darthjedi (http://darthjedi.wordpress.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Anonymous ELCA Pastor Whistles Past the Graveyard,...":
I am not sure if you got my last comment, but I am going to assume you have not. You do not have permission to reprint my entire blog post. This is a form of plagiarism (please see http://www.plagiarism.org). It is also a form of copyright infringement. Please remove my blog from your post. I would also appreciate a removal of the comment from an anonymous user revealing my full name and church location. I put on my site a pseudonym as well as my first and last initial for privacy purposes. Thank you.
[GJ - From the first page of his blog - "This is the blog of Justin J." Doubtless there are millions of ELCA pastors named Justin J!"]
Are We Bleeding?
October 22, 2009 at 10:17 am ·
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GJ - I enjoyed the blog posts above so much that I had to share them. Normally, ELCA news makes me nod off, no matter how much coffee I am drinking. Darth went all Jedi Knight on me, so I deleted his words and left the two links. Plagiarism means making money from the original work of others and not giving the original author credit. I make no money from this blog and give credit for all my sources.
Only a few ELCA congregations are leaving apostasy? An entire denomination, larger than the ELS, has emerged from leaving ELCA.
I trace the LCA/ALC/ELCA decline from the moment they gave up on organic merger with Missouri. At that point the Leftists took over and the entire agenda was waved in front of the membership, daily it seemed. For example, The Lutheran magazine was given a quota in covering minority stories. Abortion on demand was assumed as a basic virtue and promoted within various church agencies. The tacit approval of homosexual ordination (which went on for decades, according to The Lutheran's editor) became overt, shrill, and persistent. In politics, America was always wrong and the Marxists had deep insights about world peace and liberation.
Strangely, ELCA's genuflection toward The Episcopal Church USA precipitated the biggest break. I would love to see Lutherans understand what a bishop really does, but the ELCA/Episcopal Anschluss did not accomplish that. ELCA used its power to force Episcopal bishops on Lutherans, a bizarre plan for anyone except a self-destructive atheist. Their vision has worked as well as the Sears-KMart deal.
The Synodical Conference Lutherans probably imagined they would win big from the merger, going ELCA-lite to attract the highest number of escapees. Sasse was right - the decline of one confession adversely affects all of them. ELCA's apostasy has only made WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect seem Lutheran in comparison.
Finally, SP Schroeder stopped the WELS practice of playing kneesies under the table with ELCA, something promoted by Mischke-Gurgle. However, just when Fuller Bivens unloaded on sodomy in FIC, Mary Lou College (WELS) shared its campy gay video with the world. MLC students defended the video obsessively.
"We are not as bad as ELCA" is not a compelling mission statement. In fact, WELS-LCMS-ELS would do well just to emphasize the Scriptures, Confessions, and liturgical worship. Of course, Jerry Kieschnick will not give up his ambition to bring Missouri in ELCA, but Missouri members may derail his loco motive in time.
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PS - Justin Johnson, who feigns anonymity, wrote: "Reprinting an entire blog, even if you are using it to comment on, is a form of plagiarism. This is true even if you site (sic - cite?) where it is from or put quotes around it."
GJ - I doubt whether anyone has reproduced his entire blog. His claim about plagiarism is almost as ludicrous as his grasp of English. Copying a post for the sake of commentary, especially among non-profits, is called Fair Use. However, I am happy to edit Justin's actual words, but I will not delete another comment just because he commands it! No one--but no one--has ever asked me to delete the comments of others.
