Here comes Inauguration Day. In some ways it is a relief to know that a presidential election will not be for another four years. At the same time this election has been more interesting than usual. There were no incumbent candidates. Both of the primaries were engaging and meaningful; there were no guaranteed nominees until the primary season was almost over. We had the first woman to run seriously for president in primaries; she almost made it. We had the first POW and the first clergyman. We end up having the first black president. (Actually he’s only half black and one could also say that Obama will be the 44^th white president.)

It is reassuring to witness the wisdom of the founding fathers at work. We learn again that no party dare take the American people for granted. Over the past 80 years (20 presidential elections) each party has won an equal number of times. After two Republican terms it seems normal that Democrats now take a turn. It was a reasonably close election and the President-elect is right to note that he must work also for those who voted against him.

This election will be analyzed for years to come and from many aspects. No doubt there will be much grist for the mills of political scientists and historians. I have some observations about American Lutheran voters and their ecclesiastical leaders.

Lutherans probably vote more faithfully than Americans on average. Older people vote more often and the Lutheran Church is statistically older than the population. I would like to believe though that age is not the only factor; I would hope that our sense of Christian responsibility would bring us to exercise this essential civic responsibility.

My guess that it is still true that most American Lutherans are Republican. It used to be an overwhelming majority but that is likely eroding even in the more conservative Missouri Synod. Still, Republicans probably outnumber Democrats in both Lutheran bodies, the ELCA as well.

That makes the ELCA leadership seem curiously odd. When ELCA leaders make political statements they sound like cheerleaders for the Democratic Party. More often than not the cheering favors the Democratic left wing. One is left to wonder if there is any identifiable confessional position worth holding.

A confessional vacuum infects liturgical materials as well. I often use the good liturgical suggestions produced by Augsburg Fortress. However the suggested intercessory prayers are usually just a fervent plea that God would put Democrats in charge of everything. It would certainly make things more convenient if God would even do that in foreign nations. Now that the Democrats have won, maybe there can be more petitions that can actually be prayed in liturgy.

LCMS leaders are not as openly political, but are always careful not to offend Republicans. They don’t offend Lutheran insurance companies either. LCMS leaders will usually speak out publicly on moral issues against abortion or homosexual marriages. That would be a good thing even if these were Democratic positions. As it stands now, the LCMS is comfortably part of the social conservative wing of the Republican party.

The exaggerated politics of the ELCA are prominent in the LCMS anti-incumbency party. Positions are reversed now; it is the Republican right wing.  Except for the years when Al Barry was president, there has always been a highly vocal anti-incumbency party in the Missouri Synod. That anti-incumbency party features itself as more theologically orthodox than the elected officials. Typically its platform features ecumenism in one form or another; the anti-incumbents  are totally against it. Not so coincidentally, they happen to be more politically conservative. For example, during the Cold War, they were more anti-communist than others. Now they are more anti-abortion and more anti-homosexual. It is as if they fear that their theological positions alone will not produce the votes needed at conventions. This LCMS group is as odd as the ELCA wing that they so despise. There is a similar confessional vacuum.

I would think that Lutherans were as absorbed as others with the nomination of Governor Palin. It was amusing. Liberals stooped to anti-feminist propaganda. “Shouldn’t she stay home and take care of the kids.” “What about that teen daughter?” “And then, the hairdos, the clothes, and....”

More encouraging was the social conservative response of total enthusiasm for a woman. Especially encouraging was the LCMS enthusiasm. The LCMS argument against the ordination of women is mostly based upon a supposed “general subordination of women” (euphemistically named “the order of creation”). Those Missouri Lutherans who got behind Palin suspended “the order of creation” for her situation. Can women Eucharistic ministers or women college presidents be far behind?

President-Elect Obama promises to bring the nation together and to eliminate the polarization that has ballooned since the 1960's. I applaud his goal and pray that he can succeed. If it happens some Lutherans will have to abandon their political rhetoric and turn to other interests in order to assert their identity. Maybe they could take up serious confessional theology? Or biblical studies? Or liturgy? Or ecumenism?