In this conversation, co-hosts Miles Smith (Anglican), and D. G. Hart (Presbyterian) lean heavily on Korey Maas (Lutheran) to make sense of the dust up in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod over a new edition of Luther's Large Catechism. It comes from Concordia Publishing House and includes essays on various theological and moral topics. Some in the LCMS have detected the fingerprints of progressive politics (or worse) in some of the essays even while others regard those critics as leaning too far to the Right. This controversy relates to Presbyterians and Reformed Protestants (discussed in a previous episode) at their General Assemblies and Synods last summer potentially reflecting the nation's political climate more than they imagine. These incidents raise questions about the ability of confessional Protestants to escape some of the moral assumptions that drive so many of the contemporary partisan divides. If, for instance, even the deepest die-hard fans of Penn State football could not resist the rush to judgment in the Jerry Sandusky scandal (listen to this podcast to get up to speed), how well do Protestants, even with the good bones of Reformation-era confessions and functioning church polities, escape the most popular interpretations of news events and national politics?

This episode's sponsor is Anthony Milton's recent book, England's Second Reformation: The Battle for the Church of England, 1625-1662.