The administration of Concordia University, Wisconsin has suspended one of its pastors and professors for being a whistleblower of how much progressive political action has infested its halls.
Rev. Dr. Gregory Schulz, a professor of Philosophy at CUW has been suspended after having an article titled “Woke Dysphoria at Concordia” posted by Christian News which implicated the administration and certain members of the Board of Regents of having an agenda utterly opposed to our Lutheran faith and in line with a progressive political agenda.
This is after the surprising “restart” last month of the Presidential search for CUW after decent candidates were put through the whole process which was nearing its completion.
Steadfast pointed out in January 2020 about the direction of CUW being a concern.
Rev. Joe Fisher of the South Wisconsin District has also written about this in September 2021 for the Lutheran Clarion.
Rev. Dr. Schulz is now being punished for pointing out the truth and calling for repentance. Can an institution of the Synod be allowed to persecute such faithfulness? It’s ridiculous that even the secular world protects whistleblowers but yet our Concordia doesn’t. Something stinks in the administration of CUW from these actions.
It would behoove any concerned member of Synod or of Synod’s congregations to contact the administration of CUW asking about this treatment of one of our own pastors and professors.
Please reach out to:
CUW Interim President Dr. William Cario
CUW Chairman of the Board of Regents Mr. Richard Laabs
Since Rev. Dr. Schulz and also Dr. Cario are on the roster of the LCMS, you should also include South Wisconsin District President John Wille who is the Ecclesiastical Supervisor for this.
This news is heartbreaking. Will the LCMS go the way of the ELCA and leave faithful congregational members hanging, with nowhere to turn? Are we going to see another split in the Lutheran church?
Laurie
As long as you have a faithful congregation you have somewhere.
The LCMS is a human institution. It will not last no matter what happens. God gave the blessing of it and may take that away. It has been a great blessing to so many people but as unfaithfulness grows God may choose to end it. Unfaithfulness hurts His people and causes many to be led astray. It may still continue if it gets honest with itself and repents of looking past its deep divisions while making things like unity and peace to be slogans rather than statements of fact. Lord have mercy indeed. In this occasion pray that those who want a college in league with the world either repent or are restrained.
Thank you, Pastor Scheer, for this information and the links to referenced articles. And thank you for this prayer: “that those who want a college in league with the world either repent or are restrained”. Amen.
With such thinking, Con. U. Wisconsin will surely soon bask in a similar fortunes as has Con. U. Portland.
As a parent of a current student at CUW, and one who encouraged him from little on to attend there (believing that it would continue to live under the authority of Christ, the Word of God), I am mortified by this attempt by the Board of Regents and others to throw off sound doctrine in favor of Marxist ideologies. While I do realize that some in our society are experiencing prejudice, the answer does not lie in abandoning the tenets of the historic, catholic (universal), Christian faith. Once, for ALL, Christ died and rose and ascended. If we lose this, we have lost everything. Please pray for Concordia and all our institutions of Lutheran education, that we maintain faithfulness to Christ, the Word of God made flesh (incidentally a Middle Eastern flesh), who dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. And if you are so inclined, please respectfully pass along your views to the individuals listed in this article and in the comments. Thank you.
Thank you for bringing this to light. Here I thought CUW was pretty solid, but I had only a limited view. Those (wokeness and suspending whistle-blower) are not the only unbecoming things I have heard of recently.
I read in social media about … pretty sure it was CUC (but it could have been CUW?) having a shortly after new years “Vision Boarding” activity, and I was shocked. While setting goals is a good practice, specifically having an activity you call “vision boarding,” a new agey practice used in the vision casting seeker-drivel “churches” that Pr. Rosebrough has worked to expose is disheartening.
I know that the ARP Presbyterians have had grieving and trying issues with their university (Erskine) in SC; the church body had let much control of the school slip through their hands, and trying to get some back is / was daunting. There is a battle for hearts and minds and a lot of it goes on in HEIs. I wonder how much the LCMS might need to rethink some things, like the breadth of programs offered in the Concordia System institutions.
I do hear of some fissures in the LCMS, which I have been part of ~17 mos (graciously rescued from Reformed), like cowo churches and other. I pray there is not a divide, but if there is one that it will be an amputation of what is diseased and hardened.
CUW is a reflection of the Christian church right now. We are in a massive struggle throughout our church (and throughout every church body) against what can only be described as the modern gnostic heresy (the Woke). It would be odd if CUW was not in the same situation. I believe if the synod hears this alarm, we might be able to save CUW. If not: the people who run ‘wellness’ days of ‘mindfulness’ training at CUW and are ‘inclusive’ of LGBT will win. Also remember, that while this appears to outsiders as happening under an interim president, this was all set in motion, and the people driving this were all put in powerful positions, by the previous recently retired president. It is a lot like an outgoing president setting the conditions for a market crash in his successor’s term.
Mark – you may be wrong about which Concordia on that. I spoke with someone from CUC about it and they have no knowledge of that happening (and they would know if it had).
In general, CUC is heading in the right direction on this. The regents there have been very good and their new President seems to have great zeal for being Lutheran.
As a WELS member I hope this gets fixed asap. CUW is where WLS which is righr down the road. Sends whomever has the call to teach counseling to obain their masters degree to teach those courses. MLC professors obtain masters in church music and psychology from CUW as well not to mention WELS teachers use cuw for state licensing and grad school. There ed school is very familiar with MLC program. It is used not for the location but because it has a solid footing in Scripture that you don’t see in grad schools today. For this I hope this gets cleaned up and hope the synod at large takes a larger role in running what is left of these institutions.
