The WELS Nicene Creed: Not for Us Men

 

The WELS uses a novel version of the Nicene Creed. Take that back, it's not novel, it's the version the ELCA uses. So while our brothers in the LCMS and ELS say

"Who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man"

The WELS join arms with ELCA priestesses and say

"For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became truly human"

Also interesting to note: The LCMS capitalizes "He" in the creed, the WELS leaves it lower case. The LCMS has a lower case "virgin" Mary, the WELS and upper case "Virgin" Mary... 

The WELS attempts to rationalize this, poorly, as one might expect when one invokes the magisterial use of reason. Rev. Earle Treptow makes the specious claim that the modern parishioner can't understand that "us men" is humanity and not just males. So they propose "human beings" but shoot that idea down because it is not sufficiently "rhythmic and euphonious," as one might say who favors style over clarity. They propose dropping "beings" and admit "humans" would be a fine substitution but decline because "[it] is not being used by any other churches. The WELS has no interest in being sectarian [!] or adopting a translation that no one else is using." 

Hence, we share a creed with ELCA...