@rezynezy You're good, Rezynezy. You're probably better versed than Padilla. One of my more ironic favorite memories is when he unintentionally united all the LCMS, ECLA, Catholics, and every other denomination of Christian on campus in his opening speech/sermon on campus when he did a whole reflection on dying people turning into angels -- and everybody was like 'wut...' since none of these communities believe in a human-to-angel species change after death. I was cracking up, it was so funny.
Obviously Padilla wasn't a theology major LOL, so I think he or his speechwriter was working off of childhood memories of "Touched by Angel" episode or Hallmark cards or something.
LCMS is”Trumpist”? That is deep man…
correct me if I’m wrong but the LCMS population is dwindling pretty fast. Maybe they do not evolve like other denominations but I’m not sure. If that’s the case why run a university stubbornly based on those traditions? Can’t Valpo be Lutheran as a whole and move on?
- LCMS has experienced a gradual but steady decline in membership over the past two decades, with a decrease of about 20% from 2004 to 2024.
- ELCA has seen a more significant decline, with membership dropping by approximately 40% over the same period.
Lutheranism much like Christianity and the human race, is constantly evolving, why shouldn't VU evolve with the faith? Even then what is tradition, surely tradition means something different to each family, to each person, to each Christian, to each Lutheran. The views and traditions of the modern Lutheran are vastly different than the Lutherans of Martin Luther's time. Are modern Lutherans not true Lutherans because they do not align with the Lutherans of Martin Luther?
@rezynezy, you have (perhaps unknowingly) articulated the difference between the liberal wing and conservative wing of modern Lutheranism. The views of modern, conservative Lutherans still hold to the specifics of the Christian faith as outlined in the Book of Concord, which includes the Creeds, the Augsburg Confession and several related expositions of faith. Chief among these are a commitment to to the words of the Bible itself, and the whole of the Book of Concord has biblical roots. (Personally, I can be in near universal agreement with the Book of Concord, with some historical anachronisms in the Book of Concord because it is a human book yet the Bible is not. For example, I would not call the Pope to be the Antichrist as stated in the Smalcald Articles, and i would suspect most Lutherans today would not either- that is one of those historical anachronisms that made sense at the time of the Reformation but not now. Yet I digress.)
For conservative Lutherans, there is next to zero differences (and no practical difference) between the articulated beliefs in the Book of Concord and their current statement of beliefs. There is no way to say they are "vastly different than the Lutherans of Martin Luther's time" ; that is just not true, especially in the LCMS, WELS, ELS and other right of center Lutheran bodies.
For liberal Lutherans, the key difference is that the authority and primacy of the Bible as a rule of faith and life has been diminished. Although liberal Lutherans may keep some of the traditions, current practices are substantially influenced by modern culture, especially in the areas of social issues that would be entirely opposite of historic Christian faith and practice. For example, the ELCA leadership has not only permitted but embraced and encouraged same-sex marriage, and sometimes the main focus has been on social and racial justice initiatives rather than embracing law and gospel that Luther (and the other reformers) would recognize. Another example might be that conservative Lutherans would say that only Christian believers will go to heaven and those who follow other religions would not; naturally this position is viewed as divisive and exclusionary by many liberals yet would be exactly in line with the historical Lutheran teachings (and John 14:6 ). This may not be the place to go into all the details of these practices, and I am not the one to spell those out. Yet those are examples of where the traditions have been entirely flipped and are in fact vastly different than the Lutherans of Luther's time.
Case in point per bold above. My sister-in-law is a devout LCMS evangelical. Me, I grew up in the LCMS environment - Lutheran grade school, graduated from Concordia Prep, Bronxville, NY, where half of my class were pre-ministerial (many of whom, BTW, joined the seminary in exile back in the day). Anyway, my SIL has told me, because I do not read the bible daily and supported her gay daughter and her marriage to her wife, that she is sad that she will not be able to see me (nor her, at one time, disowned daughter) when she goes to heaven. She is ardently far right politically and has voted Republican in 16 and 20 because “it is God’s plan.” I am blessed continually in hopes of me seeing the light.
Thank you for these explanations on the Lutheran faith. With a declining congregation, the actions Valpo needs to take are certainly challenging. Inclusiveness to other faiths will be imperative for Valpo to stay afloat. The comments from the pastors, particularly the first post, tend to be archaically biased.
I recognize that the number of Lutherans is declining and that we can’t rely on an influx of Lutheran students to save the university.
That being said, we have a large number of alumni who are Lutherans and there are still Lutheran high schools and middle schools across the country that have many students.
Valpo seems to have given up using our alumni base to recruit those students. We no longer go to Lutheran college fairs. The Valpo Admissions Network (VAN) ceased to exist. We let the Lutheran middle school basketball tournament leave.
We’re turning our back on low hanging fruit for some reason.
Inclusiveness to other faiths will be imperative for Valpo to stay afloat.
Valparaiso is already inclusive of other faiths. The fall 2023 university census reveals this. In fact, there are a greater number of Roman Catholic students than there are Lutherans. I am told this is even more pronounced in the incoming class, and President Padilla recently stated a dedicated plan to focus on recruiting additional Catholic students, especially from Chicago and Hispanic backgrounds.
https://www.valpo.edu/institutional-effectiveness/files/2023/09/Denominations_All_Students_FA23.pdf
The NCAA forbids tournaments such as the roundball classic from existing. As of 2011, all "not state-sponsored" prep tournaments were banned from taking place due to perceived recruitment violations. The only tournaments allowed to be held on any university property is the state tournament. The only accepted is if your facility is considered a "public civic center". Such is how UIC's Credit Union 1 Arena can still hold a prep tournament .
