schmucker was a controversial theologian whom confessional lutherans viewed as a threat to american lutheranism. they did not believe he was actually a lutheran, but rather, a reformed theologian working to form a union of american lutheranism with non-lutheran american protestants. his plan to discard the augsburg confession as a declaration of lutheran belief in favor of a confession compatible with reformed theology alienated him from former allies. he published this altered confession anonymously, but it failed to pass even within his own church body.