Religion: Lutherans in Paris

The Lutheran Church is far from strong in France, where Lutherans were the first Protestant martyrs and where, at the University of the Sorbonne, Martin Luther’s writings were publicly burned in 1521. Last week the President of France received, and the Sorbonne honored with a Doctorate of Theology, a world-famed Lutheran—Dr. John Alfred Morehead. In Pans along with Dr. Morehead were the Archbishops of Finland and Sweden, the presidents of the Lutheran Church in China and Hungary, three able leaders of the Church in Germany and representatives of all but one U. S. Lutheran sect. They were delegates to the Lutheran World Convention of which Dr. Morehead has long been president. Having met in 1923 and 1929 in Lutheran strongholds—Eisenach and Copenhagen—104 delegates were in Paris last week for their third world meeting as a gesture of encouragement to France’s minority group of 300,000 Lutherans.

Virginia-born 68 years ago, Dr. Morehead is tall, handsome, white-haired. As president of Roanoke College (1908-19), his persuasiveness in money-raising gave rise to a saying: “No use going after money now. Morehead ‘s just been through.” After 1919 he traveled through Europe working for the relief of poor Lutherans and their churches, earned the title of “best-known Lutheran in the world.”

Most notable address at the Third World Convention was given by Rev. Dr. Samuel Geiss Trexler, 58, of Manhattan. Said he: “The church is too much in the care of older men. The church becomes too conservative and is prone to lose the sympathy of the younger generation.” Urging that the church outdo Communists in pronouncing against war, Dr. Trexler deftly drew a parallel to make conservatives squirm: “Christ, seeing young Communists helping to cast out the devil of war, would again say, Forbid them not, as he did when John said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbade him because he followeth not us.”