ELCA Opposes the Doctrine of Creation, Loves Earth Day

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

April 2, 2007

Michigan Lutherans to Dispose of Hazardous Waste on Earth Day
07-050-GP*

MARQUETTE, Mich. (ELCA) -- For the third year in a row,
thousands of Lutherans will turn in hazardous waste during the
annual Earth Keeper Clean Sweep on Earth Day, April 22, at
collection sites across northern Michigan. This year the target
is pharmaceuticals.

Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)
will join an environmental army comprised of the vast majority of
Michigan's Upper Peninsula religious community, university
students, several environmental groups and an American Indian
tribe.

Nearly 400 tons of hazardous waste has been turned in during
the past two clean sweeps, including 320 tons of old computers
and cells phones on Earth Day 2006.

The Rev. Thomas A. Skrenes, bishop of the ELCA Northern
Great Lakes Synod, Marquette, Mich., said, "Prescription drugs
keep people out of the hospital, help many to heal and are an
important part of our health care system."

"But like all good things, when they are abused or even just
thrown away they can do damage to people and nature," said
Skrenes, who leads more than 39,000 baptized Lutherans in 94
congregations across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and six
counties in northeastern Wisconsin.

The 2007 Pharmaceutical Clean Sweep is targeting out-of-date
and unwanted medications of all kinds, according to Carl
Lindquist, executive director of the Superior Watershed
Partnership.

The third annual clean sweep is sponsored by nine Upper
Peninsula faith communities with 130,000 members, the Central
Lake Superior Watershed Partnership, the Cedar Tree Institute,
and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community.

More than one-third of the ELCA Northern Great Lakes Synod
churches are participating in the clean sweep.

The synod also includes Finlandia University, Hancock,
Mich., Fortune Lake Lutheran Bible Camp, Crystal Falls, Mich.,
and Northland Lutheran Retirement Community in Marinette, WI.
Finlandia is one of 28 colleges and universities of the ELCA.

"We in the Upper Peninsula can protect our lakes and streams
with an ounce of prevention," Skrenes said. "The streams and
lakes demand our attention," he said.

"Earth Keepers is keeping the faith with God and with God's
creation," Skrenes said. "The Church of Jesus Christ is stepping
up to do its share with people of other faith communities to
preserve and protect this awesome Upper Peninsula."

The project involves more than 120 churches and temples
representing nine faith communities: Lutheran, Catholic,
Episcopal, Presbyterian, United Methodist, Unitarian
Universalist, Baha'i, Jewish and Zen Buddhist.

The leaders of all the faith communities and tribal
officials strongly support the clean sweep.

"God is at work in the beauty of our lakes and streams and
God is at work in the effort to preserve these waters by keeping
medications out of them," said Skrenes.

A pastor of the ELCA, the Rev. Jon W. Magnuson, Earth Keeper
Initiative founder and co-organizer of the clean sweeps, said
that combining religion and environmental protection is a perfect
fit.

"This will be another step of a deepening connection between
the traditions of faith and the critical challenges of the
environment," said Magnuson. "The clean sweep is one of many
signs of a new awakening, an historic shift of consciousness into
the mystery of God and a gentle love for the planet."

"This also has been a great witness to the secular community
that has dismissed religion as out of touch," said the Rev. Tari
K. Stage-Harvey, pastor at Zion Lutheran Church, St. Ignace and
Trinity Lutheran Church, Brevort, Mich. "Our communities of faith
when touched by the Spirit become powers that create amazing
change."

Lutheran Earth Keeper team member Joy Ibsen, Trout Creek,
Mich., warned that "drugs have side effects that are very
dangerous if not properly understood and handled."

"Most of the environmental problems we have are side effects
of the way we live in today's highly technological, often toxic
and overly disposable world," Ibsen said.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said
trace amounts of pharmaceuticals are turning up in America's
drinking water because most treatment plants are not designed to
filter out these medications.

When pills or liquid medicines are poured down the sink or
flushed in the toilet they remain diluted in the water supply
after treatment, and these trace amounts are linked to health
problems, according to the EPA.

"As leftover and waste pharmaceuticals get flushed down
drains, research is showing that they are increasingly being
detected in our lakes and rivers at levels that could be causing
harm to the environment and ecosystem," said Elizabeth LaPlante,
senior manager for the EPA Great Lakes National Programs Office,
Chicago.

"Specifically, reproductive and development problems in
aquatic species, hormonal disruption and antibiotic resistance
are some concerns associated with pharmaceuticals in our
wastewater," LaPlante said.

"The Earth Keeper Pharmaceutical Collection event is an
excellent opportunity to prevent the introduction of these
chemicals into Lake Superior and other water bodies," said
LaPlante.

