Benjamin Kjendal, LCMS, Semi-Popes

The congregation's website has a note about the pastor leaving the parish. Perhaps the letter has been edited. LutherQuest [sic] (hardly a reliable source for anything) reports that he has joined Eastern Orthodoxy, only two years after graduating from Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne. Joining the Church of Rome is called poping, so this would be semi-poping.

So far a Google search has not added any additional information. Confirming information from the Fentonistas is welcome.

I was just thinking of when this started. The first clue was over 20 years ago, when graduates of Ft. Wayne were showing an unhealthy interest in Eastern Orthodoxy. I have nothing against incense, fancy robes, and interest in other confessions. However, the Ft. Wayne crowd has been exhibiting an unhealthy coveting of anything from Eastern Orthodoxy.

I noticed that Kjendal's ordination featured a lush abundance of pricey robes. The website features Eastern Orthodox icon art and that gushy spirituality associated with fresh converts.

Ft. Wayne's faculty has long been turning out EO-wannabees. The ELDONA sect is proof of that. The Fort, as its delusional graduates call it, has been turning out men who are sinuflecting toward Rome, one step at a time. Given the assupmptions of Eastern Orthodoxy, that is the next logical step to take. Wives are welcome, as long as the Roman priest does not marry again. Eastern Orthodox priests can marry, but not after ordination. If they marry, they cannot be bishops, except in ELDONA.

Something more is at work than the dishonest doctrine of the Ft. Wayne faculty. The Church Growth Movement and Eastern Orthodoxy have one attribute in common: both are non-confessional. For many decades the LCMS has been mincing away from the Book of Concord and a serious translation of the Bible. The LCMS, WELS, and the Little Sect on the Prairie could have adopted the New KJV for their publication work, with some explanations about the anti-sacramental changes in a few passages. Instead, they adopted the NIV, an atrocious and ever-changing feminist translation.

The so-called conservative synods have worked closely with ELCA (the LCA/ALC before 1987) and emulated apostasy in every way possible, lying about it to those who inquire. "Who told you?" - followed by abusing the original messenger.

The genius of EO and CGM their method, their trick of being non-confessional. They cannot be called anti-confessional. No, believe whatever you want. The key to success is the external method, not the external Word. ELDONA, a nano-synod, began with opposing views of justification. Did that matter? Not as long as the robes matched.

A Ft. Wayne graduate, disgusted with Cousin Brunhilda singing "Amazing Grace" in a prom gown, might prefer instead to chant in his own gown. As long as he does not look too carefully at the flaws in Eastern Orthodoxy doctrine, he is fine.

Let us applaud the Fentonistas for their honesty. Those who favor Eastern Orthodoxy and Rome should leave and honestly state their reasons. Likewise, those who favor Baptist-Pentecostal theology should announce their beliefs and head for the exit. However, both sides of non-confessionalism will stay and contend for the money and members of the Lutheran Church.

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Carl Vehse has left a new comment on your post "Benjamin Kjendal, LCMS, Semi-Popes":

Had these classmates already dipped their toes into the Bosphorus (or Tiber) before they came to the sem, or was there some subverting influence present at the sem that enticed them to fall from their Lutheran confession?

And what kind of vetting goes on at the sems? Do these guys give off clues that are just ignored or do they just out of the blue pop it on their professors, classmates, congregations, DPs, circuit counselors, etc.?

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GJ - Ho ho! The seminary is not vetting candidates to keep them away from Eastern Orthodoxy. They are preparing their own graduates to semi-pope soon after graduation. The Ft. Wayne faculty is devious and the students are dishonest. I suppose this is a way to get an education as cheaply as possible before semi-poping.

One excuse at The Fort is just too clever: "It's just a matter of polity." Where did I hear that before? I remember. The Church Growth drones kept saying, "Our methods are doctrinally neutral. They work everywhere." Their methods are so neutral that the stars of Church Growth in WELS have become Evangelicals and Pentecostals.