Brief Autobiography - Gregory L. Jackson

Mayflower Moving Van: Cf. Jonah 1:1ff


Apologia pro vita sua - In Defense of His Life 

An ELCA pastor wanted to know about my spiritual journey, so here is a brief version:

I was born a Lutheran, at Moline Lutheran Hospital, in 1948, but baptized at Plymouth Congregational Church in Moline, Illinois. My family changed to the equally generic Disciples of Christ congregation when I was eight.

I did not like my family's church so I asked a friend about his congregation, which was Salem Lutheran Church. So, at the age of 16, when my family got out of the car to go to First Christian (Disciples of Christ) I walked across the street to Salem. "Where are you going?" they yelled. I said, "Salem." I joined Salem by adult confirmation. I thought the liturgical service was great. The hymns were far better than the sentimental slop at First Christian. Salem was officially LCA but still Augustana Synod. The pastor was J. Erik Holmer.

My search for college was shallow and brief. I had visited Augustana, where my mother graduated. I applied and was accepted. Tuition in 1966 was $1,000 per year.

I met my future wife the first day of classes. Chris and I have been married for 38 years.

I did not care to attend the newly merged Chicago Seminary and my wife's relatives lived around Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario. We were married about 15 minutes after graduating early from Augie, November, 1969. We honeymooned in Springfield, Illinois, and headed for Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. Our huge first year class had 10 students, one of the biggest ever. Tuition was $150 a year, but I had a scholarship from Salem for more than that.

Seminary was easy, so I took a double-load of classes and independent study. Chris earned a master's in German literature from the University of Waterloo. I began my own translation of the New Testament to learn more Greek. My intern (vicar) supervisor was Henry Opperman. Like Holmer, he was quite conservative. He was ULCA and had a low opinion of the Augustan Synod. I was able to finish college and seminary in a total of six years. I was the seminary conservative. Just as I was graduating in 1972, gay activism was starting at the seminary.

I wanted to earn a doctorate and thought about the University of Toronto, not far away. I really wanted to attend Princeton, but Opperman suggested Yale. He knew Paul L. Holmer from Yale, from serving on the same board. The seminary shunned Holmer when he came for an accreditation visit. I wonder why! I was dispatched to be the greeter. The rudeness of the seminary appalled me. My wife and I invited him to our basement apartment. He said, "How would you like to attend Yale?" He talked up Yale and mentioned many authors I knew. I thought it sounded great. He said, "See you next year." I was accepted just when I had given up hope. I was actually in the local bishop's (district president's) office, asking about a call in Canada. My wife phoned to interrupt. I was accepted.

More good news followed when we learned our first-born son was on the way. That was just before leaving Canada. So we went to Yale Divinity with no job, a huge tuition bill ($2,000 for the year) and a baby. No insurance. No problem. Yale gave us a plan that covered the delivery, and Canada made up the co-pay. Canada loaned us money. Yale loaned us money. I got very good at borrowing.

My Yale professors were very conservative in their treatment of the Biblical texts. They emphasized the content of the Scriptures rather than the liberal theories about (or against) the Bible. I worked at an Augustana Synod church down the hill, literally, from Yale Divinity. Harold Wimmer was a liberal in every respect. He loathed conservatives of all types. Holmer encouraged me to stay for a PhD, but Martin was born and I thought immediate graduate school was just too expensive. I got on the call list and accepted a call to a bi-lingual church in Cleveland, Ohio.

Our daughter Bethany was born in Cleveland and soon showed signs of trouble. She began weakening at the age of 6 months. We got the diagnosis of neurological degeneration at the same time I was accepted at Notre Dame for a PhD program. The hefty tuition bill of $3,000 per year would be paid by a scholarship. The LCA was somewhat helpful about helping graduate students - not enough to whelm anyone. I got a part-time call in Sturgis, Michigan, about 50 miles from Notre Dame.

Two things made me far more conservative during those years. One was facing the constant struggles of our daughter Bethany. Life and death issues place a lot more focus on religious topics. As one of the few Lutherans at Notre Dame, I was expected to know all about Luther. I knew Bainton from Yale and loved studying Luther. Trying to discuss Luther with people who knew next to nothing made me more studious. My dissertation involved an Augustana Seminary professor, so I had to study American Lutheran issues for a period of four years.

