Are They Leaders or Followers?

One of the fallacies of the Lutheran Church is that voting gives power to people, as if democratic principles have a positive impact on a church organization. People fail to notice how carefully controlled those votes can be. The organization is in love with itself. The people who live from the proceeds need the institution to be strong in money and weak in ethics. When someone is elected president or bishop, the election is arranged, whether the sect is tiny and inconsequential or large and inconsequential.

Years ago, in one district of the LCA the president was elected by having a whispering campaign against the strongest candidate's wife. She was disabled, so he could not be a good president. The campaign worked, defeating the more capable candidate. Compassionate, liberal pastors did this.

The ELS has the WELS unwritten rule of the VP becoming president when the president finally retires. The new VP was a threat to the tradition of the ELS being the lickspittle of WELS, so John Moldstad was promoted to replace him. The lickspittle faction rejoiced that they ejected one person in favor of Moldstad, who soon became Pope John the Malefactor. ELS pastors politicking? Oh no! Bragging about it? Oh no! So the naive sheep are led around until they are fleeced.

The people who run the synods are never the noisy ones. The real leaders are the people who work behind the figureheads. They may brag about it from time to time, as Kincaid Smith does in the ELS, but they mostly keep their mouths shut. They have the satisfaction of seeing their plans accomplished over time. They get their children or siblings into the best positions and then pile on anyone, like hobos on a hotdog, if someone questions the actions or doctrine of another member of the lickspittle faction (or Church Growth faction in WELS, or Lavender Mafia in ELCA).

That is the basic problem, easily observed in ELCA, Missouri, WELS, the ELS, and mini-micro sects. Therefore, those who care about sound doctrine are wasting their time playing the devil's game in politics. They can never win because God works through the Word, and Satan works through politicking. One example will suffice. An orthodox Lutheran woman asked a WELS pastor to speak out about Church Growth. He said, "I am not going to, because I want a teaching position at the college." He silenced himself to get the job. Now he has the job and the college is vanishing faster than liquor at a WELS ministerial meeting.

Luther argued that we should teach the Word and accept the consequences. Satan teaches people to aim for their goals and bend the Word to meet their objectives. Women are teaching men, pit bands are in the chancel, Fuller graduates are professors, and you ask me who is winning?

Teigen, Teigen, Burning Bright

What caused thee to ignite?

Norm Teigen has objected to my views about fraternal insurance promoting commercialism in the congregations and synods. I do not like pie sales or car washes either. Churches should not compete in the market place for business, like the Methodist Church that advertised on its sign, "Home of the Yumbo Sandwich." I saw the photo - I am not making it up. The insurance company is entitled to corrupt as many churches as possible. The congregations and synods also have a right to resist temptation.

I was going to write, "Get your own blog," but he has one.

The other objection is calling John Moldstad "Pope John the Malefactor." I thought it was a catchy and appropriate title. WELS and ELS leaders are so impressed with themselves that they take on papal power. In fact, I imagine Pope Benedict envies their infallibility and their clout.

I know Pope George the Eternal did the same things, removing pastors according to his own whim, promoting false doctrine by fiat. The only Lutheran autorities I acknowledge are the Scriptures and the Book of Concord. Lutheran leaders are neither norma normans nor norma normata (a ruling norm like the Bible, a ruled norm like the Book of Concord). Someone who respects the real norms should be respected, but that is just the opposite in the WELS, ELS, and the micro-crazy sects (so small they are not worth mentioning).

Here are some things that would make me a cheerleader for Pope John the Malefactor:

1. Denunciation of forgiveness without faith, without the Means of Grace, which is the doctrinal foundation of current evils.
   
2. Teaching the efficacy of the Word without reservation, repudiating all programs where evildoers cast doubt on this Biblical doctrine.
   
3. Apologizing to the congregations and pastors ejected from the Evangelical Lutheran Synod under the flimsiest of excuses. Do a Nifong, even if it is too late.
   
4. Breaking fellowship with Fuller Seminary, Willow Creek, and Church and Change.
   
5. Promoting a multi-year study of the Book of Concord and Luther.
   
6. Urging WELS to stop inviting Roman Catholic, Unitarian, Methodist, and ELCA speakers.
   
7. Showing contrition for having a former Roman Catholic bishop march in a religious process at the Bethany Chapel and giving an address.

Can the Sausage Factories Be Repaired?

Norm Teigen commented below that the WELS school system tends to keep people away from the realities of the world. Anyone acquainted with WELS knows how much they work at conformity.

ELS Pastor Jay Webber, who has become a WELS loyalist, used to call the WELS seminary "The Sausage Factory," a term he got from the ELS. His nickname for WELS is our Weaker Evangelical Lutheran Siblings.

WELS Pastor James Huebner told me that students would make fun of anyone who was interested in a given topic. "That guaranteed," he explained, "that everyone would be the same." I said, "That also guarantees mediocrity."

