WordAlone (sic) - To Yeastify Concordia Seminary, St. Louis

WordAlone (sic) is the slightly conservative lobbying group within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. They could not possibly believe in the Word alone and still hold their beliefs, so that is why I used the Latin sic. For those of you who were listening to Punk Rock instead of studying Latin, the word means "their error, not mine." If I quoted someone who claimed Chicago was the capital of Illinois, I might add (sic) to prove I knew the difference. This little word is great fun when Lutherans misspell Lutheran in writing one of their hair-on-fire emails to me.

Where was I?

Oh yes. Concordia Seminary has invited these tepid Lutherans to study at their posh seminary in Clayton, one of the tonier suburbs of St. Louis. They used some Schwan loot to buy the school next door, so that place has plenty of room to expand. My prediction is that Gerald the Bold will move Ft. Wayne to St. Louis to save money, installing some nice Church Growth hive at The Fort, as they like to call it. The Fort has been surrounded and eager to surrender for years.

Here is the link to the story from WA. Hide Your Sister, No Your Brother - WordAlone Is on the Clayton Campus!

My problem with WA is their turn-back-the-clock-ten-years approach to ELCA's feverish dogmas of apostasy. WA definitely does not trust the Word alone. They are nostalgic about the times when they could read PR news releases from ELCA and not wince or answer strange questions from their co-workers, like, "Does your pastor know all the Broadway show tunes and the original cast names?"

More troubling still is Missouri's willingness to "dialogue" about false doctrine. This is what Bartelt,their LCMS seminary rep, said to WA:

While noting some areas of theological agreement between WordAlone and the seminary, Bartelt did not ignore two potential areas of dispute. He wrote, “Indeed, we welcome those who are willing to engage in honest dialogue and conversation about controversial theological matters, including issues such as the historical-critical method [of biblical study] and women’s ordination.”

He also wrote, “With others in our faculty and administration, I am pleased to continue to foster, as appropriate, the relationship already nurtured through dialog with your leadership and network.”

Why not welcome the chance to debate about the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and other settled questions of doctrine? WA is not even close to historic Christianity, and Bartelt's open-mindedness shows the seminary is not either. Both Concordia seminaries are only a few years behind ELCA in progressive thinking. That is why WA is welcome. The differences are slight.