Surely someone has already pointed this out. Lutheranism 101 published in 2010 is the popularization of the positions taken in the 2004 synodical convention. It’s LCMS 2.0
Here’s what it says about the service of women. “The only restriction God places on women serving in the Church is that Office of the Ministry is not given to them” (113). In one fell swoop 150 years of teaching about the order of creation is swept out the door. Though quoting from I Timothy 2, the book doesn’t even say what the CTCR has said about the passage. That it isn’t just about teaching but also about women exercising authority over men.
As for closed Communion, it only made it back to Galesburg not to the first four centuries of the church. “Communion is an advertisement [?] to the whole world that says who we are and what we believe about Jesus. This is the reason why we commune in a church that teaches what we believe. It removes any doubt about God’s Word when we know what a church teaches. We commune in a particular church, we are joining our confession with theirs; we are confessing, ‘We say the same thing about Jesus.’ Some churches believe that the Lord’s Supper is a symbol or does not bring forgiveness. We don’t want to mislead anyone with our ‘advertisement’ of faith, nor do we want a church to misrepresent what they advertise. This is why Lutherans commune at Lutheran churches; so that together we tell the world what God taught us” (161-162).
This is what those churches which would eventually become the ELCA said about Communion in the 1930 Minneapolis Theses. This is not what the first generation of LCMS said about it. This is LCMS 2.0, and if you want to know where this is going just look to the ELCA who trod this path ahead of you. Or perhaps make like Bob Seger and turn the page. There we read “This Sacrament is celebrated by those who are communicant members of (in community with) the congregation” (163). Being “in community with” is not defined nor is it ever stated who determines if a person is to be communed.
Now for what is more funny than sad. On pages 86, 106, 126, and 146 this book on Lutheranism 101 has displayed the papal cross http://www.printeryhouse.org/ProdPage.asp?prod=G934 . Finally, on the back cover, the book has either the audacity, the temerity, or both to praise itself as a good book. Quoting Martin Luther they say, “’There have never been nor are there now, too many good books.’” Methinks there is one less than they think.
