Why the Passionate Promotion of Infant Communion?

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Click here for an interesting article about the non-antiquity of Infant Communion.

We have never had such widespread ignorance of Lutheran doctrine among the clergy and the laity. Perhaps the Medieval Church was worse, but that was the object of Luther's ire after the Saxon Visitation, when he found out how pathetic the clergy were.

How can Lutheran clergy become so involved in a new doctrine (for them) when they barely grasp the essentials of the Book of Concord? Could they reflect the basic content of Chemnitz' Enchiridion? I doubt it. Jacobs' Summary of the Christian Faith? That would be a rare find in a pastor's library, even more so if he knew who Henry E. Jacobs was.

Schmid was a typical book in the ALC clergy libraries. I used to see them in seminary book sales in Columbus. Schmid has quotations from the orthodox theologians who followed Luther. He published the forerunner of the Megatron "ready-to-go database" (Larry Olson).

Having the books is not enough. People need doctrinal conflict to study the essential books of Lutheran doctrine.

When Is Medicine Appealing?
Most antibiotics are distasteful. They have an awful odor that communicates its dreafulness with the person who takes them. They upset the stomach. So when we see an antibiotic on the shelf, we have no desire for it. When we get a raging infection, the antibiotic is the most precious thing we can have. We will send a spouse through a raging storm to get more.

Lutheran Orthodoxy As Medicine
An orthodox Lutheran book may be difficult to read and enjoy at first. Reading develops a capacity, but where is the motivation? The print is small. No one brings up Lutheran theologians anymore. But when there is doctrinal conflict, the orthodox Lutheran books are medicine against error. They also have a miraculous harmony. Luther, Melanchthon, Chemnitz, Gerhard, Schmid, and Jacobs say the same things (in different words) about the efficacy of God's Word.

From that one central doctrine, the effectiveness and power of the Word alone, we can trace all the components of the Lutheran Confessions.

Lord Jesus Christ, With Us Abide

Oh, keep us in Thy Word, we pray;
The guile and rage of Satan stay!
Oh, may Thy mercy never cease!
Give concord, patience, courage, peace.

O God, how sin's dread works abound!
Throughout the earth no rest is found,
And falsehood's spirit wide has spread,
And error boldly rears its head.

The haughty spirits, Lord, restrain
Who over Thy Church with might would reign
And always set forth something new,
Devised to change Thy doctrine true.

A trusty weapon is Thy Word,
Thy Church's buckler, shield, and sword.
Oh, let us in its power confide
That we may seek no other guide!

The Lutheran Hymnal, #292
Selnecker participated in creating the Book of Concord, 1580.

***

I often feel like the elderly Slovak Lutheran woman who lived in Cleveland with her children. She said, "Ich bin ein Fremd in ein fremder Land." (I am a stranger in a strange land.) Or perhaps like one of the last humans left in Night of the Living Dead. Every time I try to warn someone, he turns out to be a pod-person, a zombie who looks like the former friend but appears all hollowed out, without a soul.

I know from the emails, letters, and phone calls that there are many more like me.

WELS and Mormonism

It's a numbers game with Mormon missionaries, too.

I was doing research on secret Mormon rituals when I was struck by the number of parallels with the Wisconsin Synod. I have known and worked with Mormons and taught Mormons in world religion classes. All three Ichabods enjoy a lasting friendship long ago with our Mormon next-door neighbors. We specifically stopped to look them up in Sturgis. Mormons are often very nice people. So are WELS members.

I suggest Googling "secret Mormon rituals" to learn more about the Latter Day Saints, especially since Mitt Romney is running for the GOP nomination for president.

Not much will show up about secret WELS rituals. Here are some interesting parallels between Mormon and WELS attitudes:

1. Holy Mother Church is perfect, so no criticism is allowed.
2. Just as there are TBMs (True Believing Mormons), so there are TBWs (True Blue WELS) members. One signed herself WELS_Of_Pure_Doctrine on a blog! I can imagine her singing a church solo with a Sarah Brightman hyper-emotional grin.
3. The obvious gap between perfection and reality leads to a lot of posturing, denial, deceit, and emotional turmoil.
4. In either group, finding out the truth is emotionally devastating to the true believers. Ex-members take years to recover.
5. Both groups have secret, sexually provocative rituals. Initiates are not told the truth beforehand. Mormons had "naked touching" (banned in 2005). WELS had GA, where the entire first-year seminary class stripped naked outside after the dip the sewage pond. The pond is gone and GA is now underground. But no, it is really closed down, a TBW says. I am almost persuaded.
6. Both groups take pride in their peculiar doctrines and traditions. WELS clergy are always saying, "In our circles, this means..." That really means, "We are only ones promoting this weird idea." One was having vicars consecrate Holy Communion. Another was ordaining male teachers (for tax reasons and because they wanted it).
7. TBWs may not have special underwear, but they are acutely conscious of the need to conform, just like Mormons.
8. Both groups change doctrine whenever it suits them, because both want desperately to be mainstream.
9. Power play manipulation is the norm in both groups, not the exception.
10. No one has ever been murdered by Mormon leaders or by WELS church workers. No one has ever been sexually abused by the clergy of either group. Just ask. They will deny it.