By the way, several Waterloo Seminary and Notre Dame professors were bewitched by Paul Tillich. From them I learned to loathe phony left-wing theologians, Tillich most of all, Karl Barth almost as much.

Notre Dame and our daughter Bethany made me increasingly conservative as the LCA became increasingly liberal. I believe the end of hopes for a merger with the LCMS helped the LCA go radical faster. Also, the LCA got the worst radicals from Seminex.

Having a disabled member of the family has been a 30+ year experience: first Bethany, who lived six years; then Erin Joy, who lived seven years; now my wife, who became disabled in 1994.

The ELCA pastor asked about women's ordination. It was approved in the LCA in 1970, once Franklin C. Fry died. (He would not even discuss the topic.) Very few women parish pastors were ordained until the 1980's. We knew the first one in Michigan. She did not last long in the parish, but I was followed by a woman in Sturgis and by another in Midland.

I finished the PhD in 1982, when I was serving in Midland. I was not looking for a teaching job. My research skills were sharpened by Notre Dame and I knew what real Lutheran doctrine was. The rush toward merger was sickening because the worst aspects of all parties were being featured. What disgusted me most was the pro-abortion stance of the LCA (far worse in ELCA now), plus the constant support of Communist revolution, and the emerging Lavender Mafia. Homosexual activists took over the Michigan Synod, LCA, before I left. I proposed two memorials at my last meeting. The pro-life memorial got 50 votes. The anti-sodomy memorial got even fewer votes.

I entered LCMS colloquy but had my doubts after seeing the Indianapolis convention where Bohlmann was re-elected. I switched to WELS, which had good and bad results. I knew WELS would be parochial, small-minded, petty, and probably anti-intellectual. I was far too optimistic. The sanctimony of WELS is beyond belief, especially when measured against its constant plagiarizing of Fuller Seminary and Willow Creek doctrine.

The good I learned from WELS was Lutheran doctrine. Every lie, dirty trick, false claim, and slander sent me back to the Book of Concord, Chemnitz, Walther, Pieper, and Luther above all. When Wayne Mueller claimed in writing that there was no Church Growth in WELS, I began documenting all the quotations. WELS pastors sent me seminary material. Sure, they ducked like rabbits who spotted a hawk's shadow when anything happened, but at least I had the documents.

Erin Joy died when we were in Columbus, Ohio, in the WELS parish. When I opposed Paul Kuske's efforts to put a clergy adulterer back into the ministry, WELS spread the story that I went insane when Erin died. (Various friends told me what they heard from the famous WELS grapevine.) I would argue that only insane synod leaders would put an amoral man back into the ministry. That was also when my wife became disabled.

I was disgusted with the pathetic leadership of the Michigan District of WELS, the constant lies of the praesidium, and the cowardice of the pastors. I resigned from my call and went to St. Louis for three years. I got along with life insurance sales but went back into the parish in the Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic). This CLC is just the backside of WELS, just as enchanted by the Church Growth Movement and UOJ as the Wisconsin sect is. I was fired over a Shrove Tuesday pancake dinner, which gave me the chance and the need to start an independent congregation.

So I would say I learned Lutheran doctrine at Notre Dame and Lutheran orthodoxy in Columbus. I did not learn Lutheran orthodoxy because anyone in Columbus represented or taught that stance. It was just the opposite. The clergy did everything possible to undermine Lutheran doctrine in any form. That made me study where it all went wrong. That led me to intensive reading in Luther and writing several books.

It was strange to have the District Pope acting like I had VD because I published Lutheran doctrine. The same District Pope encouraged every possible manifestation of apostasy, from Crossroads Community Church and Pilgrim Community Church to Lutheran (sic) Parish Resources in Columbus.

Being independent is a challenge filled with many blessings. God provides. He even provides until He provides. We left Canada with a baby on the way and no job. We left Holy Mother WELS with a disability and short-term health insurance. At every step there has been insurance coverage for my wife. Her coverage is the best it has been and she is fairly strong after a series of setbacks in 2007.

