By Richard Bansemer

ACROSS
1. "You shall eatthefruitof the_
ofyour hands" (Psalm 1 28:2)
6. "Do nottake advantage of a_
worker" (Duetero nomy 24:1 4;
Nrv).
11. Shawl
12. Admirer
14.
_-day Saints
15. "TheWord_flesh"
(John 1 :1 4)
16. Three score years and 1 0,
for example
17. Shirts undershirts
19, "0h, say can you
_..."
20. Miss Muffet fare
22.
_King Cole, musician
23. "Bysuch work,we must
support the
_"
(Acts 20:35)
24. Allen
_
(an for president)
26. Lurayand Endlessfortwo
28.
_cago
(prefix)
30. Small amount
31, Jesus answered them, "My
Father is still_" (john 5:17)
35. Kingly impressions
39. Acts like a monkey
40. Witches' brew holder
42. Soil type
43, Playtime atschool (abbr.)
44. Shepherds ... "keeping
_over
their flock by night" (Luke 2:8)
tl6.
Rainbow effect (abbr.)
47. Three-legged stand
49. Budget lodging for hikers
51. Typeofcomedy
52. Scandalize
53. "The Father_ such asthese
to worship him" (John 4:23)
54, Monetary transactions
DOWN
1. Luther_ (old youth group)
2. Life bearing vessel
3. Belfry resident
4. Oilcartel
5. Showed an old movie again
6. _forHumanity
7. March 15
8. Mythologicalbird
L Pencil ender
10. Degrade
11. "0ne who is
_
in work is
close to a vandal"
(Proverbs 1 8:9)
13. Stinks
18. Big
_
21, Packsofcards
23. Ski, alternating directions
25.
_ite, Muslim
27. Bodytube
29. Takes over
31. Toad gifts?
32. Musicals
33. Sayfrom memory
34. Thug's revolver
36. 0f a main artery
37. Tags
38. Aroma
41. African nation (var.)
44. "God ... will not overlookyour
_ and the love ..."
(Hebrews 6:10)
45. "... we toil and struggle,
because we have our
_ set
on the living God ..."
(1 Timothy 4:10)
48. Five and 20 blackbirds
made one
50. Health resort
2 4 I 3 10
11
13
11 '16
t6 17 t6 19
2A zl 27
21 25 26 27
31 34 35 36
40 11 42
u 45 46
47 t8 {9 50
51
i4
ran out of luck so I brought
donuts.,,
"Mypot
God's work. Our hands.
i
Zion choir members pose for a formal portrait.
American Lutherans and World War I
By Laura Gifford
s a devout Presblterian, President Woodrow Wilson
understood the significance of l9l7.Four centuries
after Martin Luthert courageous stand unleashed
the Protestant Reformation, Europe was again embroiled
in conflict. By April, Wilson had concluded the U.S. must
join the fight.
Proclaiming before Congress that "the
world must be
made safe for democracyi' Wilson concluded with words
lifted straight from the Diet of Worms:
"God
helping her,
[America]
can do no other" (Sword of the Spirit, Shield of
Faithby Andrew Preston; Alfred A. ifuopf,2012).
Between the outbreak of World War I in 1914 and
U.S. entrance in 1917, Lutherans tended to be nominally
pro-German. Manywere descended from German immi-
grants, but even Scandinavian Lutherans inherited their
ancestral lands' suspicion of Britain. The war upon Ger-
many unleashed a wave of soul-searching and recrimina-
tion from outsiders who viewed Lutherans as
"foreigni'
VEeuved with sempiciolr
Many Lutheran churches, especially in the more recently
settled Midwest, offered services in German, Norwegian,
Swedish or other Scandinavian languages. Families often
settled in church-centered ethnic communities.
But war turned community assets into liabilities. As
xenophobia (fear of strangers) swept the nation, Ameri-
cans established defense councils, renamed sauerkraut
"liberty
cabbage" and heaped suspicion upon non-Eng-
Iish speakers. Government authorities also required the
ethnic press to file translations of all articles, said Maria
Erling, historian of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at
Gettsyburg (Pa.). Fears of perceived disloyalty led Scandi-
navian churches to hasten a transition to English already
underway within a new American-born generation.
German churches fell under particular suspicion.
Many responded with Americanization campaigns. For
example, Zion Lutheran, Ann Arbor, Mich., stopped its
34 www.thelutheran.org
years
agor
npatriots'in
any language
During World War l, Zion Lutheran Church, Ann Arbor, Mich.,
placed a U.S. flag above the altar.