Recessional Lutherans

Recessional Lutherans, like Father Neuhaus,
lead them out, reverently.

I remember when Rev. Richard J. Neuhaus used to call himself and his friends Confessional Lutherans. Clearly he was preparing for some years to become a Roman Catholic priest. His friend Robert Wilken (head of graduate studies, theology, when I was at Notre Dame) also joined the Church of Rome.

Now we have those Synodical Conference leaders who want to moonwalk toward Pasadena or Constantinople, while posturing about their Confessional Lutheran standards. They are like the choir and pastor leaving the church first, during the recessional. They cannot be Confessional Lutherans, so they must be Recessional Lutherans.

I began writing against the Church Growth Movement about 20 years ago. My first little article stirred up more letters than I ever received on a single topic. Many laity were suspicious of Church Growth. They were glad I identified some of the obnoxious odors coming from Satan's Lair, aka Fuller Theological Seminary.

Recently someone I know quite well told me about WELS Campus Ministry in Madison, Wisconsin. The pastor took his staff down to Willow Creek for training. Now they are spending millions on the building, starting cell groups, and bragging about their results. Willow Creek recently confessed that all their methods were wrong. I was not alone in suspecting that WC wanted to open up a new round of training for all the clergy they mistrained before. This time around they will apologize abjectly while fleecing the wolves again, many of them using denominational funds, or Trivent dividends.

Going Under
The tabloids use a term: going under. It means that circulation will increase if they go under the standards of the other papers. More salacious gossip. More skin showing. Congregations do the same thing. The whole WC/CGM approach is to go under the standards of all other denominations. Make the music slicker. Turn the Sunday worship service into a recruiting seminar. Spike the sermon and make it a pep talk.

ALC and LCA congregations used to go under the standards of LCMS and WELS by setting up shop nearby. They would promote open communion and lax standards all around. Who can complain about that? Sometimes a Missouri congregation strict on the lodge would find itself emptied by a new ALC congregation apparently conservative on every issue except that one.

The Recessional Lutherans are going under the standards of the Book of Concord with both gambits, whether they are slouching toward Pasadena or Constantinople. Fuller is low-church whoopie Enthusiasm; Eastern Orthodoxy is very high church, smells and bells Enthusiasm. The Book of Concord defines Enthusiasm as separating the work of the Holy Spirit from the Word.

***

Comments posted earlier:


Wreck said...
As a confessional Lutheran, I am disturbed at the trends of ELS and WELS.

I'm LCMS, but very confessional. I've been giving moving over to the WELS quite a bit of thought lately. It has to be better than the LCMS. OUr own congregation has embraced PLI, CGM, worship folder, etc. I cannot remember the last time my congregation used hymnals

I'm tired of the fighting. Some say it's a losing battle. Someone HAS to stay confessional. They have to.

I fear female ordination and female elders are not far away in the LCMS. ELCA is gone. They are Lutheran in name only. They might as well be United Church of Christ or Episcopalian.

November 30, 2007 1:42 PM
Anonymous said...
"As I suspected, Lutherans do not become Eastern Orthodoxy without some prompting. Some of the prompting comes from the outside or from the inner turmoil a Lutheran feels in a non-Lutheran Lutheran synod. Professors are encouraging the move to Eastern Orthodoxy as well."

Bingo.

When I visited a relatives WELS church with the whole Seeker Senseless model, I told him that if it were between that kind of worship and going to a Catholic church, I would pick the Catholic church. He rebuked me saying something like "I would definitely tell you that you would be making a big mistake knowing what the Catholic church teaches."

He was right to rebuke me, but such desperate times call for desperate cries. (and conversations) Why would I, a Cofessional Lutheran, want to do something so senseless? Keep pushing us and you'll push us all right out the door!

I wonder if the WC folks teach the buisness principal of "LEAD, FOLLOW OR GET OUT OF THE WAY."
It may be working.

Rarrr.

November 30, 2007 3:02 PM