grandpa learned English after immigrating from Norway. Grandma grew up on a farm in southeast North Dakota. Her older sister was confirmed in Norwegian but they switched to English. Norwegians and Germans weren't fully integrated, that my great aunt married into a German family was worth talking about at that time in that place. I'm most familiar with Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota where Lutheran churches, both ELCA and Missouri Synod, are common. I've also lived in Utah which is strongly Latter Day Saints, and Houston which has few Lutherans. I have no experience with Wisconsin Synod but I hear they are even more strict and conservative than LCMS.

As someone raised in an ELCA church, thank you.

Well done, thanks.

2:04 - The movie "Luther"! I adore that movie!

Please we need more Lutherans in Minnesota and the Dakotas

Thank you for this! Much better than my attempt at self-educating through google.

I had to stop the video half way through. The music was stopping me from picking up the information.

I have that same book! My church tried to tell me that we needed to be creationist to get into heaven tho so I slipped away into something less strict

I live in North Dakota and most people here are Lutherans. There is a lot of them in my town but there is a lot of Catholics here too. And I have a lot family that are Catholics and Lutherans. I really liked your video.

I'm a Conservative Lutheran American. I'm a teenager, and I take my religion seriously. My ancestry is in fact from Germany. I don't know where exactly in Germany, but my family came over in the late 1800s during the early German Empire era. You deserve a like though. Also, my family favors Republican standards, I am one not to favor political parties as George Washington stated in his farewell address. Though, I do infact believe there are more good Republicans than bad Republicans. So, that's why I say I'm a Conservative Lutheran.

As a new lutheran convert this was really interesting thank you

Thank for your posts. I teach Ancient Antiochene (Lutheran) Christianity online and enjoy being able to share the true Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Love this video. I'm a devout Catholic myself, but had a Lutheran mother, and living in the Midwest, there were a lot of Lutherans, and I'd argue they did have more of an impact here than other parts of the United States, though it still pales in comparison even compared to Evangelicals, who've become more common here. My main question is, do you think that Lutherans might ever gain more political traction? I know that the Evangelical Lutheran Church is more centrist or liberal and the Missouri Synod is quite conservative, so might either gain influence in their respective political camps? One last thing, you have said that Catholics were a more reliable voter demographic in the past and even today they just barely favor democrats. However, this changes when you look at white Catholics who are now mostly Republican, and it also changes among more devout Catholics. Does this occur among Lutherans or does it depend on the denomination they belong in?

If/when you are working on a video about the reformation, please tell me. I am willing to help you. Born Catholic in Belgium, I converted to Protestantism (Unified here, but mostly Calvinist), and recently moved to the Boston area

The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod published a new edition of its hymnal in 1941. Among other changes, it took the hymn "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken" and put it to a different tune than "Deutschland Uber Alles". The old tune made its reappearance in the 1982 edition of the hymnal, under the designation "Austria".

Enjoyed this... One quibble: I didn't find the chosen music particularly conducive to following the narrative. (Ok, one more quibble: Ever since I was a kid, I've heard the word "ecumenism" pronounced with the stress accent on the second syllable, "-cu-", while "ecumenical" is pronounced with the accent on the third syllable, "-men-". There, no more quibbles.)

I literally have no idea why Im Lutheran. Im Serbian, so you'd think id be Orthodox, but I live in America and went to Catholic church when I was really young, but I also speak a good bit of German nd yeah Im Lutheran...

Where in the Bible does it teach “Solo Scriptura”? Didn’t Luther base his entire movement on an intellectual and spiritual paradox? This video was well done!

I do NOT wish to be critical, because your video and info were very good; but being older with hearing problems, I found the constant music in the background was distracting, and at times detrimental to properly hearing you. Thanks for all of the research and info......very very informative!

