Explicit Content Warning:
The following article contains material that is not suitable for children.
As has now been widely noted, the most egregious fault of the Lutheran Church — Missouri Synod’s (LCMS) Large Catechism with Annotation and Contemporary Applications (LCACA) is undoubtedly the featured quote by Mrs. Fr. Brock Schmeling from her essay on the Sixth Commandment. It deserves a focused treatment, and so it shall have here on Old Lutherans.
Indeed, to address the matter is to twist open a veritable matryoshka doll. This was not a woman off on her own in the theological weeds. This was a woman who had pastors and theologians grooming her argument for the equality of all sins at every step along the way. From her ordained husband, to her pastor, to the Commission on Theology and Church Relations (CTCR), to the seminary professor editor, to the Synod President — every one of them signed off on this passage, and each has only doubled and tripled down since her theological categories and articulation were called into question.
I’ve elected to take a long quote, to include the sections which precede the relevant passage, for reasons which will become clear.
Luther faced a different reality [than the Israelites whose sexual sin most commonly manifested in adultery qua adultery]: “But among us there is such a shameful mess and the very dregs of all vice and lewdness.” He then addresses the common unchastity of his day, motivated in part by the “shameful mess,” namely, the irony of monastics who esteemed virginity far above marriage yet failed miserably at it. Much like doctors who “cure” genetic disorders by aborting babies, the “popish rabble” cloistered themselves away from “vice and lewdness” and devoted themselves to “chastity,” hoping to avoid adultery by rejecting marriage. But God honors marriage in the Sixth Commandment, and the monastic rejection led only to individuals who “indulge in open and shameless prostitution or secretly do even worse, so that one dare not speak of it. . . . Their hearts are so full of unchaste thoughts and evil lusts that there is a continual burning and secret suffering.” Marriage is therefore not only honorable but also beneficial to curb temptation.
Like Luther, we also must address the most common unchastity among ourselves: that in the name of “sexual freedom” we feed our continual burning and honor neither virginity nor marriage. Our sin isn’t even secret: we speak of our lusts through crude joking and foolish talk, often naming ourselves by our sexual sin as no murderer or liar ever does.
However, though some of us are burdened with homosexual lust, pornographic addiction, transgenderism, pedophilia, and polyamory, more often they are the speck in our neighbor’s eye rather than the log in our own (cf. Matthew 7:3–5). For decades, if we didn’t wink at fornication we certainly turned our eyes from it, as long as the acts performed outside of marriage were heterosexual ones. We shudder in disgust when it suits us, forgetting that we, too, follow our hearts, that organ which produces every evil thought and sexual immorality (Mark 7:21–22). We are in love, so we live as though married; we are out of love, so we break our marriage oaths before death has ended them.
Andrea Schmeling, “The Sixth Commandment: Sexual Purity,” Luther’s Large Catechism with Annotations and Contemporary Applications, Published by Concordia Publishing House, 2022, emphasis is the contested passage
It should be noted that a full examination of the so-named “sin leveling” which Mrs. Schmeling promotes above is beyond the scope of this piece; however, one may be found in this article, from which the present piece has been taken and adapted. For our purposes here, it is sufficient to demonstrate how Mrs. Schmeling’s essay in LCACA overtly denies the Lutheran Confessions, and should thusly be summarily retracted from the LCMS’s canon if the organization wishes to continue to claim “quia” subscription to the Book of Concord.
Denial of the Lutheran Confessions
Yes, Mrs. Schmeling’s piece denies the Lutheran Confessions. Ironically enough, it denies the Large Catechism (LC). More ironically, it denies the explanation to the Sixth Commandment. And, in the ultimate irony, it denies the section of the LC that Mrs. Schmeling quotes just two paragraphs above the contested “log” and “speck” line — included in the quote above.
To reproduce the quote from Luther’s Large Catechism in full:
From this you see how this popish rabble, priests, monks, and nuns, resist God’s order and commandment, inasmuch as they despise and forbid matrimony, and presume and vow to maintain perpetual chastity, and, besides, deceive the simple-minded with lying words and appearances.
