What Happened to Issues, Etc.? (UPDATED EASTER SUNDAY)

KFUO radio , the voice of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, for many years has broadcast a popular interview program, Issues, Etc., hosted by Todd Wilken. It offered sound apologetics and a panoply of interesting guests offering orthodox Christian commentary on the issues of the day.

I should say “used to broadcast,” as the show seems to have been peremptorily yanked from the air. Last night, the KFUOam.org website was down. This morning: There is not a trace of the show’s ever having existed . Archives: gone .

There is, however, a centrally placed photo of LCMS president Gerald B. Kieschnick.

Would love to know what happened to Rev. Wilken and Jeff Schwarz, who produced that fine, serious, and confessionally Lutheran program. I will resist the temptation to link to some of the angrier blog posts around the Web. Right now what we need is an explanation for what by all appearances is a precipitate and callous act.

UPDATE: I see that a short message has been added to the KFUOAM.org homepage regarding how for “programmatic and business reasons,” Issues, Etc. had been discontinued. The archives have also been restored. Weird.

YouTube: Yes, there is now a video calling attention to this debacle. (Although, it was made before the archives were restored to the website. I guess the lingering idea of a “purge” and the making of Wilken and Schwarz “nonpersons” was seen as a PR misstep by some.)

UPDATED AGAIN (3/20—10:30am): There is an online petition available for anyone interested in persuading the LCMS communications board to reconsider this decision.

SUPPORT TODD WILKEN AND JEFF SCHWARZ : There’s an opportunity to donate to a fund for these two gentleman on the right-hand side of this Wittenberg Trail page (scroll down).

Dear Reader,

Can I be direct with you?

War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.

First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.

But we can’t do it without readers like you.

Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.


Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.

Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.

GIVE NOW

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

The Church in the Age of Therapy

Matthew Loftus

In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…

Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot

Anna Farrow

On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…

The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen

Mike Aquilina

Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…