Great video. The pronunciation of a couple of words didn't sound right to me. You might wish to check them out: e-CU-men-ism, Jacob Preuss is pronounced, a la German, PROYSS. The ELCA is and one of its predecessor bodies, the LCA, were the "...Lutheran Church IN America," not "... OF America." When you think about it, that distinction makes perfectly good sense. Keep up the good work.

I became lcms after looking into what the Bible said in contrast to what I believed and am now in the lcms tradition.

I am glad I found your channel when I was over Cynical Historian sight. I like his channel also.

As far as it goes, this is a pretty decent look at the Lutheran church. The only problem I have is how you blew over the attacks it incurred during both WW1 & WW2. It didn’t become tabu... It was attacked and in many states made virtually illegal. States shut down Lutheran. Colleges and schools across this nation. Not to mention the assaults on beer and wine making. Compare what happened in Missouri to what happened to the Italian wineries in California.

Do you have a Missouri Synod background? Your characterization of Lutheranism seems more in line with that. The earliest Lutheran synod in the US was in Pennsylvania, and it was actually started it the 18th century by Henry Muhlenberg, who was a pietist preacher. He also supported the revolutionary war effort, while at the same time defending the rights of German Americans. Pietists were unusual among Lutherans because they were much more interested in social reform, and they had alot of influence among Scandinavian Lutherans as well.

You piqued my interest talking about the Concordia militiamen, do you know where I can learn more about them?

I had a small/ thin book of khatechism when I was in college, a simple manual, very strong influence in the development of my faith

Important to note, the ELCA is not considered confessional Lutherans. They rejected Sola Scriptura, probably why they are shrinking.

The music is too loud and detracts from the text.

I enjoy & learn a lot from your videos, thank you. As an ex-Catholic who struggled/fought my way out of "Rome", Martin Luther is a hero to me, & I pray dementia is the reason for his anti-Semitic writings late in life. Can you tell me, how much, if any, influence did Wycliffe have on Luther? Please do a reformation video, I will support by shopping in the links. Again, thank you!

What is the song in the start of the video?

I am a descendent of Conrad waltman...in the 18th century Conrad moved his family from Germany to penselvana in time for the revolutionary war. In Philadelphia they called him that crazy old German...but they also called him the father of the revolution. Conrad was the descendent of gorg von frundsberg who crossed the alps in November of 1526 with the intent to hang the Pope with a golden rope, he was a great general and a Lutheran. His army went on to sack Rome in 1527.

Lutheran unites !

Egypt in Military Leadership being Fire and its Mirror said: "When I eat Bruno I will be able to receive the grocery list to usurp my former demon Diego with me Angelica"

Thank you. I'm LCMS, just saying. God's peace

Praise the Lord🙏🙏🙏 my name is pastor mariyananadam from India 🙏🙏🙏🙌🙌🙌🤝🤝🤝Good massage🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

What was that book of the Bible you mentioned? Never heard of it before

I came here to learn about Lutherans in America, but after five minutes of your background music it seemed more advisable to drop some acid I had left over from the 70's and trip on how you say "Missouri Synod", dude...

What exactly is in the Deutero Canon that would effect one's views on Purgatory? Most Baptists are not proper Calvansits anymore, especially Independent Baptists.

Did Joseph Luther write any books?

My ancestors (the Martin's 😉) came from Saxony and settled in southern Illinois, close to Missouri

Being raised a Luther, and ALL YOU SAID ABOUT THE cHURCH IS TRUE. I personally have left the church, because of many doctrines. I consider myself today as a , MESSIANIC JEW. I found the LUTHERAN CHURCH had lied so much, and then when they began booting people out of taking COMMUNION, because the church felt you owed more money. needly's to say I never raised my children near a LUTHERANCHURCH.

Came here from the Cynical Historian; thx for the dialog! (Edit: oof! the music is too loud... it's really ok to not include a soundtrack LOL) We are men of philosophy; musical fillers do not become us. :-)

Where in the Bible does it teach “Solo Scriptura”? Didn’t Luther base his entire movement on an intellectual and spiritual paradox?