For no one has so little love and inclination to chastity as just those who because of great sanctity avoid marriage, and either indulge in open and shameless prostitution, or secretly do even worse, so that one dare not speak of it, as has, alas! been learned too fully.
Luther’s Large Catechism, Explanation to the Sixth Commandment, Martin Luther
Read that last line again.
In this passage of the Large Catechism (and hence, in our Confessions), Martin Luther states that there is a worse sexual sin than fornication with prostitutes. Though he tactfully declines to name it (for reasons he alludes to in his commentary on Genesis 19), we know exactly what Luther was referring to, because he spoke about it explicitly elsewhere: it is sodomy. Significantly, this includes, but is not limited to, pederasty. In point of fact, it especially denotes pederasty — the rape of boys. If sodomy is the abomination of abominations, pederasty is the abomination^3. And while a full exposition of the data on the topic is beyond the scope of this piece, it is worth mentioning that when you plot for time, the Venn Diagram for sodomy and pederasty is just…a circle.
And on that score, there really is nothing new under the sun. Thus, Luther:
I am not lying to you. Whoever has been in Rome knows that conditions are unfortunately worse there than anyone can say or believe. When the last Lateran council was to be concluded in Rome under Pope Leo, among other articles it was decreed that one must believe the soul to be immortal. From this one may gather that they make eternal life an object of sheer mockery and contempt. In this way they confess that it is a common belief among them that there is no eternal life, but that they now wish to proclaim this by means of a bull.
More remarkable yet, in the same bull they decided that a cardinal should not keep as many boys in the future. However, Pope Leo commanded that this be deleted; otherwise it would have been spread throughout the whole world how openly and shamelessly the pope and the cardinals in Rome practice sodomy. I do not wish to mention the pope, but since the knaves will not repent, but condemn the gospel, blaspheme and revile God’s word, and excuse their vices, they, in turn, will have to take a whiff of their own terrible filth. This vice is so prevalent among them that recently a pope caused his own death by means of this sin and vice. In fact, he died on the spot. All right now, you popes, cardinals, papists, spiritual lords, keep on persecuting God’s word and defending your doctrine and your churches!
No pope, cardinal, bishop, doctor, priest, monk, or nun will condemn such an obviously disgraceful life; rather they laugh about it, excuse it, and gloss over it. They incite kings, princes, country, and people to defend such knaves with life and property, with land and people, and faithfully to protect them so that such vices might not be repented of and reformed, but rather strengthened, sanctioned, and approved. Now you are to hazard blood, body, and life just for the sake of saddling your neck and conscience with this.
I could easily mention more examples of such abominations, but it is too shameful; I fear that our German soil would have to tremble before it. But if an impudent popish ass should come along and dispute this, he will find me ready to do him battle, and it will be quite a battle!”
Luther’s Works Volume 47, p.38, emphases not original
Indeed, Luther continued to hold the same position he articulated in the LC — that forbidding marriage results in disordered passions including those “worse” than fornication with a prostitute — all his life. Why, he was still speaking about it a decade after publishing his LC, such as in the following table talk:
Through the papists Satan so defiled [natural affection] that in his little book on the celibacy of priests Cyprian wrote, ‘If you hear a woman speak, flee from her as if she were a hissing snake.’ That’s the way it is. When one is afraid of whores one must fall into sodomite depravity, as almost happened to St. Jerome.
Table Talk: “There Is Danger in Avoiding Marriage,” 29 May, 1539, Luther’s Works Volume 54, p.357
But that’s not all. Luther also said,
The vice of the Sodomites is an unparalleled enormity. It departs from the natural passion and desire, planted into nature by God, according to which the male has a passionate desire for the female. Sodomy craves what is entirely contrary to nature. Whence comes this perversion? Without a doubt it comes from the devil. After a man has once turned aside from the fear of God, the devil puts such great pressure upon his nature that he extinguishes the fire of natural desire and stirs up another, which is contrary to nature.
