CUW's New President-Elect 

Will He End the Anti-Biblical Wokeism at the University?

Rev Gregory P Schulz, DMin, Phd

It is very unlikely that he [Erik Ankerberg] can or even wants to address the secular and anti-biblical politics of Wokeism at CUW/AA. Here's why:

First, he has been elected by a board that is essentially the same Laabs-Polzin board called to repentance by President Harrison back in May and which is still refusing to repent, here in November. The electing body of the university is refusing to repent of their Wokeism and ongoing violations of the LCMS Bylaws. They have reportedly voted not to repent.

In state and national governance, the slogan is, "We get the leadership we deserve." However, in the case of CUW's governance, the reality is, "We get the leadership our unrepentant Board of Regents desires."

In his 9 May 9, 2022 Letter, the Church's President called on the board to repent of their high-stake Woke shenanigans throughout the presidential search. Notwithstanding, the board -- the very board that has elected the new president-elect, mind you -- is still thumbing their nose at the LCMS, her leadership, her confessional pastors and congregations, her doctrine and teaching, the South Wisconsin District, and the LCMS president. 

Excursus. Keep your eye on the gold at the next commencement because there will be a Thumbing-the-Nose-at-the-LCMS patch on the gold academic attire worn by the university president from here on. On a related note, one source tells me that the faculty's unpopular but plucky Exiled Philosophers Guild is even now seeking outside funding for a more modest patch with the Latin inscriptions: WOKEISM DELENDA EST and NISI PER VERBUM for the less glitzy robes of confessional professors on faculty.

Consider seriously how thoroughly this impenitent board has defied the church's call to repentance at every step in the election of their candidate, their new president-elect. It is very, very difficult to see their point-for-point words and actions as anything other than ecclesiastical malice aforethought. 

The Synod's call to the board to repent, you may remember, came as the result of the synod president's official visit to the Mequon and Ann Arbor campuses of CUW during the season of Lent in this Year of Our Lord 2022. 

The substance of the Letter has been overwhelmingly and formally ratified by pastors and lay members of the South Wisconsin District (the home District of CUW) in convention this past June. 

In what follows I will refer to LCMS Matthew Harrison's Letter to the Concordia University Board and its executive officer, the interim president, as "The LCMS Letter." I will refer to the CUW (aka, CUWAA) Board and interim president as "The Unrepentant Board."

The LCMS Letter: "Repent of your Bylaw violations during the presidential process and your promotion of the secular anti-biblical philosophy of Wokeism."

The Unrepentant Board: [Reportedly voted not to repent. Vote or not, absolutely no fruit of repentance -- not even a peep of contrition.]

The LCMS Letter: "The BOR should restart the presidential search with the three candidates plus additional members of the CUWAA theological faculty from the list of 11 men approved by the Prior Approval Panel."

The Unrepentant Board: [No reconsideration whatever of the 11 vetted candidates; instead, they stayed exclusively with the three favored under the aggressively Woke Laabs-Polzin regime.]

The LCMS Letter: "CUWAA clearly needs a competent, compassionate theologian at the helm."

The Unrepentant Board: [Elected the only layman on the vetted list of 11 candidates; someone who, we read, may or may not complete a mail-order MDiv degree in the future but nevertheless has a "divine call," according to the chairman of the board.]

The LCMS Letter: "Demonstrate repentance for Bylaw violations and adoption of secular worldviews and agendas."

The Unrepentant Board: [Zero repentance of either. Instead, expansion of Woke programs and Woke funding. No plan to eliminate Woke government funding.]

The LCMS Letter: "I fear you will continue to reject my advice, to the continued detriment of Concordia and our life together."

The Unrepentant Board: [True to form, without acknowledgment of substantial reservations from Theological and other confessional faculty, from students, and others, the Board elected a non-pastoral, non-theological candidate who, to all appearances, has not provided either one single argument against Wokeism or one single document of support for the LCMS Letter condemning the scandal of Wokeism (aka, Critical Social Justice) at the university.] 

ITA EST.

Second, the president-elect does not appear to have the academic gravitas or fortitude to produce a philosophy of Lutheran education to counter Concordia University Wokeness; only a decade or so of administrating. 

These are two of the reasons why the new president-elect may or may not have "legal authority," as military folks say, but arrives on campus with no "moral authority." 

That is, he may or may not have the administrative power to suspend and threaten to terminate professors and others like me who criticize the university and board's doctrine and practice as being contrary to the LCMS and to the Scriptures and Lutheran Confessions. But he will be impotent when it comes to inspiring professors and supporters to follow his policies and five-year visions, much less follow him into battle. 

Let's be catechetical. Q. Why has this particular candidate been named president-elect for the university? A. Because a Woke and defiantly unrepentant board of regents wanted him to be the next president. Q. Has he been elected because he opposes their agenda and objects to their impenitence? A. It is very, very unlikely.

Thus, is he likely to oppose their Woke agenda? Or, is he more likely to support it, perhaps tacitly abetting it? Or do you think he will support Wokeism as aggressively and unrepentantly as the board who elected him?

There is only the slimmest of possibilities that the president-elect can or will do anything about the anti-biblical, anti-Christ philosophy of Wokeism being promulgated by the unrepentant board that has elected him.

If I were a personal friend, I would say this to him: "Before you become President of CUW, you need to negotiate with the board. Your side of the negotiation must, absolutely must, be public, articulate, and genuine. 

"Your position must include your specific, written, and published solemn vow that you will, (1) lead the Unrepentant Board that elected you to repentance, according to the confessional and biblical freight of the first of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses (yielding the fruit of that repentance specified in President Harrison's LCMS Letter), and thus (2) you must articulate how and by when you will remove all Woke programs, discontinue Woke donations and Woke government funding, replace Woke administrators, and either convert or replace whatever Woke faculty there are from the university in perpetuity, so help you God."

WOKEISM DELENDA EST.

_______________ 

For the text of LCMS President Matthew Harrison’s Letter to the CUWAA Board, see Pr Joshua Sheer’s posting at https://steadfastlutherans.org/2022/05/president-harrison-faithfully-addresses-cuw-regents/?fbclid=IwAR20TB26H-eGAiEFRODDTMuXLF1nY0QxYw3cusG3wd9xui4B4QUclUtlnL4