We had a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper in New Ulm. The CLC (sic) pastors got behind two laymen to charge that Shrove Tuesday promoted Roman Catholicism and immorality.
I know what you are thinking: CLC pastors outside the International House of Pancakes, warning young girls that pancakes lead to--shudder--name it not.
One line was that the first ST pancake was given to the most immoral woman in town, so no one would accept. This was said with a red face, trembling voice, "So it was given to the dogs." I think I found a CLC dog picture above.
Circuit pastor Steve Kurtzahn got himself involved, along with David Koenig, Paul Tiefel (aka Teufel), Dale Redlin and his brother-in-law Keith Olmanson. Of course the CLC president meddled at full speed.
Why pancakes? The conflict was just a smokescreen. Tiefel and Koenig hated my criticisms of their beloved Church Growth Movement. Both of them promoted Reformed doctrine and Roman Catholic doctrine.
Kurtzahn moved from a very small CLC church to a very large WELS congregation, Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Ask him if he thinks incest is a sin. Pancakes eaten on Shrove Tuesday are definitely sinful, but....
Today Mrs. Ichabod and I will eat pancakes without a trace of guilt. I would like to thank the usual suspects for landing me in the Valley of the Sun.
