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On March 9, 2004, Dr. William Diekelman, the Chairman of the LCMS Nominating
Committee wrote: "As a committee we believe God is using us to serve
the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod through the power of the Holy Spirit."
Again Diekelman wrote: "We were at prayer through our time together,
asking the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us."
Diekelmann also claims that all votes for all the nominees were unanimous.
Reclaim News asks the following questions:
1. Why doesn't the Holy Spirit want the LCMS lay people to know the names of
the people that the Nominating Committee was considering?
2. Why does the Holy Spirit want a conflict of interest by having the Committee nominate two of its own members for offices in the LCMS?
3. Why does the Holy Spirit always cause unanimous votes for all of those nominated by the Committee when the Apostles were not able to make up their
own minds about who was going to replace Judas? They had to draw lots.
4. If the Holy Spirit is using the Nominating Committee, wouldn't the Convention be working against the Holy Spirit if it disagreed with the
Nominating Committee?
5. If the Holy Spirit is using the Nominating Committee, there is no reason for the delegates to vote. The Third Person of the Trinity has already
spoken.
Reclaim News invites its readers to examine the following two letters.
The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod in 2004
Website sponsored by:
Our Savior Lutheran Church
Pagosa Springs, Colorado
http://www.oslcpagosa.org/2004.htm
Letter to Dr. Diekleman, Chairman of the Nominating Committee The following is the text of a letter which was sent to Dr. William
Diekelman on Feb. 13, 2004. As of March 6, 2004, there has been no response of any kind to any of the questions posed. When and if a response is
received, it will be posted here immediately.
See response from Dr. Diekelman as received on March 13, 2004
Feb. 13, 2004
Dr. William Diekelman
807 N. Elm Pl.
Owasso, OK 74055-5564
Dear Dr. Diekelman,
I am writing to you in your role as Chairman of the Nominations Committee. As a person who was nominated for a position on the Synod Board of
Directors, but not selected, I have some concerns and questions about the selection process, and the criteria used for selecting or rejecting
nominees. The handbook only mentions qualifications for office, but
does not give specific guidelines for what may or may not be used to disqualify
an individual. I realize that there were over 1600 nominees and not
all who were nominated could have been selected. However, there were a great
deal of very highly qualified nominees for various positions who were not selected, while others with possibly lesser qualifications were. Some
specific questions:
1. Were signers of the "That They May be One" document (or the
version of the list put forth by LCMS laymen) deliberately excluded from consideration?
Was this list of signers used in any way during the committee deliberations?
Was it present during the committee meetings or mentioned at all in the context of nominations?
2. In the same way, were the lists of endorsers of "Jesus First"
and "Daystar" present and used in any way during the meetings?
The selected slate contains what appears to be a high concentration of people who are
supporters of these two groups, and very few conservative candidates, seemingly quite out of proportion to the general makeup of the synod itself.
3. There are two members of the nominating committee who were also selected to be on the ballot, William Arndt and Carol Warren. It certainly has
the appearance of a conflict of interest to allow nominees to sit on the nominating committee. Were there procedures in place to prevent these people
from voting for the boards for which they were selected? If not, how was the
potential for conflict of interest addressed?
4. What is the reason that the nomination for the incumbent Rev. Edward Balfour of the Synod Board of Directors was not put forward when another
incumbent, Betty Duda was? Both are incumbent members of the board in
good standing, both were nominated according to procedures. The only difference
apparent to me between these two incumbent BOD members is that Rev. Balfour is Jewish. I believe that this is a serious concern. How many other
nominees for the various positions were of an ethnic minority? Of those, how
many were rejected?
5. Is there a list available that contains the names of all nominees submitted to the committee? I believe that this should be public knowledge,
and consequently, I am requesting a copy of this list.
Thank you in advance for your time. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Julie Martinez
PO Box 475
Pagosa Springs, CO 81147
(970 -731-3462)
cc. Dr. Robert Kuhn, Chairman Synod Board of Directors
Dr. Raymond Hartwig, Secretary of Synod
Dr. Gerald Kieschnick, President of Synod
Response from Dr. Diekelman
March 9, 2004
Julie Martinez
PO Box 475
Pagosa Springs, CO 81147
Dear Julie,
The peace of the Lord be with you.
Thanks for your email inquiry about the work of the Committee for Convention
Nominations. As you know the members of the Committee for Convention Nominations were each elected by the convention of the Synodical District of
which they are a member. Our goal is to serve the entire Synod and
provide as balanced a slate of candidates as possible.
The meeting of the Committee for Convention Nominations in early December 2003 was conducted decently with a good, orderly process. We were at
prayer through our time together, asking the power of the Holy Spirit to guide us.
There were no political agendas present in our meeting. There were no documents present in our meeting other than those provided us by the
Secretary of Synod.
We treated each submission fairly and showed no specific consideration to anyone. The Committee for Convention Nominations because of race or
ethnic background overlooked no one. Every member of the Committee for
Conventions Nominations voted on each person we nominated. All votes of the
committee were unanimous.
The Committee for Convention Nominations has chosen to keep with the tradition of not releasing the names submitted to the committee.
As a committee we believe God is using us to serve the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thanks for your questions and concern. The Lord bless you and keep
you.
In Christ,
William R. Diekelman, President
Oklahoma District, LCMS
cc. Dr. Robert Kuhn, Chairman Synod Board of Directors
Dr. Raymond Hartwig, Secretary of Synod
Dr. Gerald Kieschnick, President of Synod
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