I suggest to pastors that they follow God's Word and let Him do His work. If He wants a pastor to stay in that place, nothing will move that minister. If He wants that pastor to move, nothing will keep him there. Jonah found out the hard way.

Education
1966 - Moline High School, Illinois
1969 - Augustana College, Illinois, BA in Latin and Greek
1972 - Waterloo Lutheran Seminary, MDiv in Biblical Studies
1973 - Yale University, STM in Biblical Studies
1982 - University of Notre Dame, PhD in Theology and Biblical Studies
1995 - Chartered Life Underwriter, American College
1999 - Computer certifications: CCNA, CIW Associate, Linux+, A+, N+, i-Net+
2006 - MA, Distance Education, University of Phoenix
2009 - Twenty hours toward an MA, Journalism, Regent University

Former professors: Otto W. Heick, Paul L. Holmer, Robert Wilson, Abraham Malherbe,
Elisabeth Schussler-Fiorenza and Frank Schussler-Fiorenza, Stanley Hauerwas, John Howard Yoder.

Attended lectures by:
Martin Marty, Sydney Ahlstrom, Roland Bainton, Helmut Thielicke, Robert Preus, Klemet Preus, Kurt Marquart, David Scaer, Elie Wiesel, and Henri Nouwen.

Met or listened to:
Paul Y. Cho, Billy Graham, Grady Wilson, D. James Kennedy, Laurens van der Post, Jaroslav Pelikan, Richard J. Neuhaus (and his father), Jack Preus, Herman Otten, Al Barry, Herb Chilstron, James Crumley, Robert Marshall, and David Preus.

Books
Spiritual Well-Being of the Elderly (contributed)
A. D. Mattson, Augustana Historical Society (dissertation)
Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure, Northwestern Publishing House
Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant
Angel Joy
The Wormhaven Gardening Book
Thy Strong Word
Jesus Priceless Treasure
Jesus Lord of Creation
Brenda Kiehler 

Creation Gardening

The Lost Dutchman's Goldmine

The Sermons of Martin Luther - edited

Gems from Luther's Sermons
Periodicals
Articles published in The Lutheran (LCA), Purpose (Mennonite), Lutheran Standard (ALC), Lutheran Forum, Christian News (banned for teaching Justification by Faith), Nortwestern Lutheran (WELS), Lutheran Spokesman (CLC - sic), Lutheran Journal, John Milton Magazine, Lutheran Digest, Canada Lutheran (LCA).

Ordained in 1973. Pastoral work: 1973 - present, except for 1992 - 1995.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Brief Autobiography":

Oh please! Who cares? I want to puke!

GJ - The ELCA pastor cares. But thanks for the excellent coda to my Jonah reference.

Welcome, SpenerQuest fans. Where would Justification without Faith be without Enthusiasts like you?

Presiding Bishop Jefferts-Schori's Christmas Card

The Three Wise Women - And Where's Joseph?
To the Clergy and 2007 Convention Delegates,

The members of your Standing Committee thought you should be aware of this.

The Presiding Bishop has done something which defies explanation. This is the Christmas card she sent to Bishop Iker and presumably other TEC bishops. Given the increasing polarization in TEC (and the Anglican Communion) today, the only reason we can see for her to make this choice is that she is only interested in pushing the polarization just that much further.

The Presiding Bishop is an intelligent woman, so this reinterpretation of Scripture to exclude masculine images must be intentional. This card illustrates in many ways the core problem of the General Convention Church. Scripture cannot be made to conform to us, we must conform our lives and our faith to Scripture. We will continue to stand for the traditional expression of the Faith.

The Standing Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth

***

GJ - Notice how the mocking attitude is found in each denomination. The Episcopalian Presiding Bishop cannot keep herself from lording it over the traditionalists, and the radicals cheer her on. How much different is that from SP Kieschnick in the Missouri Synod, Mark Hanson in ELCA, and Church and Change in WELS?

These are Jefferts-Schori's views on Creation and salvation, from Time Magazine:

What is your view on intelligent design?

