Lutherans for Loot

From Norm Teigen's Blog:

Saturday, September 29, 2007
Christian Life Resources

Christian Life Resources is endorsed by the WELS and the ELS although there is no administrative controls from these church bodies that I can see.

The organization seems to be in business to perpetuate itself. Income is $1.4 million. The leader of the group, Robert Fleischmann, pulls down $68,976 a year. That's a big salary in my book.

There is an upcoming convention. The program is designed to get the attendees to promote the organization's Pro-Life Activities. The national director says that the message of the group is to advise people to vote in such a way that God's will comes first and that human interests come next.

Who is best qualified to tell people what God's will is in the political arena? The CLR would have one believe that that organization can educate people to make the right decisions.

Sounds like a political action group to me under the guise of religious sentiment.

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GJ - This group began as WELS Lutherans for Life, pulling away from the original LCMS Lutherans for Life to "avoid fellowship issues." That is a hoot. Long ago WELS was active with Lutheran World Relief, a pan-Lutheran organization. WELS district popes sat on the LWR board (but did not pray with them). WELS has given money to the United Nations. WELS and Missouri work with ELCA all the time.

Pause to regain self-control after a laughing fit. OK. I am better now.

Ichabodians can look up the statistics on Guidestar. They can look up the Schwan Foundation, Lutheran News, etc. Guidestar provides a PDF of the non-profit's tax return. I had two national news organizations phone me about the Schwan Foundation's connections with gambling investments. They Googled the general topic and tracked me down.

I would post some of the information from Guidestar, but they are touchy about how it is used. If you want to find it, you can do the research.

Lutherans for Loot has plenty of money socked away. The way I figure, they take a pan-Christian posture now to attract more financial support. They can gather tax money too, under various guidelines. The leader of the group, Pastor Robert Fleischman, was in Columbus for a meeting many years ago. He came over to my church to keep me from mentioning his work in Christian News. I guess it was an intervention. I asked Fleischman if he was the minister who instantly fell in love with his future wife and married her a short time afterwards. He confessed and did not deny, he was the one. I trust they are still happily married and just as much in love.

Church and Change Has Its Own Website

WELS has its own agency of apostasy, linked on the official WELS.net website - Church and Change. Is this strange? Church and Change has its own website, but registration for its conference is direct from the WELS website.

People think that their church leaders enforce doctrinal fidelity. In fact, the church leaders make sure the Scriptures are seldom followed. WELS has gone one extra step in encouraging apostasy, by helping people sign up for the expensive Church and Change Wingding, to be held October 15th.

Linking Church and Change on the WELS website is like having Jesus First linked on the LCMS website. Some may recall that Missouri linked ELCA and AAL as Ministry Partners on their website, then got huffy when I exposed the page in Christian News.

The non-ELCA synods are famous for pretending to be conservative to the point of being hide-bound. They are little models of ELCA. The difference is that ELCA is honest about its non-beliefs.

The WELS AnswerMan fielded a question today on closed communion, saying it was the policy of WELS and Missouri. Everyone knows just the opposite is true. Most Missouri congregations have wide-open communion. Other LCMS congregation welcome ELCA drive-by communicants, as long as they say something to the pastor. WELS' position is, "Don't ask. Don't tell." The ELS is famous for communing ELCA members and all kinds of weirdness not associated with doctrinal orthodoxy. Mind-numbing hypocrisy is rewarded in The Little Sect on the Prairie. David Jay Webber, the Lion of Scottsdale, long ago advocated communing ELCA members and had no qualms about associating his ELS work with that of Floyd Luther Stolzenburg. In the ELS, that is considered principaled leadership. "If you have the principal, we have the interest."