[wmfights]

With this kind of logic, maybe it would have been better if NO ONE had spoken up! If Bonhoeffer had just kept his mouth shut. If the Jews had just trusted in the silence of the Vatican, everything would have worked out great peachy-keen.

Good point.

I'm unfamiliar with the organizational structure of the Lutheran Church. Is it a centralized hierarchy like the RCC?

As a Baptist we have a decentralized structure and are organized in associations. Thus any national figure really does not have any power over individual churches so you can usually find us on both sides of every issue.

[Campion]

so you can usually find us on both sides of every issue

You mean like how Bill Clinton's Southern Baptist pastor in Little Rock told him abortion was a-okay?

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Is it a centralized hierarchy like the RCC?

It's nothing like it. Presbyterian and Methodist and Lutheran pastors are accountable to their congregations. Those congregations are then accountable to presbyteries and synods, and ultimately a general assembly.

but all those offices are elected by the congregations. There is a built-in system of checks and balances in this representative form of government that is unknown in Rome where every member of which is beholden to the edicts of the bishop of Rome.

That's why the American Revolution was called the "Presbyterian Rebellion." It's the same type of governing structure and it is straight from the Bible. It is not perfect. But it is optimal for preserving and disseminating the truth, and for keeping heresy in check.

[rbmillerjr]

“As a Baptist we have a decentralized structure and are organized in associations. Thus any national figure really does not have any power over individual churches so you can usually find us on both sides of every issue.”

Oh yes, the land of 26,000 interpretations and denominations...with 26,000 answers lol.