I firmly believe that evolution ought to be taught in the schools as the best witness of what modern science has taught us. To try to read the Bible literalistically about such issues disinvites us from using the best of recent scholarship.

Is belief in Jesus the only way to get to heaven?

We who practice the Christian tradition understand him as our vehicle to the divine. But for us to assume that God could not act in other ways is, I think, to put God in an awfully small box.

To My Friends and Enemies

God the Father, by Michelangelo

95] From this our explanation, friends and enemies, and therefore every one, may clearly infer that we have no intention of yielding aught of the eternal, immutable truth of God for the sake of temporal peace, tranquillity, and unity (which, moreover, is not in our power to do).

Nor would such peace and unity, since it is devised against the truth and for its suppression, have any permanency. Still less are we inclined to adorn and conceal a corruption of the pure doctrine and manifest, condemned errors.

But we entertain heartfelt pleasure and love for, and are on our part sincerely inclined and anxious to advance, that unity according to our utmost power, by which His glory remains to God uninjured, nothing of the divine truth of the Holy Gospel is surrendered, no room is given to the least error, poor sinners are brought to true, genuine repentance, raised up by faith, confirmed in new obedience, and thus justified and eternally saved alone through the sole merit of Christ.

Closing of the Book of Concord

Formula of Concord - Election - Means of Grace

The Sower and the Seed, by Norma Boeckler

76] Moreover, the declaration, John 6, 44, that no one can come to Christ except the Father draw him, is right and true. However, the Father will not do this without means, but has ordained for this purpose His Word and Sacraments as ordinary means and instruments; and it is the will neither of the Father nor of the Son that a man should not hear or should despise the preaching of His Word, and wait for the drawing of the Father without the Word and Sacraments. For the Father draws indeed by the power of His Holy Ghost, however, according to His usual order [the order decreed and instituted by Himself], by the hearing of His holy, divine Word, as with a net, by which the elect are plucked from the jaws of the devil. 77] Every poor sinner should therefore repair thereto [to holy preaching], hear it attentively, and not doubt the drawing of the Father. For the Holy Ghost will be with His Word in His power, and work by it; and that is the drawing of the Father.

Formula of Concord - Election

The Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, On Election

29] And this call of God, which is made through the preaching of the Word, we should not regard as jugglery, but know that thereby God reveals His will, that in those whom He thus calls He will work through the Word, that they may be enlightened, converted, and saved. For the Word, whereby we are called, is a ministration of the Spirit, that gives the Spirit, or whereby the Spirit is given, 2 Cor. 3, 8, and a power of God unto salvation, Rom. 1, 16. And since the Holy Ghost wishes to be efficacious through the Word, and to strengthen and give power and ability, it is God's will that we should receive the Word, believe and obey it.

30] For this reason the elect are described thus, John 10, 27f : My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal life. And Eph. 1, 11. 13: Those who according to the purpose are predestinated to an inheritance hear the Gospel, believe in Christ, pray and give thanks, are sanctified in love, have hope, patience, and comfort under the cross, Rom. 8, 25; and although all this is very weak in them, yet they hunger and thirst after righteousness, Matt. 5, 6.

Jefferts-Schori Extends Left Foot of Fellowship to 87 Year Old Bishop

Pope John the Malefactor Taught Me How; I Will Show Him How Often

OKLAHOMA: Oldest Bishop in the Episcopal Church Served Deposition Papers

By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
1/19/2008

The oldest bishop in the history of The Episcopal Church, who has served as both priest and bishop for more than half a century, has been served a notice of deposition by Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, for abandoning the communion of the Episcopal Church.

The Rt. Rev. William A. Cox, 87, now a resident in Tulsa, Oklahoma, told VOL that he has been served the papers and has 60 days to respond as to why he should not be tossed out of the church. The purging of orthodox bishops from The Episcopal Church is now in full throttle.

"I resigned from the Episcopal Church House of Bishops last year and was offered a safe spiritual haven to minister by the Archbishop of the Southern Cone," Cox told VOL. "He has included me as one of his own under his jurisdiction."

