Anonymous WELS Husband's Second Post

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Clergy Adultery Is Not a Victimless Crime":

I said I wouldn't post here again but now I recant again. To Pastor Jackson, yest (sic) I am WELS trained in prep schools. Please forgive my typo's. To the guy who think (sic) I cannot be tru (sic), I know how to contact my circuit pastor, and visit with my district president. I even know more than one of them if that counts. I posted this because of the relief. It is like screaming in the wide open spaces just to relief (sic) stress. I made my point. I told a truthful story. These pastors know what to do. They have a God to report to. Just as you and I do. Should I go and break up their marriages and callings? I don't want anyone's pity. I am capable of making a call and complain. I am just at the edge of survival myself. Please forgive me, but telling the pastor's wife that her husband is screwing around and casuing (sic) that pain right now would probally (sic) do me in. Does she have the right to know. Yes. And guess what...I think her husband should go and tell her.

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GJ - I mark all typos to be fair and balanced. And I have plenty of them, too. I can understand the ones above, because of the stress and pain. I try to fix my own on this blog before anyone notices. My students love to remind me about my mistakes, because they are posted online and are impossible to remove.

I have featured this story because I was appalled at the WELS clergy's attitude about adultery, which was even worse at the DP/VP level. I remain appalled.

A man who will not keep his marital vows should not be trusted to serve a church position. Winking at this sin and lying to cover this up will harden the man in his error and make matters worse for everyone. Someone who lies to cover up the adultery of his buddy on the praesidium will likely practice deception in many other areas as well. In fact, everyone can count on that habit growing like kudzu vine.

When one WELS pastor was promoted in the midst of an adultery scandal, a journalist asked SP Gurgel about it. Gurgel's response was to ask another pastor, "Did you tell the newspaper?" I was also asked. I said, "I don't deal with journalists." The Gurgel response sounds like a guilty verdict, certainly more of an institutional reaction than a Biblical response.

Another typical WELS response came from an anonymous poster who accused me of posting a fake story. Accusing a man anonymously strikes me as the depth of cowardice and malice. That is how the WELS grapevine works. When something unpleasant but true emerges, the sources are vilified. For example, when DP Ed Werner was arrested for sexual assault (convicted, went to state prison), the minor girls involved were accused through the WELS grapevine - and the DP excused. No, he just slapped two girls who were obnoxious in confirmation class. That is why few ever question Holy Mother WELS.

Herman Otten told me that Sig Becker was disgusted with the adultery and drunkenness of the WELS clergy. This was after Sig left Missouri for WELS. Becker was familiar with the failings in the LCMS clergy, but he evidently saw a much higher lapse rate among the WELS clergy.

Questions about Obama's Certificate of Live Birth

Governor Palin Confirms the Hopes of Many, The Fears of Some, By Shopping at Wal-Mart

By Kevin Kelly

Published:

Monday, October 13, 2008 3:04 AM EDT

GALLIPOLIS — Gallipolis Wal-Mart shoppers were at first surprised and then excited on Sunday to find a national political figure in their midst who was, just as they were, picking up a few things she needed.

Accompanied by her youngest son Trig, security, staffers and a small pool of news media, Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin stepped off the “Straight Talk Express” bus to enter the store around 1:30 p.m., where she purchased a bag of Parents’ Choice brand disposable diapers and a toy.

But it was also an opportunity for the first-term Alaska governor to meet the public at large and win some votes for the ticket on which she’s running with the GOP White House nominee, U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Palin did not have time to answer questions from the media following her trip through southeastern Ohio, but left some folks exhilirated at meeting her.

“It was so exciting,” said Pat Miller of Patriot, accompanied by her daughter Amber, a student at South Gallia High School. “She seemed to be very sweet, and if she could stop and take the time to buy some diapers for her son, it tells you that for her, family is first.”

UOJ Rave On LutherQuest (sic)

KJV Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

LutherQuest (sic) has a rave going, on the topic of Universal Objective Justification. Cardinal Cascione started the thread.

The learned commentary is hilarious. Especially egregious are the pronouncements of Heidenreich, who once understood how blasphemous UOJ was.

Do they touch upon the Formula of Concord (as in Concordia Seminary, Concordia Publishing House, Concordia College - all LCMS)? No, they simply engage in free associating with various terms they have borrowed or invented.

When they read from the source of UOJ, they may be a bit red-faced. That will have to wait.

One hint: the source is not Lutheran.

UOJ and Church Growth go together like apple and pie, like Cascione and Werning, like Kelm and Fooler Seminary.

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Epitome, Formula of Concord, Epitome

13] 6. Also, we reject and condemn the error of the Enthusiasts, who imagine that God without means, without the hearing of God's Word, also without the use of the holy Sacraments, draws men to Himself, and enlightens, justifies, and saves them. (Enthusiasts we call those who expect the heavenly illumination of the Spirit [celestial revelations] without the preaching of God's Word.)

4] 2. Accordingly, we believe, teach, and confess that our righteousness before God is (this very thing], that God forgives us our sins out of pure grace, without any work, merit, or worthiness of ours preceding, present, or following, that He presents and imputes to us the righteousness of Christ's obedience, on account of which righteousness we are received into grace by God, and regarded as righteous.

