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All letters to be published in Lutheran Partners magazine / Lutheran Partners Online must include your name and where you reside. Address: Editor, Lutheran Partners, 8765 W. Higgins Road, Chicago, IL 60631-4101; e-mail, Lutheran.Partners@elca.org, Lutheran_Partners@ecunet.org, or LUTHERAN PARTNERS (if on Ecunet/ Lutherlink). Because we wish to publish as many letters as possible and at the same time maintain some control over the length of the letter section, letters should be no more than 600 words in length. Shorter letters are preferred. Those selected for publication may be excerpted in the interest of space.

Schmucker at Princeton
I enjoyed reading the recent article “An Incentive to Service: Lutheran Higher Education in the U.S.A.” (March/April 2006). As a recent graduate of Roanoke College, I was glad to learn that the commitment to service I experienced at my alma mater is present in our country’s other Lutheran schools.

But pride for the institution I currently call home leads me to write a correction of certain information in the article. Samuel S. Schmucker, founder of Gettysburg Seminary, attended “Princeton Theological Seminary” (PTS), not “Princeton College” (see page 17). He came here in 1818, just six years after the founding of PTS, and lived in the dorm where I’m typing this letter.

Schmucker was the first Lutheran to attend PTS, and many of us remembered him for this on his birthday a few weeks ago. In addition to his role as a forefather of sorts to the currently strong Lutheran presence here, his widely published abolitionist tracts and his treatises on ecumenism contain themes that are still relevant for the diverse body of Princeton Theological Seminary, and American Christianity as a whole.

David Drebes
Princeton, New Jersey

...The Lutheran commitment to higher education is commendable. I encourage young people in my church to consider one of our Lutheran universities.

One of the [critical] issues I see is if many liberal arts and critical- thinking- oriented programs will “pay off” once a student has college debt. The same could be said about Lutheran theological seminary debt. With more vacancies in smaller, struggling churches, will [graduates] spend their lifetime paying off Lutheran college and seminary loans?

I often wonder if the basic higher education system needs to be restructured to reflect a changing job market and global reality. Shall we simply become trade and business schools?

David Coffin
Ada, Ohio

Thank you for Melvin Kieschnick’s excellent article on “A Brief History of Lutheran Schools” and for the focus on educational ministry in general. In a day when schools across the country are failing our young people and closing, it is encouraging to be reminded of the intense commitment to quality education that has long characterized Lutheran ministry in the United States. Kieschnick’s comments were both a piece of good news in this time of educational meltdown and a challenge to maintain, or better, increase, this ministry.

John H. Elliott
San Francisco, California

Time to Leave Iraq
In his first inaugural address, President Bush said “America will not impose our own style of government on the unwilling. Our goal, instead, is to help others find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own way.” If this is indeed our goal for Iraq, then we must immediately end the occupation and withdraw our troops. Concurrent with our exodus, the U.S. must declare to the world that we will establish no permanent military bases in that country nor will we seek to control Iraqi oil. These actions would give credibility to the President’s words!

Consider what the U.S. has accomplished. We have smoked Saddam Hussein from his hole in the ground and he is now standing trial. We have killed his two sons. Through our invasion and occupation, we have assured the world that there are no weapons of mass destruction. We have facilitated free elections and overseen the draft of a constitution. Let’s declare mission accomplished and let the Iraqis chart their own destiny!

The Iraqis will never find their own voice, attain their own freedom, and make their own ways so long as we occupy their country. Military disengagement would provide the Iraqi people the opportunity, indeed the necessity, to assume responsibility for their own future.

Nation building is always a daunting challenge for which it seems no one is ever “ready.” But, one thing is clear; the responsibility must rest with the Iraqi people themselves. The process may be painful, perhaps even involving a civil war; but it would be the creation of the Iraqi people themselves. And, if they fail to meet the challenge, that is the price that they alone must pay.

Bernard Kern
North Richland Hills, Texas