German services and switched church records to English.
In l9l7 four Pasadena, Calif., churches had
"German'
in their names. By the late 1920s, there were none.
In Middletown, Conn., German Evangelical Lutheran
Church sandblasted its facade and renamed itself
"St.
Paull'Even this action failed to protect Middletown deli-
catessen owner Carl Theodore Herrman. Roused from
slumber by a mob and accused of making pro-German
remarks, he was made to kiss an American flag. While
police arrived, many townspeople contributed donations
toward the ringleaders' fines.
Perhaps the most surprised victims were Southern
Lutherans, many from long-established, even pre-
Revolutionary, families.
fohn
Horine, editor of the Southern Lutheran Church
Visitor, wrote in 1916:
"The
relationship of the Lutheran
Church in America to the German nation and govern-
ment, if it exists at all, must be very distant-a sort of
second cousinship twice removedl'
Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary completed
a magnificent granite building on the highest point in
Columbia, S.C., in 1911. Initially this was a source of
pride. After 1914, however, "rumors began to fly that
the'German Lutherans'had built not a seminary, but a
fortress on that elevation, so that they could rain cannon
fire on the city from the cupola on topi' said seminary
historian Susan McArver.
While Columbians had experienced just that from
Union troops 50 years prior, Southern Lutherans were
shocked to find themselves under such suspicion,
McArver said.
Many Americans applauded Wilsons 1916 promise to
"keep
us out of warl' Once U.S. troops entered the fight,
however, Lutherans came under particular suspicion.
McArver's data notes that the Secret Service investigated
Walton Greever, a Lutheran pastor and editor of The
American Lutheran Survey, for articles he had written
urging non-entry in 1914 and 1915.
But Lutherans throughout the country defended
themselves against allegations of disloyalry, The South
Carolina Synod passed a memorial in1917 reaffirming its
"loyal adherence ... ofpatriotic devotion to the flag ofthe
country
[and]
of respect for civil authorityi'The heav-
ily German Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod passed
algsolution in 1918 observing that more than 165,000
Lutheran men were fighting in the U.S. military and accu-
sations of disloyalty were
"either
ignorance or malicei'
noted the Waco (Texas) MorningNews in 1918.
The war years stimulated movements already under-
way to foster greater Lutheran unity. Three Norwegian
Lutheran synods merged in 1917 to form the Norwegian
Lutheran Church of America. The predominantly eastern
General Synod, General Council, and United Synod of
the South forged the United Lutheran Church in America
in November 1918. The needs of Lutheran enlistees also
spurred formation inI9l7 of the National Lutheran
Commission for Soldiers' and Sailors' Welfare, which
matured into the cooperative National Lutheran Council.
Lutherans, then, ended World War I a more united, but
Iess ethnic, church community. As historian Fred Meuser
put it, these years'tonstitute one of the most significant
watersheds in Lutheran history in America. Theologically
there was little change, but the self-awareness and the
spirit of the church has never been the samel' E
Dissent urithout disloyalty
or Lutherans uncomfortable with war, 1917 and
1918 were fraughtwith difficult questions.
In late 1914, Oliver D. Baltzly, pastor of Koun-
tze Memorial Lutheran Church in Omaha, Neb., gave
thanks for President Woodrow Wilson's day of prayer
for peace. Baltzly mourned the lives lost to
'tommer-
cial or territorial aggrandizement, a ruler's whim or
some equally unholy reasonl'
After 1917, Baltzly labeled the conflict "Mr. Wilson's
war" and criticized the president for failing to seek the
people's opinion before waging what was "not a righ-
teous war" (Lutheranism in North America, 1914'1970
by E. Clifford Nelson;Augsburg, 1972).
Baltzly's comments unleashed a torrent of pub-
lic criticism. Fellow Lutheran pastor H.W. Saeger
Iamented the pastor's words as
"pour[ing]
oil on
already burning flamesl' Then five Kountze church
council members resigned because the council tabled a
resolution pledging unqualified support for the war.
Baltzly took steps to emphasize his loyalty and
congregants'patriotism. He donated a large U.S. flag
to Kountze and endorsed creation ofa service flag
celebrating 120 members who fought. When Lutheran
churches began a campaign to fund Army religious
work in February
1918, Kountze
contributed a
remarkable $1,800
($28,000 in todaY's
dollars).
Laura Gifford
Author bio:
Gifford, a historian and
writer, is a nember of
Joyful Seruanl Lutheran
Church, Newberg, Ore,
September2014 35
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