Wednesday, June 4, 2025

It is the 4th of June 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

Hey, let’s talk about Lutherans in America.

1517, as you likely know, has its roots in a Lutheran congregation in Capistrano Beach, California, and many of us have spent time amongst the German and Scandinavian Lutherans (shoutout to my Minnesota friends and those who might resemble the good people of Lake Wobegon).

Part of what has made the Lutheran experience in America different from other churches is the particularly ethnic “invisible hand” and identity that has helped keep the churches distinct, theologically and otherwise. Add to this a general concept of “two kingdoms,” a kind of separation of church and state, and there should be no wonder that many Americans, and American Christians, view the domestic American Lutheran as “other”, or at least relatively disconnected from mainstream culture. All of this is fair to some extent.

But what if I told you that one of the founding fathers of America, even with a strict definition of who they are, includes one family (the name might be familiar) and both the first signer of the Bill of Rights and the first Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, born in Trappe, Pennsylvania (then New Providence) in 1750. He lived a full but short life, dying on June 4, 1801, at the age of 51.

He was one of three sons of Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. Henry, considered the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America had three sons- the oldest, John Peter Gabriel was a senator, his youngest Gothilf was a famous Botanist but today we remember the middle son- Frederick Augustus and his role as a Lutheran pastor, patriot and early political figure in the new Republic.

The three sons were sent back to the old country by their father, in preparation for the ministry, to attend the University of Halle. Frederick returned in 1770, was ordained, and married to Catherine Schaeffer (of the Schaeffer sugar refining dynasty).

By 1773, he was serving five different parishes in rural Lebanon County in Pennsylvania before being called to New York City’s Christ Lutheran Church, aka the “Swamp Church” at the southeast corner of Frankfort and William. As the revolution became inevitable, Frederick was initially reticent- even critical of his own brother’s mixing of his role as a pastor and revolutionary.

But the events of 1776 pushed Frederick over the edge- he left New York as the British occupied it and went back to Pennsylvania. By 1779, he was elected to the Continental Congress, the Pennsylvania Assembly, and chosen as speaker. In 1780, he resigned the ministry and was elected the president of the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the Constitution. With the ratification of the Constitution, he was then chosen to be a member of the House of Representatives and was elected its first speaker. He was the first to sign the Bill of Rights and served four terms.

In the realm of politics, he might be best known for two things: one real and the other apocryphal. He had initially opposed the Jay Treaty, which Hamilton backed, and the appeasement of Britain during the war between the French and British in the wake of the French Revolution. Ever the pragmatist, he would soften in his opposition and would even cast the deciding vote in favor of the treaty, for which he was literally attacked and stabbed by his brother-in-law.  

The other thing- the apocryphal thing- is the so-called “Muhlenberg Legend,” the idea that Muhlenberg cast the deciding vote to enshrine English as the official language of the United States over German. There was a discussion (although no vote) to print laws in both English and German. Muhlenberg was a proponent of language assimilation (word is that his German wasn’t too great) and favored learning English. But a vote was never held in the House of Representatives (and there has been no historical recognition of an ‘official language’ until just this past March- and this is contentious with about half of Americans for and half opposed- and, well, welcome to modern America).

But it was the Jay Treaty which submarined the pastor-turned-politician’s career- he would be appointed to a government job in 1800 but died on this, the 4th of June in 1801. Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg was 51 years old.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Luke 9:

18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”

20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 4th of June 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who knows it was called the “swamp church’ not because it was in a swamp, but because the area smelled bad from the tanneries… stunk, Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who won’t tell you the liquid they used for tanning hides, but… yeah… You might want to burn some incense; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.