National studies show 80 percent of the rivers sampled
tested positive for a range of pharmaceuticals including
antibiotics, birth control hormones, antidepressants, veterinary
drugs and other medications.

Pharmaceuticals in some rivers are linked to behavioral and
sexual mutations in species of fish, amphibians and birds, and
compounds called endocrine disruptors are the apparent cause of
neurological problems in children and increased incidence of some
cancers, according to EPA studies.

WELS Endorses Church and Change Radicals

Church and Change is one of those rump groups, like Jesus First in Missouri, dedicated to making the standards of the Apostate Left the standards of the synod.

A short time ago there was a dust-up when this icky liberal named Leonard Sweet was invited to be the featured speaker at a Church and Change conference. I did my best to promote the Sweet adventure, but I must have been a tiny part of it. There was a big fracas and the conference was canceled. I was told that Church and Change was finished, disbanded, too much trouble. My source was trustworthy, but his source - the Wisconsin Synod - was not.

Church and Change rolls along as before. I was looking for the WELS convention dates when I ran into the Church and Change convention link - on the official WELS website. The Church and Change leaders remind me of orcs, those hideous twisted-men of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings:

Doom Has Come Upon Us All. Behold! Orcs Riding on Wolves!

I wonder if WELS would link this blog from their massive website. I realize the way to get approval from apostate leaders is to be an apostate. The best way to antagonize them is to quote Luther. That really sets them off.

Church and Change has its own website, its own domain name:

Serving Our Father Below.

Church and Change grew up during the Gurgel administration. They are the cutting edge, as they like to say.

WELS Financial Reports - Convenient Cuts and Add-ons

The latest WELS financial reports are posted. Click on the link below:

Now You See It - Now You Don't

I am no accountant and therefore not qualified to summarize all the figures. However, any layman can see that millions of dollars are being moved around to suit the purposes of the anti-school administration.

One of the synodical complaints is that they are only receiving $1 million per year in estate gifts. They are spending $2 million on Tetzels, or Planned Giving Counselors. So they would make $1 million net - just by firing the Tetzels and leaving those old people alone. Too much begging is counter-productive.

Why not fire everyone on the money staff? They are obviously doing a poor job.

The Apache mission is being strangled, but there is lots of money for Asia and other exotic places in the world missions budget. There are huge boosts for world missions.

Millions are spent on meetings. Various groups are flown to Milwaukee all the time. Here's a clue for those spending on technology: teleconferencing. It can be done by phone or even with video. By phone it is quite inexpensive. Video would be an enormous savings over flights, food, and motels.

The WELS website is good for $200,000 cost per year. The Ichabod blog is free. Some volunteer could run a blog that has one page, featuring: Lenski, Triglotta, Boxer Shorts. That's an old joke from the late Northwestern College. One professor used to say, "All you need to be an orthodox pastor is Lenski, the Concordia Triglotta, and a pair of boxer shorts." I thought some time ago that the WELS website was a self-perpetuating monstrosity, difficult to navigate, time-consuming to update. Permanent job security.

Note that Michigan has the most to lose this convention. They had tons of material on their part of the WELS website. The others have next to nothing, except for Southeast Wisconsin, with just a little information. A volunteer could put up plenty of useful information for each district. Dull stuff for so much money.

When my wife and I were cutting expenses, we did things like the following. A dinner out at Red Lobster was at least $30. Why not get some fresh fish at Sprouts and grill it? A pound of fresh fish is about $10, sometimes only $5 on sale. We have had salmon, catfish, and flounder from a hickory smoked grill for half the cost of dinner out. Besides, now we are spoiled. Nothing compares to freshly grilled meat. I make pollo asado for $3.50 a pound. The meat is already prepared at Sprouts. I can grill a week's worth of chicken for the cost of one dinner out, so I do that. Synods could improve quality while cutting costs, but they will not.

The trouble with the four-letter synods (ELCA, WELS, LCMS) is the same with the three letter synods (ELS, CLCs, LCR). They consider the money their money. ELCA has had a corrupting influence. I once saw a book at the LCA seminary library - a training manual for bishops. I wish I would have hooked it and xeroxed it. The tips were worth communicating to to others. "Be a hammer, never an anvil." That explains a lot. If the leaders are always pounding someone, they are not being pounded. The result is not a happy one. Pastors with brains go silent or get out.

The money these people waste on themselves is truly sickening. Pope John the Malefactor (ELS) just went to South Korea with another ELS person, to be photographed with someone. The tiny sect is $80,000 short of cash for the current year, so the new budget has to be cut. Is there no shame? WELS is running $900,000 short for the current year, but they sky is filled with traveling DPs.