RETURN THE EXILES! read a Holy Week placard carried by one of the 200 protesters in front of the St. Louis headquarters of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. The demonstration was aimed at Dr. Jacob A.O. Preus, conservative head of the denomination, who this month fired four district presidents (roughly equivalent to bishops). Their sin: ordaining graduates of Seminex, the breakaway school from the synod's Concordia Seminary that was founded during the Lutherans' long-running doctrinal dispute over biblical interpretation (TIME, March 4, 1974). The dismissed leaders, who favor a flexible view of...
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