Wednesday, April 13, 2005 AD
Hey! It's the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America!
What a shame that Luther didn't nail his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Trade Mark Office. Trademarking the name "Lutheran" might have avoided this sort of thing: Lutheran Bishops Mull Allowing Gay Clergy.
It calls to mind that scene in The Naked Gun, where the operatic tenor Enrico Palazzo watches, bound and gagged, weeping with rage and frustration, as he witnesses Frank Drebbin murdering the Star-Spangled Banner on national television, while the caption proclaims the tone-deaf singer to be "ENRICO PALAZZO".
For further discussion of the history and (un)suitability of using the name "Lutheran" to describe the Church of the Augsburg Confession, see Beggars All.
My personal $0.02 on the idea of dropping the name "Lutheran"? However unsatisfactory the name may be in principle, rebrands of this type rarely turn out well - especially when a familiar name is replaced by one that needs even more explanation than the old ("evangelical catholic", "Church of the Augsburg Confession").
I'm sure it didn't occur to Enrico Palazzo to change his name: he just made sure he sang so well in future that no-one could mistake him for an impostor.
It calls to mind that scene in The Naked Gun, where the operatic tenor Enrico Palazzo watches, bound and gagged, weeping with rage and frustration, as he witnesses Frank Drebbin murdering the Star-Spangled Banner on national television, while the caption proclaims the tone-deaf singer to be "ENRICO PALAZZO".
For further discussion of the history and (un)suitability of using the name "Lutheran" to describe the Church of the Augsburg Confession, see Beggars All.
My personal $0.02 on the idea of dropping the name "Lutheran"? However unsatisfactory the name may be in principle, rebrands of this type rarely turn out well - especially when a familiar name is replaced by one that needs even more explanation than the old ("evangelical catholic", "Church of the Augsburg Confession").
I'm sure it didn't occur to Enrico Palazzo to change his name: he just made sure he sang so well in future that no-one could mistake him for an impostor.