Good content. The soundtrack was annoying. I'd prefer slower pacing but, hey, you can't have it all!

You forgot to put that link in there

It's a good video, but the music is really irritating and inappropriate.

Re LCMS history, read Authority Vested by Mary Todd.

It's interesting to see the Catholic position evolve to "Prima"s rather than "Sola"s.

Very interesting,my great grand parents came over in 1850's and Firm belief in both Luther and Lutherism.German was spoken..the Loss of these traditions as well as alter Sacraments termed rituals today,if a poll would be taken today,with tradition removed u have a anglo Saxon congregation..The loss of the body since EVS shows a decline.church don't resemble church's alters look like aquarium stands.The word the refection and foundation crumbling Stand firm in tradition my Brother,Glory to Christ Jesus.

I believe Lutherans are one of the denominations that uphold the first 4 Ecumenical Councils but not the last 3. I've always been curios about the logic of that decision. I get wanting to uphold them all, and I certainly get not caring about any of them which is my attitude. But what is the reasoning of the denominations that decided to say the Fifth council is the first one to be invalid?

As a Jew, I can’t say I admire Luther. But this was a very interesting video.

Great video. I grew up Missouri synod, but half the family split to Evangelical Lutheran(oddly the liberal branch). The half that stayed Missouri thinks people rode dinosaurs. ELCA doesn't talk about the subject. I expect them to last longer

Great video. Where I am from it is mostly catholic and Jewish (my family is a mix of these two as well) so I struggle to understand Protestantism so I am grateful for this video!

Decent enough video but as others have noted, please tone the back music down.

I'm surprised that you say that during the Revolutionary War, Lutherans tended to support the British. I know that Henry Mulhenberg was a Lutheran pastor during the war and served as a Colonel in the Continental Army. He also happened to be the first Speaker of the House under the Constitution. Also, another prominent Lutheran, John Anderson was the president of the Continental Congress. I am not aware of any prominent Lutherans who supported the British.

Sorry, I had to give up on this interesting video because of the intrusive background music.

Why do you say Philemon so odd I’ve never heard it said that way

“It’s the People’s work!”

holy shit, almost 40 years of living and researching various religions and i come across one I've never heard before?! Sorry, it isn't Lutheran, i did my research and dabbling with that as a kid in Texas.

"Catholicism without the Pope"

