In reply to Donna Weiss.

The section of the catechism written by Martin Luther (which has had to be translated, of course, from German to English) is NOT being changed. Curiously, most of what is in our Small Catechisms - the question-and-answer section in the back 3/4th's of the book - was not written by Luther. He only wrote the Six Chief parts, along with the Table of Duties and the "Christian Questions with their answers".

That said, I guess my concern goes the other way. In my opinion, those questions must reflect accuracy in terms of answers that properly show what Luther both said and meant in the chief parts - which I believe they are trying to do a good job with. But they also must be questions both asked and answered in a fashion that properly reflects what we Christians face here in the 21st century.

The first indications are that the catechism committee is not changing the essence of the 306 questions that are in the current catechism - AT ALL. That in itself is a major mistake, not only because there is no reason to feel like those questions are ordained for purity (neither Luther nor the writers of Holy Scripture wrote these), but because many of them have just become outdated - meaning the premise on which we answer these questions have transformed to the point where no answer can accurately reflect what we need answers for in today's non-religious environment.

Between the challenges of the modern Evangelical movement, as well as the seismic shift in basic theology from those church bodies once considered as "mainline", we need both answers AND QUESTIONS that allow us to both teach and learn the Christian faith in a way that helps us in terms of witnessing to those both outside the church and inside but who believe things totally contrary to Scripture.

Both you and I should and will wait for the draft to come out - but we both need to be active in terms of helping this committee understand that the finished product must be the best of the best - reflecting both your concerns and mine. THANKS FOR WRITING!