The trouble is, he’s not a whistleblower at all. He sees what he wants to see. He helped me earn my philosophy degree many years ago and I held him in highest esteem. But it’s become clear to me in recent years that he shares ideologies with the alt-right. His article was slanderous and dishonest. To say CUW has a progressive administration is laughable, we’re still trying to get them to even consider a woman for the position – which is only denied by the BoR.
Schulz made it about CRT, but how can a presidential search be about a framework for legal analysis? Schulz was not looking for dialogue, he was able to make his own definitions of terms without regard to agreement. His whole premise is based on the wrong definitions. Simply put, the future demographic is shifting massively for the college-bound and the CUS has not been prepared to relate to and support students from different backgrounds. It’s not about changing the Christ-centered part of the education, but the human side of the education… creating rapport with students from vastly different backgrounds and belief systems so we can be effective truth-tellers. But people will see what they want to see, even people on the inside like Schulz and others.
Wonder if Chritopher is in full agreement with the actions taken against Dr. Schulz to silence his opinions? Seems to be a standard for the ‘woke’ that anyone who expresses an opposing view is ‘slanderous and dishonest’ thus needs to be silenced so that they don’t influence any of the ‘woke’ to actually think.
You don’t need to speak for me. I’m not even in full awareness of the actions taken against Dr. Schulz. As best I can tell from this article and other’s like it, he was suspended? This is appropriate action for public slander against organizational leadership. I have not read any articles detailing his biblical approach to confrontation with his accused leadership in Matthew 18.
If Dr. Schulz’s goal was repentance, then I’m certain he would take these actions. Again, I don’t know that he did or didn’t. But a public pronouncement of guilt without any indication as to a conversation or dialogue, to give the accused opportunity to even explain themselves and agree to the terms (all while taking the opportunity to plug one’s published works)… it’s simply slander and self-serving. I’m not expecting to convince anyone, I’m just providing an alternative perspective to everything I have been reading from people who seem to assume, that because Dr. Schulz has a good reputation, he’s infallible. This man was on the list of potential presidents that was tossed out, I can understand that had to hurt.
Christopher, why should we WANT a woman in the president’s position? I far prefer ordained clergy, one that has some business acumen, but I like the theologian. Lately I think we have spent too much energy recently looking for a businessman and not a spiritual leader, and it shows badly. That you state you are trying to get them to consider a woman belies your woke, progressive, diversity viewpoint, one that unfortunately does NOT align with Christian mores.
I attended Concordia, Ann Arbor in MI. What is going on at WCU? New Age philosophy, CRT baloney, regressive bondage of wokeism have absolutely no place in education other than to repudiate these corrupt ideals. If this is truly going on, CLEAN IT OUT. How very “Catholic” to silence and condemn anyone for exposing a problem. As a lifelong Lutheran, this makes me angry and sick to my stomach.
Jason – the fact that you would not consider a female imago dei for the position reveals your prejudice. One that fortunately does not align with Christian morals.
Kathleen – take a page from the Bereans and test what you hear and read for truth. Look to your LCMS leadership for guidance, not armchair warriors.
Hi yeah former alum here. Loved my time at cuw. Guess what I vote liberal now(no the school didn’t indoctrinatee me) I learned the world is a big place with lots of view points. Too many narrow minded people on these comments. Most of whom can’t describe CRT just a boogeyman scare tactic.
Pastor, while it is important to hold each other accountable as Christians(individual and organizations), I fear this article is more gossip than anything else. We have Dr Schulz’s version of the story and the rest is, well, basically non-existent. This is disappointing and exactly what we see too often today. Look at these comments. Chastising the school for something we have very little information on. Though I am sure you were well intentioned, I am disappointed in this post.
As a woman, I don’t want any more women leaders. The world is not a better place because women are entering leadership positions. Women don’t work together like men do. Not all, of course there are exceptions, but men are more about a mission, women more about relationships. Some of us women are tired of touchy feely stuff.
As a current CUW student, and a traditional Orthodox Missouri Synod Lutheran, I have one word, Seminex. Let the woke unbiblical marxists leave and go elsewhere. We are a Lutheran institution and we will be fine without them. Dr. Schulz has publicly laid it out there for his peers to challenge with scripture, anyone trying to force him to recant or be fired has no clue what it means to be a Confessional Lutheran and most definitely has no place teaching at or administrating a Lutheran University.
Christopher, the bylaws specify that the president is the spiritual head of the faculty, including the pastors. No laymen can be the spiritual head of those pastors. Therefore, no woman can be president of a Concordia as long as the president is to fulfill that role. You might say, “Then the laymen presidents of the other Concordias also cannot be the spiritual heads.” If you were to say that, I would agree.
It’s interesting seeing all of this argument about writing an article calling out people for not following the synod guidelines and the prolonged process used to address this issue. Does anyone think the university or synod suffers from Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy? Just asking.
Cristopher,
First of all, you’re pretty cowardly in that you won’t identify yourself (last name). Your pretending ignorance on the specifics is deceitful. You are coming at this from the left, which is categorically against the Gospel. You can’t mix marxism, Hegel, Rousseau, Marcuse, Gramsci, et al, within a Christian institution. If you paid attention in Dr. Schultz’s classes, you would realize that. These modes of thought should be taught to reveal their true nature-which is a denial of Christ’s Lordship and man’s fallen state. If the LCMS does not clean this up and establish a new BOR that will affirm Confessional Lutheran teaching, then LCMS should pull the plug. There’s been plenty of time to study this and President Harrison’s team has had time to take action along with the District Presidents involved.