Conforming turned out to be a great tool for flipping the Wisconsin Synod. All the apostates had to do was get a few key people in some slots, start a new program here and there. No one could object because all decisions made by WELS come directly from the Holy Spirit, who will not allow them to err. That sounds eerily Roman Catholic, no? I have heard comments like this: "The Holy Spirit made him circuit pastor, so who are you to disagree?" WELS members and pastors are not likely to argue with God, so the matter is settled. Roma locuta est, causa finita est. Rome has spoken, the case is closed.

Another important factor is the hazing practiced by WELS from the prep level onwards. The hazing has included knocking a future pastor out with a pillow case full of books, dropping a student out of a window when holding him by his legs, breaking a seminarian's leg, and knocking out a seminarian's tooth. Complaining makes things worse. Sissies complain about physcial and emotional abuse. Of course, what does that say about the abusers?

So WELS is a weird combination of spineless toadies and sadistic bullies. A bully is always a coward, but he does not think so when he makes people tremble.

When Issues in WELS was gearing up for a huge meeting, SP Gurgel made it clear he would be there. Attendance melted faster than a July frost. Gurgel also communicated his vast displeasure at the meek, trembling dissenters. If he had yelled, "Boo!" they would have probably fled the exits, trampling the local help.

Breaking News Michigan District Special Meeting

The Michigan District voted to approve the Western Wisconsin conference resolution, which is to keep both prep schools open as the budget priority. "Cut everything, even foreign missionaries," as one person reported. Another one said, "If the preps are gone, the college is gone soon after." This vote is really for three schools, not one, and that makes all three school constituents allies.

Western Wisconsin Conference Says No to Gurgel, Yes to Preps

The Michigan District might take over Michigan Lutheran Seminary, but one person thought the burden would be too much. The math is simple: if 12 districts cannot support two preps, how can one support its own? The entire Michigan economy is based on American cars and sugar beets.

Different people thought the synodical council's attitude was "galling." The SC runs the synod at this point.

Mark Schroeder presented his plan to charge a fee for each congregation in the synod. He seems to be running for office.

This meeting does not mean that the delegates will vote the same way. If the WELS convention votes for this resolution, the new synodical president and synodical council may do things their own way. Gurgel was originally elected to save Northwestern College. He did an about-face the moment he was elected, right there at the convention.

Wayne Mueller will continue to act like the president, even if he is not elected.

The synodical council is determined to close MLS. That came through from the beginning of the open debate. When a new, large five-year gift was given, WELS did not use it for the schools but for everything except the schools.

Thrivent, AAL, LB: Wake Up, The Lutheran Merger Already Took Place

One of the corrupting influences in Lutheran congregations is the fraternal insurance company.

Fraternals are chartered under the lodge insurance laws. When someone joins a lodge, whether Masonic or Knights of Columbus, he is required or expected to buy lodge insurance. The same thing has been implied among Lutherans.

Lutherans got lodge insurance going to help people overcome their aversion to buying insurance.

Thrivent and its earlier manifestations (LB, AAL) figured out how to create a merger without the bother of meetings, constitutions, and debates. Money is doled out through pan-Lutheran boards at the local level. At the national level, large chunks of money are given with the provision that Missouri and WELS work with ELCA on various religious projects. Perhaps the ELS gets its feet in the trough, but they do not register in the printed material I have found. Once I started reporting how serious this was, AAL and LB stopped reporting the truth in their little magazines.
The ELS goes along with eveything WELS does, either anticipating its big brother, or following it in foolishness: Church Growth, inviting Roman Catholics to give religious talks, moving toward women's ordination.

The result of the local and national projects is a pan-Lutheran body with ELCA leading the agenda. ELCA can easily boycott a project so they have clout, but they do not need to threaten. ELCA is where the others want to be. The so-called conservatives can say, "We had to do that Thrivent's way. They have the money." They also say, "That is not congregational money, so we can use it any way we want." The apostates seem to think the money is their personal possession.

At the local level, Thrivent gives a pittance while insisting that Thrivent is named in the bulletin for their little matching fund donation. Thrivent likes commercialism. Why not? They are the only company allowed to advertize in the bulletin and newsletter. Thrivent agents also work hard at getting the congregation's address list. The agents imply, or boldly state, that their ownershp of the address list has happened with the blessing of the pastor.

AAL gave its local branch officers pay for their work. I am not sure if Thrivent does. AAL was the larger group in the AAL-LB merger.

WELS Administration Picks World Missions Instead of Schools

I have many sources within WELS. Some information is so good that I cannot be too specific about its content or origin. Anyone can conclude the obvious from the funding battle, but the thoughts have been put into print as well.

The WELS administration has decided to pick world missions over the funding of schools. World missions are essential. Schools are not. They must admire the political expertise of George Bush on the illegal invasion issue. WELS officials are copying the tactic of alienating all possible supporters.

The synod administration has decided to let both prep schools go down, temporarily prop up Martin Luther College, and keep the seminary long-term. Merging a teacher's college with a future pastor's college created a big problem years ago. WELS cut back its parochial schools, under the Fuller-trained Church Growth leadership of Norm Berg. If the two colleges had been kept apart, they could have turned DMLC into a nursing home with no problem, keeping Northwestern College. Now they have to move the pastoral training program to Wisconsin Lutheran College when MLC closes. WLC already has a pre-seminary program, no surprise, and plenty of Schwan money.

