I had written this well before the Semitex scandal. But it is especially timely now. ~ Ed.

This documentary on Seminex, made in 2015, is worth a view. We are now approaching fifty years since the Walkout, and many of those involved are no longer on this side of the grave.

This documentary is sympathetic to, and strikes me as quite biased in favor of, the Seminexers. But it is still worth viewing, as there is great value in seeing the matter from their perspective. This is especially true in light of the inconsistency of their argument that they were misrepresented as unfaithful to Scripture and to the LCMS, when later on in the video, we hear them champion women’s “ordination.”

I believe that we have sufficient hindsight to see just how dangerous their embrace of the Historical Critical Method was. It is also illustrative how often the ringleaders were defended because they were “nice” and “Christian” and “scholarly” and how much the conservatives were disparaged for their perceived “meanness.” We see the clear marks of the Boomer rebellion being played out by self-righteous mimics of the world’s radical rejection of the Word of God, their professors’ admitted use of subterfuge, and their incompatibility with the confession that the Scriptures “are” rather than “contains” God’s Word. We see gullible students rushing in take part in the “current thing” as 1970s versions of the “social justice warrior” of today.

But the real proof is in the ultimate destination of the seminexers: the ELCA.

For what is the ELCA today but a theological cesspool of unbiblical women’s “ordination,” the redefinition of marriage to include unbiblical sexual deviancy and gender ideology, pronoun shenanigans, the sexual predation of children by their imitation of the world’s sickness, and even Luciferian goddess worship?

Yes, this is the legacy of Seminex: rotten fruit from a rotten tree. By their fruits we know them. It calls to mind why the inerrant text of Scripture warns believers about participating in orgies. For that is where their attack on the Scriptures has led: both figuratively and literally. The Woodstock generation has come full circle, and the rolling around in the mud of Woodstock is now happening at their so-called Lutheran altars.

Perhaps the time is long overdue for Synod to officially thank the Rev. Herman Otten for his role in exposing this abomination, and to posthumously receive him as a member of synod. I have had my share of disagreements with him. But how is it possible not to be grateful for his courage in taking on this beast while still a seminarian? And the Rev. Kurt Marquart is also to be thanked for his work in conjunction with Otten.

Perhaps the Rev. President J.A.O. Preus II should be commemorated in the sanctoral calendar whenever the next hymnal project comes along. His leadership was courageous and godly. It would have been easy for him to just be nice and allow the cancer to spread. Instead, he cut it out.

I wonder if older LCMS members are too scarred and traumatized to want to honor those who stood firm, and if younger LCMS members are too ignorant about what happened for these events to be put into proper perspective. But as things stand now, the LCMS is one of a few Church bodies that have not capitulated to higher criticism, feminism, sexual deviancy, pseudoscience, Marxism, wokeness, and other unbiblical secular trends by which Satan seeks to destroy us.

We need to learn from our past - whether it is 1517, 1847, or 1974 - because it always comes back around again. We need to keep an eye on our seminaries and our universities, as these institutions are particularly attractive breeding grounds for the world’s attacks on the Word of God. We need to listen to those, like Bishop Michael McDaniel, who warned us not to play with the Ouija board of wokeness.