blatt_, edited by pastors connected with the Council, reported a
meeting of the Pennsylvania Ministerium, held in January, 1887, as
follows: "Pastor Hinterleiter made a motion that pastors ought not
belong to secret societies. Pastor Struntz vehemently opposed this
motion, declaring that it had no place in a constitution, but was part
of a pastor's private life. Dr. Fry expressed it as his opinion that
such a resolution would give offense." In the _Lutheran Church Review_,
April, 1903, Carl Swensson wrote: "I believe the entire stand taken by,
for instance, our Augustana Synod on the secret society question has
been a mistake and a misfortune. Society members, inside or outside of
the Church, should be treated just as any other people." (_L. u. W._
1903, 184.) In the same year a number of General Council ministers
publicly joined the Mystic Shriners. On May 6, 1917, the pastor of the
First English Lutheran Church in Kitchener (Berlin), Ont., held a
lodge-service for the Freemasons and Odd-Fellows. At the convention of
the Ministerium of Pennsylvania in 1917 a petition signed by thirteen
members was presented to amend the constitution _by striking out_
section 51 in Art. 10, according to which "any minister belonging to the
Ministerium who shall, after due admonition, persist in fellowship and
cooperation with any such antichristian society or order [lodges],
whether secret or not, shall be subject to discipline." (_Proceedings_
1917, 182.) No action was taken by Synod.

128. Educational Method a Pretense.--In dealing with offenders also
against the Lutheran principles pertaining to lodge-membership, the
General Council advocated the "educational method." But the fact is that
during the whole course of its history no serious and persevering
efforts whatever were made to enlighten the congregations as to the
utter incompatibility of Lodgism and Lutheranism. Geo. Fritschel: "It
cannot be denied that the General Council as such has done nothing to
bring about a progress in this question" (concerning lodge-membership).
The same, he says, was true of its chief synods. Partly they did not
want any discussions on this question. The officers of the Pennsylvania
Synod remained unconcerned even when ministers joined the lodges.
(_Geschichte_, 2, 322.) The Iowa _Kirchenblatt_, November 24, 1917,
declared that the policy of education as advocated by the Council had
utterly and finally failed. (_Luth. Witness_ 1918, 387.) In the same