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Look Back: Concordia boycott
Date: 1/21/2011 Album ID: 1156519
Photos by Post-Dispatch photographers
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The dispute over biblical doctrine and literal interpretation of the Bible at Concordia Seminary stewed for four years. The school's sponsoring denomination, the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, suspended the seminary's moderate president, and a student rebellion ignited. On Jan. 21, 1974, the students voted 274 to 92 to boycott classes, pledging to stay out until their church leadership "publicly declares which members of the faculty, if any, are to be considered as false teachers."
The statue of Martin Luther on the campus of Concordia Seminary in Clayton. The nine-foot-tall bronze work commemorates the 16th Century German priest whose dissent sparked the Protestant Reformation. The statue is a landmark on the east side of the campus, and was the site of the student protest on Jan. 21, 1974, against the seminary board's suspension of the Rev. John H. Tietjen, Concordia president. The students' call for a boycott of classes led a month later to creation of Seminex, the seminary in exile. The issue was a four-year dispute over biblical doctrine between the leadership of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's and Tietjen and most of his faculty. This photograph, taken on Jan. 25, 1964, shows a more tranquil gathering at the statue. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch)
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The Rev. Jacob A.O. Preus, president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod from 1969 to 1981. A native of Minnesota, he served as a pastor at two churches there and on the faculties of Bethany College in Mankato, Minn., and at Concordia Theological Seminary in Springfield, Ill., where he served seven years as president. Preus was a conservative who believed in the literal truth of everything in the Scriptures, such as the story of Adam and Eve. Shortly after his election as Synod president, he launched an investigation into what he believed were dangerous deviations in the teaching at Concordia Seminary in Clayton, then the third largest Protestant seminary in the nation. His clash with Concordia's president, the Rev. John H. Tietjen, split the seminary, with most of the students and faculty members bolting in February 1974 to form Seminex (seminary in exile), an alternative seminary that held classes at St. Louis University and Eden Theological Seminary. The Concordia board that Preus helped to install suspended Tietjen on Jan. 20, 1974, and the students reacted the next day by voting to strike. Few seminarians continued going to class. This photo was taken in his Synod office in June 1977. He died in 1994 at age 74. (Karen Elshout/Post-Dispatch)
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The Rev. John H. Tietjen, president of Concordia Seminary in Clayton from 1969 until his suspension in 1974. Tietjen grew up in New York and graduated from Concordia Seminary in 1953. He earned a doctorate in theology from Union Theological Seminary in New York, served a parish in New Jersey and worked for the Lutheran Council in the U.S.A. before being hired by Concordia. He opposed Rev. Preus' efforts to censor the Concordia faculty, which he defended publicly. To the charges of heresy, he said, I am not a teacher of false doctrine. After the Concordia board endorsed by Preus voted to suspend Tietjen on Jan. 20, 1974, the seminarians quickly voted to strike and most of the faculty refused to teach. After a one-month standoff, the board fired most of the faculty, who departed with a majority of the students to form Seminex. Tietjen became president of Seminex in 1975, and still held that job when the seminary moved to Chicago in 1983. Tietjen joined the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a less conservative denomination, and died in 2004 at age 75. (Marilyn Yee/Post-Dispatch)
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Concordia students applaud the reading of a resolution supporting the Rev. Tietjen during a rally Jan. 21, 1974, the day after the seminary board suspended him. The seminarians met on campus at the statue of Martin Luther, the 16th Century German priest whose own dissent sparked the Protestant Reformation. They voted 274 to 92 to boycott classes. (Scott Dine/Post-Dispatch)
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Children of Concordia faculty members at a rally for their fathers on Jan. 22, 1974. Most of the faculty voted along with their students, and vowed not to teach while the dispute was unresolved. (Post-Dispatch)
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Seminarian John Kosec of Cleveland, Ohio, one of the striking students, wears a button inspired by the dispute. Some supporters of the Rev. Preus called the Rev. Tietjen and most of his faculty members insurgents. Thus the button. (Scott Dine/Post-Dispatch)
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The Rev. Robert Preus teaching his Christian Faith 1 class at Concordia Seminary to the four students who showed up on Jan. 28, 1974. Preus' brother, the Rev. Jacob A.O. Preus, was Synod president and the driving force of the effort to root out heresy at the seminary. Most of the students stayed away during the boycott. (Bill Kesler/Post-Dispatch)
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Striking students temporarily mount boards marked with the word exiled on the archways of the campus east entrance before marching away on Feb. 20, 1974, to begin classes at the new Seminex, the seminary in exile. Striking students and faculty members created Seminex after the seminary board fired 40 boycotting faculty members. After the march, students who remained loyal to the seminary's new leadership took the signs down. (Lynn T. Spence/Post-Dispatch)
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John Struve, one of the students who continued taking classes, removes wooden crosses that students heading for Seminex had hammered into the campus lawn before leaving. (Bill Kesler/Post-Dispatch)
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The Rev. Carl A. Volz and his wife, Lydia, pack up on Feb. 23, 1974, to leave their campus housing. Volz was among the boycotting teachers and had refused the seminary board's order to return to class or be fired and removed from campus housing. They are packing some of the toys of their five children. (Lloyd Spainhower/Post-Dispatch)
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The Rev. Erwin L. Lueker, one of the faculty members preparing to leave, stands behind a table at a garage sale of items from families of boycotting teachers at Concordia. (Lester Linck/Post-Dispatch)
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The Rev. John H. Tietjen, the suspended president of Concordia, addresses the first graduation ceremony of Seminex on May 24, 1974, on the Washington University Quadrangle. Seminex used class space at St. Louis University and Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves. After the Synod formally affirmed Tietjen's suspension and removal the following October, he joined the Seminex faculty, and became its president in February 1975. (Marilyn K. Yee/Post-Dispatch)
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Ronald Neustadt (kneeling), one of the first graduates of Seminex, is ordained on June 23, 1974, at Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1011 Theobald Avenue. Placing his hand on Neustadt's head is the Rev. George H. Fehl. Other celebrants, from left, are the Rev. Robert M. Zorn, the Rev. Mark P. Bangert, the Rev. Edward H. Schroeder and the Rev. Herbert J.A. Bouman. (Marilyn K. Yee/Post-Dispatch)
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The Rev. Edward H. Schroeder (seated far left) leads a class at Seminex on Feb. 13, 1978. (Robert C. Holt Jr./Post-Dispatch)
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The Rev. John H. Tietjen, president of Seminex, chats with two students in the seminary commons on Feb. 13, 1978. Seated are (from left) seminarians Kazimierz Kowalski and Phillip Haskins. (Robert C. Holt Jr./Post-Dispatch)
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Concordia seminarian Nathan Burgell of Houston, Texas, meditates before taking the pulpit at Signal Hill Lutheran Church in Belleville on March 21, 2002. Burgell was assigned to the church as an intern, part of his training for the ministry. (Odell Mitchell Jr./Post-Dispatch)
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Seminarian Brian Lee and his wife, Diane, read the details of his first assignment from Concordia Seminary on Call Day, a ceremony in which students learn where they will serve for the year as pastoral assistants. The Lees are headed to a church in Des Moines, Iowa. Lee was one of 117 students getting assignments that day. (Christian Gooden/Post-Dispatch)
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Luther Tower on the Concordia Seminary campus. (Larry Williams/Post-Dispatch)
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