The Lutheran Hour - 2002 Removal of Speaker Wallace Schulz

2002 Removal of Speaker Wallace Schulz

In July 2002, just weeks after his promotion from associate speaker to main speaker, Dr. Wallace Schulz was involved in an LCMS controversy that resulted in his removal from the show. Acting in his capacity as LCMS Second Vice President, Schulz suspended LCMS Atlantic District president David Benke, ruling that Benke, by taking part in an inter-faith prayer event at Yankee Stadium to commemorate the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, had engaged in syncretism and unionism, practices prohibited by the LCMS. (Benke's suspension was later overturned on appeal.) The show's board of governors, shortly following Schulz's elevation to main speaker, had requested that he recuse himself from the Benke adjudication to avoid "a conflict of interest" in his duties to the International Lutheran Laymen's League, which operates Lutheran Hour Ministries and had not taken an official position on the Benke case in order to avoid alienating members holding differing views on the issue. When Schulz nevertheless accepted the Benke case, the board relieved him of his duties while keeping him on the payroll, explaining that the radio program had been "compromised" by Schulz's participation in church politics, and that it might serve to "polarize" the International Lutheran Laymen's League. The League soon offered Schulz a return to the show under condition that he accept certain stipulations for future conduct, but Schulz refused to accept these restrictions and thus did not return to the show.

Schulz's removal, like the Benke case itself, proved extremely controversial within the LCMS. His supporters argued that Schulz had a constitutional duty to rule in the case, and thus could not recuse himself upon the board of governors’ request. The Rev. Eric Stefanski, in a column published by the conservative LCMS group Concord, accused the International Lutheran Laymen's League of waging "a massive, twisted PR battle" against Schulz, and of presenting him with "ultimatums that no pastor could agree to without denying his Ordination vows." Supporters of Schulz also argued that a drop in financial receipts at the ILLL, which led to layoffs and program cancellations in 2003, were attributable primarily to donor and listener dissatisfaction over the speaker's removal. Opponents of Schulz's actions, on the other hand, praised the decision to suspend the speaker, with many arguing, as a column published by the liberal LCMS organization Jesus First put it, that those who disagreed with Schulz's actions were "working hard to present views more representative of this church."

Schulz now serves as an evangelist and editor for the Lutheran Heritage Foundation, an LCMS organization dedicated to translating theological works into the languages of the world.