Cox said he got the letter from Mrs. Jefferts Schori 10 days ago. "She told me that the Title IV Review Committee said I had abandoned the communion of the Episcopal Church." The letter was dated January 8.

Dear Bishop Cox,

Following your letter of March 28, 2007 advising me that you were resigning from the HOB and intended to continue active "episcopal ministry" under the ecclesiastical authority of the Presiding Bishop of the Province of the Southern Cone I asked the Title IV Review Committee to review the matter and to consider whether or not your action demonstrated that you had abandoned the communion of this church within the meaning of canon IV.9.

On May 29, 2007 the Review Committee sent to me the enclosed certification that you had abandoned the communion of this church.

I must now give you notice under canon IV.9 that if you fail to demonstrate to me within two months from today that you have not abandoned the communion of this church I shall be required to present the matter to the HOB at its next meeting in march 2008 for consideration as to whether or not you should be deposed from the ordained ministry of this church.

(I do not express any opinion regarding your status as an ordained person in any other church.)

Faithfully,

Katharine Jefferts Schori.

"I have not responded," Cox told VOL. "The letter enclosed a memorandum from the title IV. 9."

Asked what he would do, the orthodox bishop told VOL, "I don't know. I will talk to my Attorney, Mr. Wicks Stephen, and consult with him and see what response we will make.

"I think it is clear from the letter, and it is my understanding, that the letter implies that since I am now under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Argentina that they are not going to transfer my papers."

When VOL asked if Mrs. Jefferts Schori had been in touch with him, Cox said she had never talked with him. "She was in Oklahoma recently but did not get in touch with me."

Asked about a trial for his previous actions, Cox said he doesn't believe that will now happen. "They will depose me along with bishops Andy Fairfield, David Bena, John-David Schofield in March when the HOB meets."

When asked why he performed the previous consecrations that got him into so much hot water, Cox explained, "I went to Kansas and ordained and did confirmations and later confirmed in Oklahoma when I saw that people who had differing views and who decided that they wanted to worship in a different communion became anathema to the people in The Episcopal Church. They were outsiders and so what they were doing was prohibiting me from ministering to these people they considered outcasts and outsiders. My understanding is that Jesus always went to the outcast and I could see no reason why the Archbishop of Uganda, Henry Luke Orombi, when he asked me personally to do that, as an act of Christian ministry, that I shouldn't do it."

Asked about the value of diocesan boundaries, Cox said, "These diocesan boundaries are not going to be worth much any more and when we all stand before the Judgment Throne, we will have to acknowledge that we are brothers and sisters in Christ."

Asked how he felt about the actions of the national Episcopal Church, Cox told VOL, "I have not allowed myself to become angry about what has happened. This is my 35th year as bishop. I served as Bishop Suffragan of Maryland (1972 - 1980), Assistant Bishop of Oklahoma, (1980-1988). I also served as assistant bishop to Bishop Ben Benitez (Texas) and later with Bishop Claude E. Payne when he became diocesan bishop. I have also served as a parish priest at St. Matthew's in Austin, Texas.

"I have served the Episcopal Church for 16 years as a priest and 35 years as a bishop. I have served my Lord faithfully and I am not ashamed of anything I have done."

Bishop Cox said he will turn 87 on January 24th.

Weather Report, Twin Cities

From Norm Teigen:

The wind chill is thirty five below zero in Minneapolis

It's cold this morning but there are signs of a slight warm up. The wind chill could warm up to twenty below zero. The warming house at Lake Nokomis [where the Pond Hockey tournament is being held] lost heat this morning because the diesel fuel was turning into jelly. The problem was remedied according to local TV news.

***

GJ - It is so sold in Minneapolis that the politicians have their hands in their own pockets.

Phoenix is sunny and 60 degrees.

Thou Shalt Not Steal

The Seventh Commandment.

Thou shalt not steal.

What does this mean?

Answer

We should fear and love God that we may not take our neighbor's money or property, nor get them by false ware or dealing, but help him to improve and protect his property and business [that his means are preserved and his condition is improved].

***

The Eighth Commandment, Large Catechism, Book of Concord:

284] 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.