As a Lutheran in the United States, and like you a member of a congregation of the LCMS, I have also pondered why we are so often marginal figures. By no means would I want to summarize the complex story in a seventeen minute video, which you have done. And I have to admit that there are many things good in your video. That said, there are things where I disagree. First of all, as I think Hermann Sasse pointed out once, for the Germanic people who dominated European religion, the Old-time religion would be the Norse Gods - or after that Arian Christianity - and not the Nicene faith that Lutheranism is. Yes, in many ways we are conservative - and in ways that can be perplexing to our neighbors. We need to explain what we mean by conservative before it can really be that useful of an explanation. I think that is doubly so for our Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. We are in so many ways a conservative, traditional body. But when you look at most of the Nineteenth Century conflicts that formed us, it was Missouri that was speaking out about finding something new in our historical confessions of faith that had been glossed over by Lutherans over the centuries. First of all, the rebirth of Orthodox thought after Pietism was weighed and found wanting - a perspective not welcomed by the Saxon state church that caused the leaders to come over. And then Walther’s discovery of how Congregations have the authority to call their own leaders - even without a central authority. And most visibly in the Predestination controversy where Walther saw that we should give the honor to Christ even in our whole life in Christ. Christ is not limited to act only in those who he sees will be receptive to the message. Instead, it is the message that does it - in ways that cannot be limited by our understanding of logic. In all of these things Walther’s Missouri is uncovering the truths often buried in our heritage. To look to the past like this is indeed conservative. But it is also a rejection of some other views of what it is to be conservative. You try to do that. But I disagree with your understanding of the Heart of Lutheranism. “If a church practice or doctrine cannot be backed up by Scripture then Martin Luther believes that it should not be practiced or taught.” I think you are missing a distinction that Luther and Lutheranism has tried to consistently make between doctrine - which must be scriptural - and practice - which, while it must reflect the doctrine given in the bible does vary from place to place and over time. And so unlike the Swiss Reformation which started with eating sausages in Lent, the Lutheran one started with Luther claiming that Jesus’ direction to “Repent” is not something that can be domesticated by the medieval penitential system, but rather that the whole life of believers should be repentance-It is a whole new life we are brought into! A current demonstration of this distinction is the current LCMS, whose constitution in Article III speaks of “Conserve and promote unity of the true faith” (3.1), but only to “strive for uniformity in church practice, but also to develop an appreciation of a variety of responsible practices and customs…” (3.7) With the Peasant revolts, I think a good place to see the consistency of this in Luther’s thought is to look at how Luther wanted the reformation changes in the “Invocavit” Sermons. “In short, I will preach it, teach it, write it, but I will constrain no one by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept [cf. Mark 4:26-29], or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip and Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.” (Luther, M. (2012). Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, Third Edition, pp. 293-294). In Luther’s eyes, the Peasant revolt was forcefully changing an economic system when the details of an economic system goes beyond what Scripture has given us. I have no problems with your summary of Lutheran views in the Revolutionary War. But with regards to the Civil War era, it goes against most of the studies I have seen which have shown that the more Pietistic and Americanized Lutherans tended to be Republicans, while the more Confessional Lutherans tended to be Democrats. The explanation that I heard that makes the most sense to me is that the early Republican party had some serious Nativist “Know-nothing” roots which made the recent immigrants who often spoke the language of the old country quite uncomfortable. That said, there were serious efforts made by Republican leaders to court the German and Scandinavian vote. With regards to Lutheran bodies taking a position on slavery, the “Frankean Synod” is probably a good exception that proves the rule. There acceptance into the General Synod in 1864 with a strong anti-slavery but weak confessional views was a major part of the largest member of the General Synod (Pennsylvania) leaving the body. With regards to the Lutheran Civil War of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, I think we differ. You see it as clearly decided. I, on the other hand, lament that instead of taking the time to come to some formula of concord, condemning the excesses of both sides, it seems to have been fought using the weapons of political, structural power on one hand, and of modern Public Relations on the other. Having known men who fought on both sides of it, I have not yet heard either side really speak of the theology of their opponents in a way that would be recognizable to the other. And since we have not done this, the fight has not been clarified but rather has turned into something in the background.

I've always viewed Lutheranism as Catholicism Lite.

Grew up and was confirmed Lutheran. Eventually Sola Scriptura has to many problems for me. Somethings I do miss, especially some of the sacraments respect you don’t get elsewhere. Thanks for making this

Well done! Thanks for bringing things back to Scripture. However, Calvin and Luther were not exactly rivals. Their correspondence is quite cordial and efforts were made by Calvin to harmonize Zwingli and Luther on the issue of communion, which failed miserably.

Luther was not the first reformer. There was John Huss a century before him, there was Wycliff a century before Huss. There was Savonarola in Italy There were the Anabaptist, the Orthodox churches, the Waldenses and many, many others. The reason why the Protestant movement took off when it did was not just because of Luther, it was because of Johannes Gutenberg and the printing press. The Catholic Church tried to prevent people from reading bibles and they even put them on an index of forbidden books. There were few bibles and they could take years to make just one copy. But once the printing press was invented, people could read and study the bible for themselves. Luther translated the bible into German and English language bibles began to be printed and distributed. Once people read the bibles they could see the discrepancies of what the Roman Catholic Church taught and what the bible taught. As an ex-Catholic, I learned all about those hundreds of discrepancies and man made traditions that were taught instead of the word of God.