or study at Watertown, or go to New Ulm. Faster!
Some people from WELS expect a creature to burst from my stomach and skitter into a corner, only to start multiplying, like those from the movie franchise Alien, Aliens, Alien Cubed, and Alien Resurrection.
However, others in WELS are not like that at all. The difference may be explained by faith in the Word and confidence in Biblical doctrine. The opposite of faith is fear.
Sectarians teach their disciples to fear anything different from the template issued by Holy Mother Synod. To stoke this fear, they engage the grapevine in spreading scary stories that make the Alien franchise look tame.
To make matters worse, these law-mongers teach people to trust in themselves, to emphasize their talents, merits, social skills, and DNA. Any teaching of the law alone--but especially man-made law--makes people more timid. Man-made law makes people afraid they are not good enough, and the law-mongers enforce that feeling by providing law solutions for their victims.
[woman in travail] "The woman is here in such a state of mind that she is fearful of great danger, and yet she knows that the whole work lies in the hands of God; in Him she trusts; upon Him it is she depends; He also helps her and accomplishes the work, which the whole world could not do, and she thinks of nothing but the time that shall follow, when she shall again rejoice; and her heart feels and says, A dangerous hour is at hand, but afterwards it will be well. Courage and the heart press through all obstacles. Thus it will also be with you, when you are in sorrow and adversity, and when you become new creatures. Only quietly wait and permit God to work. He will accomplish everything without your assistance."
Martin Luther, Sermons of Martin Luther, 8 vols., ed. John Nicholas Lenker, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1983, III, p. 81. Third Sunday after Easter John 16:16-23