As for turning your back on alumni. It is a poor choice. There seems to be a major disconnect between the athletics sector and the academics sector on alumni relations. While athletics has recently made commitments to embrace alumni and actively invite alumni into the athletic world with revenue generation and donor cultivation positions, academics have been giving the alumni a cold shoulder. The academics sector has even gone as far as to send a survey to alumni and lock out the majority of their alumni from completion! Something needs to change.
Chicago and Hispanic backgrounds are largely catholic to begin with 35% of Cook and Lake counties being of the Catholic faith with a predominace of 71% being Christian (excluding denominations). Such is what happened when you were a hub for immigrants in the early 1900s. I personally believe Lutherans and Catholics are brother and sister faiths rather than true enemies.
As a 100th anniversary approaches, Valparaiso University marks allegiance to its religious legacy: "From the roots up, Valpo has been called to reflect God’s light." It also recognizes a tradition of Christian learning within a Lutheran perspective, as the plaque on the stone declares: "To the glory of God and in recognition of the faith and vision of the men and women who organized the Lutheran University Association in 1925 to foster Christian higher education at Valparaiso University."
Not sure when it happened, but it was quite some time ago, that Valpo added a ELCA pastor to the Chapel staff. A woman at that! The pastor's seem to get along well. Perhaps the larger church bodies should follow suit!
From a strategy perspective, it makes sense for Valpo to find ways to connect with students from a variety of faith backgrounds. However, the student census data that @valpopal shared highlight one of the downsides if this is not done well, especially if a university alienates parts of their traditional constituencies. That report shows that in the fall of 2023, there were 2277 total undergrads, of which 65 were LCMS and 45 ELCA. Contrast that to the fall of 2008, when there were 2885 undergrads: There were 530 LCMS and 370 ELCA.
Why do I pick Fall of 2008? Because President Heckler took office in 2008. Heckler was the first president in nearly a century that did not have deep ties to the LCMS. In contrast, President Harre had strong, deep and decades-long ties to the LCMS - he was an ordained LCMS pastor and had previously been president of Concordia St. Paul. He also hired Bill Karpenko, who had been deeply involved with the Director of Christian Education program at Concordia Nebraska. It is fair to say that during their tenure, probably 90% of the LCMS pastors and DCEs throughout the country would have known or met these two and been largely OK with their theological views. Although the percentage of Lutheran students (and LCMS students in particular) was trending down during their tenure, it was predictable and relatively stable, and President Harre did a good job in understanding that important demographic.
Clearly the long-term demographics of midwest Lutherans of all types is trending down, yet the fall (from 2008 to 2023) is remarkable. It is clear that Lutheran students are voting with their feet and not coming to Valpo. Yet as others have pointed out, the decisions to stop focusing enrollment and recruiting on Lutheran high schools, the VAN Network, and other factors all happened under Heckler's watch. Along with alienating some of the core constituencies, there was not a great influx of non-Lutheran students to make up for this loss - it is great to look for other students, yet that has not worked for VU - perhaps the churn in senior enrollment leadership has made this even worse in recent years.
Herein lies the problem with trying to attract Lutherans across the spectrum of synods (based on the comments above). Key people (pastors, etc.) in LCMS and other more conservative synods in the Lutheran church (like more conservative sects in other faiths) often have a distinct view of what is right and the absolute truth and reject alternative views to the point of condemnation or damnation. How does Valpo appeal to those people? Could it be that these synods chose to renew their embrace of excessive dogmatism while the world (including Valpo) moved away from them? And if Valpo did choose to try to appeal to key people in these synods, how would they manage relationships with prospective students AND alums? I know my support would stop if the university openly embraced "only Christian believers go to heaven" (where some outdated traditionalists define "Christian").
Thus, for strategic, financial, and ethical reasons, Valpo should seek an inclusive student body.
What is ironic about such a discussion - that pastors and other religious leaders think Valpo has lost its way - is that I do not think Valpo was what they think it was 40 years ago. I was raised ELCA (actually LCA) and had no interest in LCMS, so I was like many who never went to chapel and had little to do with university religious activities (please don't read into this that I am arguing that Valpo should not have activities for those who are more religiously oriented - it should). Many of the societal things (though not all) that these pastors and religious leaders think have become commonplace at Valpo existed there 40 years ago. I guess these so-called religious leaders are only judging what happened in the chapel and statements made by the administration 40 years ago...while being ignorant of what actually happened in the university environment.
In regards to the donation for the new spiritual center, I will just say thank you to the donors. I would not have been happy if the university put any money or prioritization into this capital project as dorms and several academic buildings are far more important (though I am wondering if Valpo has to fund ongoing maintenance and operations for this new building or if that some timeframe is included in the donation)
If people are appalled by an Islamic place of worship being placed on campus, I expected to see the same sentiment when researching the construction of St T's. I currently cannot find any info from the 70s about when St Paul's built the catholic student center. Was there any backlash about St T's @valpopal
@rezynezy Is there some reason your comment was addressed to me? I never said people were “appalled.”
@valpopal you are a great historical mind. I figured you would have some information regarding when St T's was being built. In no way was I trying to take a jab. I apologize if it seemed as such
