The Concordia Austin situation is most likely going to be the most volatile matter with which the Convention will have to deal. We have blogged about the dire situation at CTX (Concordia University Texas) before (here and here), and the Reporter has been informing the Synod’s leaders about what’s happening there. The school is essentially going Woke, and wants to be self-governing. Last November the school’s Board of Regents voted to designate itself the university’s “sole governing body.” Since then the Synod’s Board of Directors and the President have responded with dismay, calling on the school’s leadership to repentance.

Resolution 7-03 (“To Call Concordia University Texas Leadership to Repentance”) also contains strong and laudable language in calling CTX to repentance for their clear violation of their obligations to the Synod. Hopefully this resolution will not only pass, but be strengthened  to include a strong indication that the Synod has no intention of relinquishing control of this school, and that the Synod also refuses to allow them to leave the Synod.  This school, like all of our Synod’s colleges and universities, belongs to the Synod, and CTEX is therefore not free to do as it pleases, nor even to sever ties with the Synod. In fact, they are required to follow their avowed obligations.

What needs to be said therefore, in addition, is that barring repentance and reversal of course on their part, which seems highly unlikely, heads should roll. This has, as our Larry Beane has put it, all the markings of being another Seminex fiasco. That’s why we need something stronger in the resolution than what’s already there.

This is not the time for a lack of spine.

In all probability, if heads do not roll, nothing will change for the better, and the school will be lost. The long and short of it is this: Some people at that school will need to be let go. And that should be stated loudly and clearly at the Convention, and added to the resolution, not merely as a recommendation or desire, but as a course of action. Maybe something like this:

Be it finally RESOLVED, that the Synod in Convention direct the President, in consultation with the Concordia University System Board of Governors, upon allowing CTEX thirty days to reverse course and repent, initiate disciplinary proceedings against any member or members of CTEX President and Board of Regents who remain in noncompliance, toward their dismissal.

Lukewarm responses will do no good. Worries about finances cannot take precedence. And certainly, there should be no place for the expression of concerns about what the public media might say (Heavens, that matter shouldn’t even come up; we cannot be swayed by society’s whims). A strong showing by the delegates and a resolution with teeth can do a lot toward the saving not only of CTEX, but of our entire Concordia University system.

Recently Dr. William Weinrich has also voiced the need for strong action.  “Let's not fool ourselves, if Austin is allowed to go, it is the beginning of the unraveling of the CUS system. A precedent will have been set, CUS schools are free to go whenever they like. Schools that have diversity offices have taken the first step toward entangling themselves in the DEI morass. The question is--does LCMS wish to protect its historic intellectual patrimony, supported by the gifts of pious Lutherans for generations, or does it want to retreat into a fortress Lutheran repristinationism increasingly irrelevant in our strange nihilistic age.”

Gottesdient concurs with Dr.  Weinrich’s admonition that the delegates must do whatever they can to save our schools, and that this begins with Austin. A popular outpouring from delegates for retaining control of Austin must occur at this Convention or the cause almost certainly will be lost.

Further, Dr. Weinrich continues, “Austin is our only school in the great geographical area of the mid-South and that it lies in the midst of one of the fastest growing regions of our country. Moreover, outside Austin itself, a hotbed of leftism, that school is surrounded by people who represent traditional values. The opportunity to be an island of sanity is huge.

“It would be a very good thing, then, for the leadership and the church in convention to make a strong resolution to fight for the retaining of Austin in our CUS system. We may rejoice that our leadership, in fact, is committed to that task!

“Should it happen, however, that Austin does find a way to leave its ecclesial oversight, then what I said about the future remains true. Never in the history of the human race has a nihilistic perspective gained dominance in culture and politics. This perspective deconstructs all institutions required for human flourishing--church, nation, family, and attacks them if necessary with force. This is not the time to allow, without a fight, one of our schools to become a soldier for this destructive nonsense.

“Might such a fight be costly? Yes. But at what value do we place truth, beauty and the right?”

Delegates, make this happen.