Public Confession of Faith

German Lutherans sometimes have a hard time going public about their confession of faith.  The "Silent Generation" sometimes takes the blame for that. However, the irresolution in the public witness of faith in some contexts could go way back into the past. 

This is an excerpt of my Master's Conclusion Paper, which may shed some light into the reasons why many German immigrants in Brazil would refrain from public witness of their faith. It might account for other realities around the world as well.

"Reflecting on the historical difficulties of IELB(yellb), The Lutheran Church of Brazil) in being a church that does not regularly invest in actions other than internal communication[1], and considering that everything happens within a historical context, we raise two clues for this outcome, among several others that might be listed. They date back to the beginning of the Synod and the German colonization in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the birthplace of the IELB.

Pastor and Historian Martin Dreher, when telling the story of Pastor Wilhelm Rotermund during the German colonization in São Leopoldo, mentions that a large part of those who arrived here came from the region in Germany called Hunsrück. There, the inhabitants had many problems due to religious reasons. As the law provided that the religion was determined by the prince, the families could be Lutheran one day, Calvinist the next and Catholic later on. It ended up being natural that, with the passage of time, religion ceased to be a public matter for them; “no public confession of faith was made! Faith is something interior, which is almost never communicated, because it can change 'with each sovereign.”[2] As a consequence, religion became a private matter for these people. When you talk about converting someone, it might be even for the political view, but never for the religious one – which was a private thing.

We observe grandmothers reading their prayer book, closed in their rooms, but we don't remember seeing them talk about their faith. We see them going to church, but we don't see them witnessing their faith with words. Her female ancestors came from Hunsrück. Would their mothers and grandmothers have taught them that religion is not talked about because it is a dangerous thing?[3]

From this, it seems that it was somehow embedded in the German Lutheran immigrants a certain refrain about going public and wide open about their confession of faith.

The second clue emerges from the main reason for the Missouri Synod to come to Brazil, when starting its work in Rio Grande do Sul. According to Pastor and Historian Walter Steyer, it was done so to gather German immigrants who wanted the presence of the Confessional Lutheran Church and provide them with pastoral care. The IELB emerged focused almost exclusively on serving Lutheran families of Germanic origin.[4]

These two clues seem to contribute to the scenario and, consequently, to the understanding of the difficulties in maintaining, in the long term, mass communication initiatives, which normally involve high financial investment. Then, it seems natural to understand that the resumption of the IELB's missionary work through a mass vehicle – television - with regularity, consistency and the possibility of long duration would take place in an environment that was born with the vocation of "going public", and where the essential ministerial work is with the public not belonging to the Synod: The University.

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[1] We use Bueno's (2003) concept of internal communication here: "Internal Communication is the communication effort developed by a company, agency or entity to establish channels that enable the relationship, agile and transparent, between management and the internal public and between the elements that make up this public (it is known that there are several internal public in an organization).” BUENO, Wilson da Costa. In: Mansi, Viviane. Internal Communication: what is it and what is it for? Available at: http://www.comunicacaocomfuncionario.com.br/2013/01/15/comunicacao-interna-o-que-eea-que-se-propoe/ Accessed: September 2015.          With the addition: “Internal Communication is not restricted to the so-called downward communication, that which flows from management to employees, but includes mandatory horizontal communication (between segments of this internal public) and upward communication as well, which establish the feedback and effective communication.” Internal communication. In: Online Business Communication . Available at: http://www.comunicacaoempresarial.com.br/comunicacaoempresarial/conceitos/comunicacaointerna.php Accessed: September 2015

[2] DREHER, Martin N. Wilhelm Rotermund: His Time – His Works. 2 ed. São Leopoldo, Oikos, 2014, p.76

[3] DREHER, Martin N. Wilhelm Rotermund: His Time – His Works. 2 ed. São Leopoldo, Oikos, 2014, p.76 The author inserts these reflections in the context of the chapter in which he talks about the Mucker revolt. “In this environment where faith was not something that was externalized (...) the meeting at the Maurer house, next to [Mount] Ferrabraz, must have caused a sensation. There was an externalization of faith there. Anyone who acted like that could be the target of mockery.” P. 76

[4] STEYER, Walter O. German immigrants in Rio Grande do Sul and Lutheranism. Porto Alegre: Singulart, 1999.