@Foghorn
SADLY, Lutheranism has not been exempt from the relativism and liberalism that has infected much of Christianity like a cancer. In fact, much of modern liberalism was invented by a few German Lutheran theologians in the 19th Century and quickly spread. And you can see the fruits of this in much of European Lutheranism and in the USA by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ( ELCA), although the ELCA is more conservative than many in Europe.
But FORTUNATELY this did not infect all Lutheranism. There were "hold outs" who stayed with traditional, conservative Lutheranism. Today, these are sometmes known as "Confessional Lutherans" (meaning only they still hold to the teachings found in the Lutheran Confessions). There are these conservative/traditional Lutheran groups exist all over the world. They are represented in the USA by the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS), the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) and some other groups.,
In the US, perhaps 2/3's of Lutherans belong to the more liberal branch and 1/3 to the conservative/traditional/confessional groups. Lutheranism is divided just like most large Protestant faith-communities, along those who have bought into liberalism, relativism, etc. and those who are faithful to traditional/conservative positions. The later are aligned with Luther's Small Catechism and the Lutheran Confessions - and thus their views are easy to know. The liberal groups hold to the Confessions as "historical documents" and agree with them "in so far as they are correct." And thus their views are hard to determine and vary a lot from parish to parish, pastor to pastor. BTW, here at CH, I think all the Lutherans are conservative/confessional - I don't think we have any members from the ELCA here.
Blessings!
- Josiah
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...shall we say, a remnant?