The political views of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod: 1920- 1940

Abstract

This thesis examines political views described by the literature of the Lutheran Church between the years 1920 to 1940. Due to the church’s “adherence to Scripture and the Confessions,” the church was against having political points of view. During the 1920’s the Lutheran Church was a firm believer in the separation of church and state, and was opposed to the government teaching religion in schools, morality laws, Sunday Blue laws, as well as legislation against teaching evolution. However, in the 1930’s the church started to reverse the idea of the church staying out of politics and started supporting ideas that dealt with morality such as coming out in favor of capital punishment and opposing birth control, while still claiming to support the separation of church and state.