Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Benjamin Kjendal, LCMS, Semi-Popes":
You've stepped in a violation of the Eighth Commandment, there. See? It's stuck all over your shoe! And I mean, real, authentic, full-bore false witness, not that nonsensical "let's just all try to get along" stuff that comes out of HQ.
[GJ - That is the first time this morning I have heard the 8th commandment falsely invoked.
All this has been said regarding secret sins. But where the sin is quite public so that the judge and everybody know it, you can without any sin avoid him and let him go, because he has brought himself into disgrace, and you may also publicly testify concerning him. For when a matter is public in the light of day, there can be no slandering or false judging or testifying; as, when we now reprove the Pope with his doctrine, which is publicly set forth in books and proclaimed in all the world. For where the sin is public, the reproof also must be public, that every one may learn to guard against it. (284)]
Out of my graduating class of 2006, only two are not currently serving LCMS churches--one because of divorce, another because he just went East. Did anybody know about Ben's leanings? Sure. Were they ignored? No, but neither were they handled well. Since none of us has ever failed to handle a situation well, or to foresee all the possible outcomes, or to discern all the thoughts and motivations of a sinful human heart, that leaves us free to sit back in our comfy chairs and feel smug. /sarcasm
During my four years at the Fort, never once did I hear anyone say "It's just a matter of polity." Never once did I perceive the faculty as devious and never once did I engage in or did I know one of my classmates to engage in dishonesty. Political wrangling takes place, sure. People have agendas, this is true. MDiv students "cooperate and graduate", as at the other institution. Are they dishonest? By and large, the most honorable group of men I have ever had the pleasure of associating with. This is not to say that the students there are a bunch of saints, or that the graduates are better than graduates of the other seminary-- we drank a lot of beer and shot a lot of pool, to be honest, and in my district, out of the pastors I have discovered to be kindred spirits, three are CSL graduates, and one is a classmate from CTS. The CSL grads were surprised to discover that I wasn't an ass, and I was surprised at how confessional they were. All of us were disappointed at the loss of Issues, Etc.
It's possible that I am misunderstanding your post and subsequent comments. Since I don't believe that is the case, however, I think you should either issue an apology to CTS, or should dedicate equal time to the libel of CSL.
Thank you for your time.
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GJ - For starters, one of your fellow Ft. Wayne students did write me and say, "It's just a matter of polity."
Jay Webber (MDiv, The Fort) was deep into this 20 years ago. He is now in the Little Sect on the Prairie, but will guide Wisconsinites toward true worship at their next conference.
Heiser, another watchman at The Fort, is sinuflecting east as the Metropolitan of ELDONA, the nano-synod with a letter in its name for every member parish. Missouri-watchers tell me that one or two graduates of The Fort and a similar number from St. Louis have poped or semi-poped each year. The issue is not exactly how many poped from your class, but the general trend. I do not have an official count, but I did report someone joining Rome - as a report from another person. I have to work for a living, so I do not have time to check every fact.
One graduate of The Fort earned his doctorate there and joined Eastern Orthodoxy the next day. That is no more ironic that The Fort awarding DMin degrees in Church Growth while claiming (under Robert Preus) that they were reclaiming Missouri for Walther and Lutheran orthodoxy.
One can find Heiser working with Archemandrite Gary Gehlbach (LCMS) on this page. I think Gary's major is infant baptism. The EO lobby is obsessed with clerical robes, infant baptism, and Byzantine spirituality.
Fenton is famous for abusing Lutheran doctrine as he was leaving his LCMS congregation. Apparently he was a key person in the latest LCMS hymnal. Was Fenton from The Fort or St. Louis? That is irrelevant.
First the LCMS pastors were embracing the Church Growth Movement. WELS and the ELS were too, but denying it. Then Missouri began turning out Roman and Eastern Orthodox priests. The low church and high church defections are proof that the educational systems of the synods have failed miserably. Lutheran doctrine is not confessed. Lutheran doctrine is not taught. Lutheran doctrine is not believed.
I am not a Lutheran because it was the brand name of my birth. I consider Luther's doctrine and the confirming statements of the Book of Concord to be the true, Biblical, universal faith of the Church.
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Brian P Westgate has left a new comment on your post "Ignore the Stream of Eastern Orthodox Converts: Do...":
Fenton was out of Fort Wayne.
I still can't see how you can talk about Heiser, et al. as being Eastern sympathizers when they oppose infant communion and even ICONS. Plus Heiser publishes good old Lutheran material, which most certainly is the exact opposite of being Eastern Heterodox. It also appears they have almost a dozen parishes now . . .
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GJ - The Fort turned out an EO mole? I am shocked, or as Queen Victoria used to write in her Germanic style - schocked.
CPH publishes Lutheran books, too.
I look at the people who are raised up as teachers and examples in any denominational setting. The Eastern Orthodox tendencies of ELDONA and the so-called Augustana Ministerium--which cannot even find an original or honest name--are plain.