***

A. Nony Mouse has left a new comment on your post "Thou Shalt Not Steal":

...and you're not stealing any images for your blog?

GJ - Right click, save picture as... I did not claim to have photographed these two Church Growth Enthusiasts. Their photos are not copyrighted. If they object in writing, I can always change them. My attorneys--Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe--advised that trademarks and copyrights need to be displayed for protection.

WELS objected to having their lavender cross copied. My attorneys said they needed to have a TM near it, for TradeMark. Of course, it does look a little silly to trademark a cross. Nevertheless, I removed the logo and replaced it with a dollar sign. Likewise, Steve Kurtzahn's touchy webmaster in the CLC had objections about their graphics, so I made a quick change. Those are the only two objections I have received...so far.

And, since you didn't ask, I write my own sermons.

Blog Power - St. Mark's DePere Takes Down Plagiarized Sermons

Bailing Water and Ichabod have discussed the plagiarized sermons posted on the St. Mark's DePere, Wisconsin website, as if one or the other pastor wrote them. Both sermons were nearly verbatim from a Baptist website, as BW pointed out.

St. Mark's is the big WELS Church Growth congregation, full of cell groups, women teaching men, all the cutting edge things learned at Fuller and Willow Creek.

I have contended that the Church Growth people despise the Means of Grace. If they trusted in the Word and sound doctrine, the two pastors would write their own sermons, not steal them from the Baptists.

Lutherans have lost their confidence in the Word, so God is taking away the little they have.

Pseudo-Mike, who sounds exactly like Paul Kelm wrote this:

Is it CGM when we learn how to remove or reduce barriers to communicating the gospel clearly? If I better know the mind of an unbeliever, might I better be "all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some?" If I give thought to having adequate parking at our church knowing that if I don't the first-time visitor might drive off, does this mean I am a CGM flunkie? Or is it possible that I'm so in love with Christ and his powerful Word that I will bend over backwards to remove every possible barrier which might keep a person from coming into contact with the Word and hearing it clearly?

So in love with Christ sounds weird.

If someone loves Christ, he loves His Word and keeps (guards) His Word. The Greek word for keep is the same one used for guarding something. We guard treasure; we do not steal someone's garbage. Skunks steal garbage.

KJV John 8:51 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. 52 Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. 53 Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? 54 Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: 55 Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. 56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.

KJV John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

Someone cannot truthfully say he loves Christ when he downplays error or promotes error.

ELCA Questions Answered

Founded Upon the Rock, the Word of God,
by Norma Boeckler
From an ELCA pastor, who sent a very polite email, signed it, and gave the name of his congregation:

Also you are clear about who are the past greats in Lutheran theology. What I would like to know is this: Are there any living published Lutheran theologians whom you would endorse as completely orthodox in their teaching and consistent in their practice of fellowship? Similarly, what would you suggest a young man who has graduated from college and wished to study for the Lutheran ministry in the USA do? Is there any seminary that is safe to go to and if not does that mean it is impossible to study theology under the instruction of others and one must do it completely on one's own?

***

GJ - My view of theological writers is summed up in a few words - the deader, the better. I am sure there are some, but I pay no attention to current writers. I agree with Walther - Not many but much. I would rather read Luther and Chemnitz over again than pick up a new book. Here is another good saying - The closer to Luther, the better the theologian. I find it interesting that there is so much blather about everyone except Luther and Chemnitz. Gerhard is a fine theologian, but he does not compare to those two major contributors to the Book of Concord.

Which seminary? They are all over-priced. I wonder where the clergy have been while the tuition was jacked up everywhere. Debt-ridden graduates cannot afford to buck the system. They have an expensive degree which is useless in the business world.

I used to like the two Concordias, but their product has gone Fuller/Roman/Eastern Orthodox. The so-called Confessional Lutherans from those seminaries are really Recessional Lutherans, leading their members to Pasadena, Rome, or Constantinople.

Bethany and the Sausage Factory teach Universalism via UOJ. Their graduates seldom, if ever, think about issues. The Bethany graduates who think are expelled from the Little Sect on the Prairie.

