Lutheran journalist Roger Kahle dies

Christian Century, Dec 23, 1998

Roger R. Kahle, an international journalist who covered Lutheran issues and events for 35 years, died of heart failure December 1 at the age of 55. Kahle was managing editor of the Lutheran, a magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and president of the Associated Church Press.

Kahle was ordained a pastor of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod in 1975 and was admitted to the clergy roster of the Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches in 1978. (The AELC joined the American Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America to form the ELCA in 1987.) Kahle taught journalism at California State University in Humbolt, the University of Missouri in Columbia and Boston University.

In 1979 Kahle became English editor in the Information Bureau of the Lutheran World Federation in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was responsible for weekly news publications reporting events in Lutheran churches around the world. During his time at the LWF he ran afoul of South Africa's government due to his knack for getting stories smuggled out that shed light on churches' resistance to apartheid. Kahle assumed his position at the Lutheran in 1987. His body of work includes scores of research articles, award-winning radio and television programs and documentaries, and newspaper and magazine articles.