Quote as found in What Luther Says: An Anthology, ed. by Ewald Martin Plass, emphasis mine. Pick up your copy from Concordia Publishing House today, before they discontinue it for badthink!
But let us return to the statement in the LC: “For no one has so little love and inclination to chastity as just those who because of great sanctity avoid marriage, and either indulge in open and shameless prostitution, or secretly do even worse, so that one dare not speak of it, as has, alas! been learned too fully.”
To perhaps restate: it is here the clear and explicit ruling of the Lutheran Confessions that sodomy, especially pederasty, is even worse (a greater sin) than fornication (with a prostitute no less).
To say otherwise is no simple and innocuous theological difference of opinion.
To say otherwise is to depart from and contradict the Confessions. To maintain that fornication and sodomy are equal sins is by the Missouri Synod’s definition false doctrine.
This is not LCMS rules-lawyering. The Confessions faithfully expound the soul-saving doctrine of the Scriptures (1 Timothy 4:16). And to the present point: Lutheran ministers vow before Almighty God that they believe this. To contradict the doctrinal standard is a double lie. First, it defames the name of God Himself by putting lies in His mouth, effectively forging His signature on a fraudulent letter. Second, it is oath-breaking. Both are evil. The first is worse. “The Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain” (Exodus 20:7). False doctrine is an enormity, not a quibble.
When Mrs. Schmeling espouses that some guy’s child-raping is a speck in his eye, while your fornication is a log in your own, that is false doctrine — taught by a woman. Verily, it is named as such by the very quotation she used two paragraphs before making her claim.
Fr. Brock Schmeling signed off on this. Mrs. Schmeling’s pastor signed off on it. The entire CTCR signed off on it. CTSFW Professor John Pless signed off on it. LCMS President Matthew Harrison signed off on it. And when it was exposed, they all doubled down.
The CTCR forthrightly asserts that this volume does not change, question or supplant any doctrinal position of the LCMS, including any Synod teaching on contemporary cultural issues such as race or sexuality. The CTCR furthermore categorically rejects any assertions to the contrary. …
[T]he text of the Large Catechism itself remains entirely unchanged in this volume, using the English translation found in Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions—A Reader’s Edition of the Book of Concord. It is the same text to which our Synod has always subscribed as part of our unqualified commitment to the 16th-century Lutheran Confessions. …
[T]he text of each introduction, annotation and excursive essay underwent thorough review and subsequent approval by the CTCR, as well as Synod doctrinal review. These reviews were undertaken to ensure that all material was in accord with Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions and the Constitution, bylaws and doctrinal statements of the Synod. Numerous suggestions for improvement were offered during this process and were ultimately addressed satisfactorily.
LCMS CTCR Statement on ‘Luther’s Large Catechism with Annotations and Contemporary Applications,’ February 2023, emphasis mine
[T]here is nothing in the content of the volume promoting critical race theory (CRT), confusion of sexuality issues, or any theological position at odds with biblical and confessional Lutheranism. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod’s doctrine is established only by the Scriptures and confessed in the Book of Concord. By God’s grace we remain steadfast in this eternal truth and confession as we await the return of our blessed Savior Jesus Christ.
Frankly, I think each reader will be astounded at the content and quality of the volume.
Update from President Harrison on Large Catechism, Feb. 2, 2023, emphasis mine
With their own mouths, they have said it. I urge them to reconsider, while it is yet day.
Thus, Ryan Turnipseed’s original criticism of the passage stands against all the slander leveled at him.
[W]e have an equivocation of homosexuality, pornography, sodomy, pedophilia, whorishness, and transgenderism with heterosexual fornication outside of marriage.
That is, the LCMS can’t say “sodomy is evil” without softening it with “but so is straight sex before marriage”.
@turnipmerchant
If your pastor defends this passage in the LCACA, inform him that our Confessions call sodomy worse than sex with a prostitute. He will either repent, or he will become ipso facto a quatenus subscriber to the Confessions.
He has the option of joining the LCMS in its new, false confession.
Or not.
I charge you to find out.