In what sense Lutheran?

Another dust up at Notre Dame after the university sponsored a drag show in the name of academic freedom.  I guess there is no end to our freedom to be stupid.  But, of course, this is not the first of many forays into controversy.  If you can remember it, there was the same problem with a university sponsored performance of the Vagina Monologues some time ago.  The issue today is further muddied by the fact that the faculty appears to be mostly non-Roman Catholic and perhaps not even Christian.  The rumored fact is that Notre Dame has since hired an abundance of non-Roman Catholic faculty and this is blamed for the hosting of such events and the permitted teaching on subjects contrary to Rome's doctrine.  The thinking here is that there is a higher calling to truth for its own sake -- something that effectively trumps Christ who claims to be the only truth.  In 2006 the published number of Catholic faculty barely reached 50 percent; you will find no such published numbers today on the religious identity of faculty. 

Lets extrapolate this to the Lutheran arena.  How many of the faculty on our Concordia University campuses are not Lutheran (even not Christian)?  How many of the faculty of our parochial schools are not Lutheran (or not Christian)?  In what sense, then can we call these schools Lutheran?  Rome will have to deal with its own problems of identity but this is certainly an appropriate topic for us as Lutherans.  For all the glowing descriptions and carefully crafted words that insist our schools on all level are Lutheran, the reality is that without Lutheran faculty, these are just claims.  Now, it might be argued, this does not quite apply to preschools or day care in the same way it applies to high schools and universities, but the question persists.  How does our Lutheran identity in these institutions remain and give substance to who these schools are without a preponderance of teaching faculty being Lutheran in membership and confession?

I am not quite ready to say that without a preponderance of Lutheran teachers an institution has no legitimate right to claim Lutheran identity, but I do wish to raise the question and encourage the debate on this topic.  Sure, we all know that there are not enough Lutheran teachers to staff all our elementary, middle, and high schools much less Lutheran faculty to make up the teachers on our university campuses.  But this may be a convenient excuse for an intention to be something less than fully Lutheran in our schools rather than a simple fact faced by those trying to staff such schools.  How do we keep and guarantee the Lutheran identity of our schools when those who supposedly represent the Church in the classroom are not Lutheran themselves?  Can a weekly chapel shoulder the full burden of maintaining Lutheran identity?  Can an executive staff do the same?  Can a religion department staffed only by Lutherans accomplish this?

We are not talking about this like we ought or there would be an uptick in the enrollment of Lutheran young men and women seeking to be Lutheran teachers in Lutheran schools.  The fact that there is not suggests that either we have already decided this cannot or will not happen or it does not need to be in order for our schools to be fully Lutheran.  So far, I have not seen a vigorous defense of the need for Lutheran teachers nor have I witnessed from our churches and leaders a compelling vision for what makes a school Lutheran when its faculty is not.  These are the hard questions we ought to be debating not simply behind the closed doors of board meetings and faculty retreats but openly.  Our schools are either a substantial asset for the mission of our Lutheran congregations or they are an expensive perk.  

Although the debates about Lutheran schools and their blessing to the Church and their mission are important, perhaps we need to begin at the very beginning.  What makes a school Lutheran?  It will be different for each different level (from early childhood to the university) but in every case and at every level I would safely presume that a Lutheran faculty is not only optimum but it is key.