No, I would not waste a fortune on the Lutheran seminaries. The alternative to a formal education at a synodical school would be one of university divinity schools, like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Duke. Sometimes a good deal on tuition is available. The faculty is going to be apostate for the most part. All my professors at Yale were conservative: Dahl, Malherbe, Wilson, Holmer. They were much more conservative than my LCA seminary and college professors, and they were also known as conservative at Yale. The dean vowed never to hire another Lutheran. Now those professors are retired or dead. Two Yale professors began each class with prayer, something that never happened in the LCA.

Self-study or study with an expert is possible. In colonial days a young man lived at a parsonage and studied with the minister. They called these arrangements the School of the Prophets. Often the young man spirited away the parson's daughter in the bargain. I am sure the parson and his wife wept and winked at the same time.

Perhaps the entire synodical enterprise must come unglued for it to be reborn. I know ELCA has spawned more break away congregations in population than the entire Little Sect on the Prairie.

Some say the mini-micros are a good argument against leaving: LCR, CLCs, ELDONA. I believe there is no excuse for financial or personal support for wrongful activities. No more giving to synodical slush funds is a good start. Better would be non-attendance at events. Imagine a gathering where only half showed up. The pall over the meeting would be, well, appalling.

Favorite Toast in the Episcopal House of Bishops: "Bottoms Up!"

Red and yellow and pink and green
Purple and orange and blue
I can sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow,
sing a rainbow too.

San Joaquin Bishop Fights Back in Verbal Slugfest with the Episcopal Church

News Analysis

By David W. Virtue

www.virtueonline.org

1/15/2008

"I feel betrayed. This isn't Christianity. This is power politics. Whatever the American [Episcopal] Church does, doesn't apply to me. That's their laws for their people."

With these words, the Anglo-Catholic Bishop of San Joaquin kicked off what looks to become a major legal and ecclesiastical battle that will undoubtedly wind up in the secular law courts, a major public relations disaster for The Episcopal Church.

"Here I am standing up for the Bible and for the morality that comes out of the Bible and I am the one being inhibited and he [Gene Robinson] is the one being celebrated," said Schofield on public television recently. He acknowledged the potential lawsuits that will undoubtedly follow.

"This is an attempt to grab property, money and power. I think Jesus gets lost in all of that," he said.

Bishop Schofield intends to fight back at the church that cast him out. He sees a financial and legal battle looming. He and the majority of the diocese are prepared to fight.

This past week, Schofield got a letter from Mrs. Katharine Jefferts Schori, head of the Episcopal Church, and the Title IV Review Committee saying he had been inhibited and to stop preaching, saying mass and to cease all ministerial work in his diocese.

Schofield has refused. He and his diocese have voted to break with the American Episcopal Church and to align themselves with the Evangelical Anglican Province of the Southern Cone and their primate, the Most Rev. Gregory Venables.

For Schofield it is business as usual. He will not cease any of his ecclesiastical activities despite the threats, inhibitions and whatever else is thrown at him.

He is resolute because what is at stake are the souls of men and women. They supercede whatever institutional loyalties others might have.

After all, we might be called on to die for our faith. That means we lay it down for Jesus and the gospel and not for an institution like the Episcopal Church that has gone wildly astray. One would not lay down one's life for Gene Robinson or his behavior, or for Millennium Development Goals or some half-baked covenant that no one can agree on to try and keep everyone at the Anglican table.

Lukewarmness and compromise are things that St. John railed against in the Book of Revelation. He saw with clarity what happened when people abandoned their "first love", and the terrifying results, if their lampstand was removed unless they repented.

The Anglican Communion is a crossroads.

If GAFCON is the Church in Philadelphia, "I know your works, Behold I have set before you an open door which no one is able to shut...you have kept my word and have not denied my name," then LAMBETH might be the church in Sardis, "I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead."

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death," wrote St. John.

Bishop Schofield has it right. Jesus HAS been lost in all the litigation. For all its sins, The Episcopal Church is withering and slowly dying. Weekly, more parishes leave and more dioceses will depart an erring church.

Bishop Schofield is only doing what St. John asked the churches to do then as now, "hold fast what you have until I come."