Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Engage Maximum Deniability Drive...Now!":
"GJ - I knew someone would post this about TOF. They were quick to deny TOF was ELS even though an ELS pastor ran it, an ELS/WELS board governed it, and the missionaries were all ELS and commissioned at ELS services by the ELS president. What was it before 2009? - Methodist?"
TOF was, of course, pretty much run by the ELS with token representation by the WELS.
The key here is the Schwan Foundation (SURPRISE!!! SURPRISE!!!)
Schwan requested/suggested/demanded that TOF be officially an entity of the ELS.
As Yul Brynner as Ramses II in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956) said a number of times "so let it be written, so let it be done."
The Schwan Foundation spoke - The ELS jumped.
The huge question now is: Now that the ELS has taken on TOF as a mission of its own, will the Schwan Foundation continue to subsidize TOF at the same level it had in the past or will it shut off those funds, forcing the ELS to try to maintain that mission on what Schwan currently gives it?
The financial fact is that the ELS can in no way even hope to maintain TOF without the Schwan funds continued in the same amount as in the past.
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GJ - I was amused to hear ELS people deny TOF was ELS when they raised money as an ELS/WELS entity and commissioned ELS pastors as missionaries at their ELS convention.
Nothing in the economic picture suggests Schwan becoming awash in funds to distribute. Their food is tasty but expensive. Wal-Mart reports that people are not even buying necessities until payday. Imagine the same people ordering up luxury foods delivered to their homes.
