Werning Condemns Schulz and Copies 40 LCMS Officials
By Rev. Jack Cascione

 

On July 1, 2002, Reverend Doctor Waldo Werning sent a seven-page letter to Dr. Wallace Schulz condemning Schulz's ruling in the Benke Case. He also copied the LCMS Praesidium and the thirty-five-member Council of District Presidents.

Werning also sent another 2-page letter to all of the above and a four-page addendum condemning, "That We May Be One."

Reclaim News is now going to quote the first three paragraphs of Werning's letter condemning Wallace Schulz as follows:

Dear Brother in Christ - Vice President Schulz:

Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

As a LCMS member who is strongly committed to the Word of God and to the doctrine and practice of the LCMS as resolved in its Conventions and in theological statements of fellowship, and as one who is negatively affected, like all other members of the Synod, when improper actions are taken by Synodical officials, I am writing this letter to you to protest your action in suspending Atlantic District President David Benke. I am providing evidence for my protest.

I am grieved and saddened by the harm done to Dr. Benke and the members and congregations of the Synod by this faulty decision. My basic criticism is that you obscure and fail to cite formal objective facts, evidence, definitions, descriptions, statements of LCMS practice, criteria, and primary sources, while you quote subjective opinions and allegations and statements of complainants. At the same time, you claim that you made a 'thorough investigation.' My letter will show that you equate God's Word with your personal opinions, and subjective allegations with formal objective facts and evidence. Second-hand and third-hand testimonies of complainants are given credence while God's Word is never quoted. I will offer several analogies or comparisons or parallels to show that you have only provided subjective opinions. I believe that these scenarios are an equivalence of what you did in your one-page letter and seven page document.

One can be sure that when Werning sends an "attack letter" it will be copies to numerous people.

When this writer pointed out the Trinitarian heresy in Werning's book, "Health and Healing for the LCMS" Werning responded with 260 pages of letters. Werning advised that I had no business criticizing his book. He wrote:

"If you choose to read these fabrications by men who publicly disobey God's Word, please first read Jer. 23: 21, 32; Heb. 5:4; 1 Peter 4:15, and Dr. George Wollenburg's 1989 essay, 'Stick to Your Call,' which admonish self-appointed church overseers seizing ecclesiastical power which God has not granted them. Their destruction of Biblical authority with its Constitutional limitations destroys the 'protection and maintenance of the rights' of every pastor in Synod." (April 2, 2002)

However, as seen above, Werning has no problem justifying his own authority to exercise ecclesiastical power and attempt correct Wallace Schulz.

Notice that Werning writes above about Schulz's ruling: "God's Word is never quoted." However, on just a cursory examination of Schulz's ruling, Schulz quotes 1 Timothy 3:16, Acts 17:11, Philippians 3:20-21, Matt. 18:15-16, Matt. 18:15-16, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Acts 5:29, Matthew 16:27.

Also notice that Werning claims Schulz fails to use primary sources. Evidently Werning doesn't consider a videotape of the entire worship service at Yankee Stadium, the Holy Bible, the LCMS Constitution, the Lutheran Confessions, Benke's own direct statements to Schulz as primary sources. We must assume that Werning considers himself to be his own primary source.

It is impossible for Werning to be quoted without being slandered since he doesn't agree with his own writing.

Could the Devil have found a better friend in misrepresenting the truth than Waldo Werning and his cronies?


Rev. Jack Cascione is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church (LCMS - MI) in St. Clair Shores, Michigan. He has written numerous articles for Christian News and is the author of Reclaiming the Gospel in the LCMS: How to Keep Your Congregation Lutheran. He has also written a study on the Book of Revelation called In Search of the Biblical Order.
He can be reached by email at pastorcascione@juno.com.

July 24, 2002