What's in a name?

My father and I were talking about the Lutheran Church this morning. Last month our Missouri Synod had her convention, and this week the ELCA is in assembly. We talked about the two mergers that formed ALC I and II. One occurred in the 1930s and the other in 1960. My father said that when the second ALC merger was being considered that a debate ensued concerning the name: is the "t" in the American Lutheran Church a "t" or "T"? (Seems to me the debate decided upon "T".) I said in our church polity class at the seminary we were told about a debate regarding the LC--MS: is it a short dash or a long dash? And the professor impressed upon us that it was definitely a long dash -- end of debate.

I had never known about that little, intense debate regarding the name of the ALC. My father and I chuckled about the "t" and the "dash" debates. We acknowledged, however, that both the LCMS and the ELCA have some important issues before them -- issues that are truly important and necessary to debate and come to decisions that are Biblical and Confessional. May God keep us faithful to the Scriptures and our Lutheran Confessions now and always.