5] 3. We believe, teach, and confess that faith alone is the means and instrument whereby we lay hold of Christ, and thus in Christ of that righteousness which avails before God, for whose sake this faith is imputed to us for righteousness, Rom. 4, 5.

6] 4. We believe, teach, and confess that this faith is not a bare knowledge of the history of Christ, but such a gift of God by which we come to the right knowledge of Christ as our Redeemer in the Word of the Gospel, and trust in Him that for the sake of His obedience alone we have, by grace, the forgiveness of sins, are regarded as holy and righteous before God the Father, and eternally saved.

7] 5. We believe, teach, and confess that according to the usage of Holy Scripture the word justify means in this article, to absolve, that is, to declare free from sins. Prov. 17, 15: He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the righteous, even they both are abomination to the Lord. Also Rom. 8, 33: Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

Kelm Accepted the Call to the Love Shack

I would rather own GM stock.

I read on the Bailing Water Blog that Kelm accepted the call.

According to one source, SP Schroeder advised Parish Services last year not to issue that call to anyone.

So this involves more than a Church Growth disciple coming back to spread Fuller doctrine around. Church and Change imagines itself in charge of the synod, since its board member, Bruce Becker, is also the Administrator who issued the call without informing the elected Synod President, Mark Schroeder.

Those familiar with WELS know how quickly news gets around the whole synod. Imagine how much more so this is true at The Love Shack. And yet they managed to keep the news of the call from the Synod President until the information reached him in the regular Call Report. That means they all agreed to keep it a secret from him. That sounds like little boys, or more accurately, like little girls.

The last WELS convention wanted to get rid of everyone at The Love Shack at once, no matter when their terms expired. That shows how disgusted people were with the Gurgel-Mueller administration. The Love Shack is full of their appointees, like Bruce Becker.

The first triumph of the Church Growth Movement in WELS was getting their rag, TELL, issued from the synod office with the blessing of SP Naumann. The second achievement was getting Kelm appointed as head of evangelism (Fuller doctrine) at The Love Shack. They bragged about it in TELL.

The Church Growth faction in WELS has a long history, going back to its Pietistic, unionistic roots, revived in many ways by the influence of Richard Jungkuntz. They will fight to remain dominant, to push Schroeder from office, and to install someone of their choosing.

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Pastor X has left a new comment on your post "See What I Mean?":

Covering up is not unique to WELS. I will never forget the day I met with a DP, handing him a packet containg documentation of fraudulent business practices within a district organization where I was employed. He looked straight at me, laughed and said, "Well, what do you want ME to do about it?" When I told him that these illegal, not to mention sinful, practices needed to stop, he thanked me for coming and wished me well. Soon after, I was dismissed from my position.

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GJ - Pastor X, thank you for reminding us that this is also about money. Everyone wondered how WELS became insolvent and used up its designated funds during the avalanche of Schwan funds, the largest charitable gift ever in America. Gurgel fired the treasurer for telling the truth, that these funds could not be pilfered.

Gurgel, as District Pope, presided over the MilCraft disaster, when his district got a prosperous business as an estate gift, ran it into the ground, and went to court to defend itself against the widow who was supposed to be supported by that gift. (The husband, who usually dies first, leaves everything to charity, as long as income goes to his widow during her lifetime.) So Gurgel's administrative genius finished MilCraft, ended in an expensive lawsuit, and cost another $1 million when WELS had to fork over that penalty.

KJV Isaiah 10:1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; 2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless! 3 And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?

So WELS members and pastors said, "Just the man to replace Mischke. We have found someone to make us grateful for the Mischke years." And they did.

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Bailing Water Comments on the Kelm Ultimatum:

Anonymous said...
Count me as a double "!".

As Rev. Kelm and Prez Schroeder share the vision, perhaps now Rev. Kelm can, with Prez Schroeder's backing get the Synod (that is, all the gloomy conservatives, like those on this blog) on board to start thinking and creating cutting edge ministeries as they have at St. Mark's in DePere and get this Synod into the 21st century and get it out of its stuck in the mud, going nowhere, roots!

October 15, 2008 10:32 AM


Anonymous said...
Sorry to interrupt, but did anyone hear about how the LCMS conference in Kewaunee, Illinois for the "Oktoberfest" at which four former WELS pastors gave presentations about the WELS went? (I heard that at least one of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary professors was going to go to defend the WELS.)

October 15, 2008 11:24 AM


Anonymous said...
The Parish Consultancy program is an excellent program and I think that the Synod should have all the congregations have the consultants come in and do an evaluation and the congregation can accept or reject its recommendantions. I think pastors who don't let them in are afraid of what they might find in their churches.

October 15, 2008 12:14 PM


Anonymous said...
"I think pastors who don't let them in are afraid of what they might find in their churches."

No, I think pastors who don't let them in are wise for not allowing Kelm to come in and push CG methods onto their congregations.

October 15, 2008 3:37 PM


Anonymous said...
"No, I think pastors who don't let them in are wise for not allowing Kelm to come in and push CG methods onto their congregations."

Well, since Kelm and the Synodical praesidium share the same theology, you probably should "mark and avoid" and join the CLC.

October 15, 2008 4:04 PM