Although Gurgel admits to having the "gift of leadership," his reasoning is invulnerable to logical analysis. World missionaries can be replaced at any time in the future. A school, once closed, cannot be opened again. Although a school is a big drain on money, the cost of starting one is almost impossible for any church body, let alone a failing institution. Schools inspire loyalty and giving. No one can guess what closing a beloved school does to the trust of the members.

For decades now the Lutherans of all synods have chosen to abandon their schools. CLC clown David Koenig made the thinking all too obvious when he would shout, "Schools are for us. World missions are for them." Since he craved being the only world missionary in the sect, he might have admitted, "World missions are for me." The various administrations could say the same thing. How else could Pope John the Malefactor travel to South Korea, with another representative, on the expense account of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod? How else could Gaylin Schmeling travel through Europe with his wife?

Oddly, the men who are closing the schools received an education for almost nothing. When Gurgel was ordained, he received all his prep-college-synod tuition back as a gift from the synod. That was policy then and helped WELS pastors get a start with their new shepherdesses. The skyrocketing cost of Lutheran education is simply because the proportion of synod support has been decreased decade after decade.

The Lutheran doctrinal approach is: orthodox doctrine will produce fruit. That requires trust in God's Word, absent today among the apostate leaders.

The Reformed doctrinal approach is: God needs us to convert the heathen. If we do not act now and work with other Christian groups to accomplish this, millions of heathen will tumble into Hell. Deeds, not creeds! We are God's hands and feet and eyes and wallets. We have seen the godless, naked pagans of the French Riviera and Brazil. Send us back so we can save their sin-drenched souls.

WELS and Missouri in Fellowship with Hinduism

"St. Olaf's College Appoints Hindu to Head Religion Dept

URL for this entry:

Fellowship with 300 Million Gods - St. Olaf Lutheran College Brags About It!

WorldNetDaily reports that St. Olaf's, a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, has appointed a practicing Hindu, Anantanand Rambachan, to head the Religion Department.

Rambachan says that his appointment:

'is not meant to indicate or signal a new attitude or direction for the college. At the same time, St. Olaf, like many other academic institutions, is growing and changing. … Today, courses on Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism are taught without controversy…," he said. "Institutions should increasingly reflect the diversity of our nation and this, of course, includes religion.'"

Poetic justice has arrived at last. One Hindu god is Kali, bloodthirsty goddess of destruction. The Thugs, who used to strangle their victims and rob them, were devoted to Kali. Thugs would warn travelers about bandits in the area, walk with them to help guard them, and then murder and rob once the travelers began to trust them. In the same way, Lutheran leaders say, "Trust us. We will take care of you on the journey."

Do not be alarmed, WELS, ELS, and Missouri members. When the so-called conservatives have evangelism programs, multi-culutralism, leadership conferences, and religious radio shows with ELCA, it is always "outside the framework of fellowship," to borrow a worn phrase from WELS.

The original St. Olaf was largely responsible for turning Norway into a Christian country. St. Olaf's College is turning its religion department pagan.

I was interviewed for a world religion position at a local community college. I was warned by an insider at the college that no Christian was allowed to teach in the department, even part-time. The religion departments of public and Lutheran colleges are filled with atheists, apostates, pagans, enemies of the Christian faith.

Ironically, I have taught world religion at a for-profit university about 45 times so far and still going strong. I teach soldiers, all nationalities, all faiths, from all over the world, online and in the classroom. My employer, an atheist, has no problem with me expressing conservative Protestant views, including my support of Creation.

WELS and Missouri Have No Problem Working with ELCA

ELCA pays for abortions for any reason through its church health plan. ELCA lobbies for abortion on demand through its World Hunger donations, which are diverted for political lobbying to create a just society. Missouri and WELS pose as pro-life organizations, but they have no trouble working on joint religious projects with ELCA.

In Related News - Your Tax Dollars Slaughter the Innnocent

"Planned Parenthood Reports Record Abortions, High Profits
By Randy Hall
CNSNews.com Staff Writer/Editor
June 15, 2007

(CNSNews.com) - Despite a drop in donations and the first fall in income from clinics in its history, the nation's biggest abortion provider made a high profit last year, thanks to the American taxpayer. Pro-lifers want this to stop.

During its 2005-2006 fiscal year, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America performed a record 264,943 abortions, attained a high profit of $55.8 million and received record taxpayer funding of $305.3 million.

According to its annual report, income is divided roughly into three major categories: clinic income (fees charged to customers at clinics); donations (gifts from corporations, foundations and individuals); and taxpayer money (grants and contracts from federal, state and local government).

For the year July 1, 2005, through June 30, 2006, Planned Parenthood received $345.1 million in clinic income, $305.3 million in taxpayer funding and $212.2 million in donations. Total income reached $902.8 million while total expenses came to $847.0 million, leaving a profit of $55.8 million."