In Defense of Ft. Wayne

Brian Westgate has left a new comment on your post "In Defense of Rev. Fenton":

The Bride is pretty much dead. Fenton pretty much killed it. Nor is Gottesdienst pro-Rome/Constantinople.

As for Zion, it can't be blamed for Fenton or Neuhaus, and I presume she would prefer to be known as incarnational and sacramental.

And I know graduates of the Fort who care more for Luther's doctrine than for Rome and the East. Why are you so sure of students becoming fond of them BECAUSE of certain professors?
Brian Westgate

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GJ - So we have a bunch of effects without causes? My role as Informaton Maven is to sift through mounds of data and come up with opinions.

I have studied at Concordia, Ft. Wayne, attended conferences there, and talked with graduates of the school. I attended a David Scaer class. I know about Ft. Wayne faculty members promoting Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy from its graduates. When a seminary has defections from its graduates on a regular basis, something is definitely going on.

Previously, under Robert Preus, Ft. Wayne had a D.Min. program that was 100% Church Growth, according to Kincaid Smith. The faculty endorsed Church Growth principles, according to Kurt Marquart. The faculty also voted that it was 100% orthodox. The faculty is mixed, like all Lutheran seminaries, thanks to political judgments meaning more than doctrinal decisions.

I looked over the Zion, Detroit website. There are many indications of those tendencies. There are LCMS circles headed out of the Lutheran Church and ELCA circles headed the same way. There will be more polarity and more desire to get rid of those pastors. I recall the polarity starting in the LCA when a worship professor at LSTC was turning out graduates who told their congregations they had never worshiped properly before.

Church Growth services are so assinine that people would be inclined to look for something that is real worship. The plethora of new hymnals has made any given form temporary.

Some pastors can use terms like confession and mass without bowing ultimately to Rome. However, the ones who study worship incessantly - without knowing Luther's doctrine - are going to fall over on the other side. I think they should leave the Lutheran Church as soon as they reject Lutheran doctrine.

I see Rome and Eastern Orthodoxy constantly promoting their confessions, such as they are. Meanwhile, the Lutheran leaders are either Baptist-Pentecostal or halfway to Rome, and promoting both errors. Many pastors are serious and faithful, but the overall situation is absurd. No?