See also    
Letters published in past printed issues of Lutheran Partners    
Letters submitted from the website    
Submit a letter to the editor    

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.

Dating Photo
(Editor's Note: Our May /June 2008 Book End photo of the Christmas Candlelight Service at St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was dated ca. 1955, a date which raised a question in the following reader's mind.)

Great photo. But here's some trivia: I couldn't help but think the photo was a little later than 1955, since I've lived through four service books so far (ALC/ELCA). Hymn numbers can stick with you. Those on the board in the photo are mostly Christmas hymns from Service Book and Hymnal (first printing, March 1958). However, I don't see #16 — so maybe they sang "Silent Night" from memory!

E. David Henry
Marble Falls, Texas

Trust Me!
Rereading the May / June 2008 Letters to the Editor, I was struck by the different views we have of the Book of Job. They mirror the changing views I have held over the passing years.

My conclusion is that though one may find many lesser themes, the dominant message remains — simple but not very satisfying to us who always demand answers. God is giving us a very simple message, "Trust me."

Job, having heard that demand from God, settled back content in this new knowledge, even though none of his earlier questions had been answered.

These days, I urge my listeners to begin with that kind of faith based on total trust, then perhaps round out their faith with other insights.

Lester Polenz
Mansfield, Ohio

Hymnal's Audience
I wish to use Lutheran Partners to address a concern. One important concern of the ELCA is evangelism and second to it, church growth. I find that Lutheran congregations are warm and inviting, and friendly and happy to have visitors.

Then they try to use our new hymnal. "Turn to page 138, then to page 107, then to page 139...." I suppose the thought I have is that Evangelical Lutheran Worship is unfair to non‑Christians and non‑Lutherans. Someone may say, "Print the whole service in the bulletin." That's about 1,200 sheets of paper a week, 12 miles of paper a year (lots of dead trees). Or someone may recommend projecting it in the sanctuary. Our building is 80 years old and in excellent shape, but not suited for such projection.

What am I really asking? I am asking that the next hymnal be directed toward our audience that consists both of those raised in the faith and the newcomer.

Robert F. Mitschke
Lincolnton, North Carolina

Format Pales
If you had a survey of Lutheran Partners' readers, so be it. If not, I wish you had.

The new format and subject matter pales over against the previous format. I do wish you had kept the former type periodical....

Donald Olson
San Diego, California

Understanding Fundamentalists
I saw the item about Understanding Fundamentalism (Video Reviews, May/June 2008) and thought it was very good. I'd like to add a thought from my personal experience....

...I attended evangelical pastors meetings when I was president of the mainline group and was received warmly. There was never a question that I was not a fellow Christian. I have long worked with pastors in both camps. I was chairman of the group that brought Billy Graham to Cheyenne when I was serving a church there and we had Pentecostals and Roman Catholic priests working together!

As in any group, we connect with some in a group we are not a part of, and we have trouble with some in our own group.

One of my good friends, John W. Montgomery (I am godfather to one of his children) told me he was a fundamentalist. He said he believed that everything in the Bible was from God, but that some [passages] were analogies or in poetic language and should not be taken as literal fact.

Maria Montessori told about filling her dog's bowl with food and then calling him in. She said she pointed at the food when he ran in but he only came up and sniffed her pointing finger. What she was implying is that we should see where God is pointing and not just be finger sniffers like [individuals] who examine the quality of glass and lead in a beautiful stained glass window and fail to see the image it was used to create.

I once conducted a survey of my members and asked them what Communion meant to them. Aside from those who just quoted the catechism (not as many as I hoped), I got answers like, "I never thought about it. I just come forward and take it" or "I come because my wife and family come" or "It is my tradition and my family has done it for generations" or worse yet, "I'm not sure what I believe, but I'd feel embarrassed to just sit there when the usher motions to me."

We shouldn't feel badly. When I talk with pastors of every stripe, fundamentalist or mainline, they report similar mixed views in the pews. Even the Pope got them when he arrived on these shores!

Robert S. Ove
Rio Rancho, New Mexico