In the Halcyon days of the 1950s, Lutherans were considered by church historians and Lutherans themselves to be importantly different from both mainline Protestants and Evangelicals. They had, Robert Handy remarked in the 1950s, a stronger doctrinal base than Methodists, Episcopalians, and Congregationalists while they were more churchly\u201d\u201dboth liturgically and in appreciation of the whole scope of church history\u201d\u201dthan Evangelicals. They were expanding in numbers and influence. They had impressive leadership: Franklin Clark Fry, the President of the United Lutheran Church in America, appeared on the cover of Time magazine with the caption: \u201cMr. Protestant.\u201d\u009d Exceptionally positioned as they were, mainstream Lutherans were expected to provide renewed Protestant vitality in America.<\/p>\n
Ah, but it was not to be. While the two most conservative\u201d\u201dthe Wisconsin and Missouri Synods\u201d\u201dbodies remained aloof from other Lutherans and from American life in general, the main body of Lutherans participated in mergers that seemed for a time to make them stronger. Many smaller ethnic churches joined into two new major churches in the early 1960s\u201d\u201dthe Lutheran Church in America and the American Lutheran Church. Like most American denominations, membership in all the Lutheran churches peaked at about 1965. Optimism about the future of Lutheranism in America abounded. That is, until the last merger produced the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1988.<\/p>\n