Monday, December 14, 2009

Techo-Dolts in the WELS Colleges






Boo-hoo. Don't talk about our world-wide broadcasts!


The college crowd is supposed to be techno-savvy. Being able to text with two thumbs during class, wearing a zombie look, should not be confused with understanding technology.

The first lesson, never learned in WELS, is that Internet content lasts forever. If it is published, like Rick Johnson's offering figures, the information can be captured at the time. If not captured at once, it can be found through various services.

Publishing means "to make available to the entire world." There may be some controls added, but I would not count on them. One of my students told me about a program where all the files on a website could be examined. Facebook allows a lot of data-mining, as anyone can see from the ads that pop up. The ads are tied to the content of the user's information.

Only techno-dolts could upload videos to YouTube and whine that people are viewing them. Do they blubber on The Thword about the gay sites embedding their precious Party in the MLC? I never saw a complaint about that.

Only techno-dolts could post "funny" comments on Facebook and act shocked when they come to light. Writing on a real wall is local, at least. Writing on Facebook is international and longer lasting than a masonry wall. At one might hope for a real wall to be knocked down.

Church and Change seems to be overly blessed with techno-dolts. Katie published a photo of Ski and Glende stuffing themselves in Seattle, but a CORE fan complained that I published it. No, I re-published what was already, in essence, a little webpage - available for anyone with the URL (universal resource locator, for Mequon graduates).

Ski and Glende bragged about their Schwaermer conference attendance, until they realized they were being quoted on Ichabod, with the link provided. They stopped Tweeting - Silent Spring. Or they changed accounts. How boring. The very act of hiding the information made it more interesting, which is saying a lot for anything out of the Jeske circle. They are more predictable than Nile flooding.

Church and Change tried to lie their way out of the Stetzer invitation, but Stetzer's own calendar, blog, and Twitter proved them deceptive once again. The invitation they denied was clearly posted several times by Stetzer himself, and the timing proved to be close to his appearance at Exponential, where Dom Perignon Patterson took a bunch of WELS church workers.

Church and Change boasted about their board of directors. The more I posted from that page, the more they deleted. Board member photos and bios have disappeared. Board members have disappeared - without a trace. Once again, the act of hiding makes it more interesting.

The secret listserve of Church and Change is the biggest joke. The same people who deny being Chicaneries are the one who chatter the most on that email exchange. They are also the same ones who have hissy-fits when they are quoted verbatim, in context.w

The Chicaneries have to do several things:


  • They have to brag about themselves because false teachers are saturated with self-centeredness.
    1. They have to beg for money from the synod, foundations, and Thrivent, because their miserable and lazy efforts do not generate enough money for their taste in luxury.
    Both needs generate Internet content and Google picks it up. Many friends of confessional Lutheran doctrine mine the Internet for the latest information. The secrecy of Church and Change is laughable.



    ---


    Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "The Fear That Made Milwaukee Famous":

    "When I was following Katie's Twitter posts, one was especially interesting. A former member of St. Marcus Lutheran Church had joined Granger Community Church and was thrilled to see Ski and Katie there for training."

    That says a lot about the inadequacy of Sausage Factory training.



  • 8 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    Hey does anyone know of any WELS church that is "high church?" I would love to attend one. I have yet to see one myself, but would enjoy attending one at least for a visit.

    Dressed for respect.

    Anonymous said...

    Granger Community Church ain't WELS? Nor is it Confessional Lutheran. Ski is all "wrong" in his out-side-of-fellowship. Why is he allowed to be a WELS pastor?

    In Christ,
    from WELS church lady

    Anonymous said...

    "A former member of St. Marcus Lutheran Church had joined Granger Community Church and was thrilled to see Ski and Katie there for training."

    I have always been amazed when I have learned of WELS people, including pastors, who have joined in unionistic practices of joint prayer, worship and Bible study, without first coming to agreement in doctrine. The pastors should know better, the laity need a proper understanding of the doctrine of fellowship and all should know that "with whom you worship and at his altar you worship, his religion you also confess."

    Clarity

    Anonymous said...

    Whiney, Whiney Whiney

    Pastor, did you ever notice how these creeker pastors run in packs and they're 'errand boyz' descend on you in packs? I'm thinking there's a bit of cult mentality going on here.

    The leaders having some kind of reality drift episode and do really 'stupid stuff' and then they attack the 'questioner' when it gets noticed. Another thing, how juvenile with the 'your picking on me' and 'hurt my feelings' makes it seem that those MLC folks are in perpetual infancy spiritually and emotionally.

    Note to students: Just act like a man or a woman and say "I was wrong" and do better next time. Stop drinking the kool-aid for crying out loud!

    What happened to classical Lutheran critical thinking over the mob pack mentality?

    --disgusted lutheran mom

    Anonymous said...

    I suppose I could fall into the classification of "techno-dolt," but I do have a philosophic question to raise in this context, and that is about "public" vs. "private."

    I'm not sure I buy the argument that "everything on the web is public" or "publishing = make available to the entire world."

    The US Mail system is public. That doesn't mean that every letter I send is intended for everyone to read.

    YouTube is public, and anyone who uploads a video there does so with the understanding that anyone can watch it. (In fact, you want people to watch it.)

    Facebook does use webpages, and it is called "publishing"... but I don't agree that anything published on Facebook is intended for public viewing. There is a loose kind of control built in; one must join a group or be linked by friends.

    I think you also have to look at the intent of the "publisher." Did he/she intend it to be available to the public?

    So, I have a bit of trouble with your phrase "shocked when they come to light." How does it come to light? Can I Google this info and find it in a very public way?

    If information is acquired via hacking / techno-savvy tricks, I'm not sure you can call that "public" information. That's more like digging through the neighbor's trash can and claiming, "The trash can was out on the public street, and so it's public information." It wasn't the intent of your neighbor to make it public.

    Now if someone emails you things -- that's not your fault.

    Facebook is different from YouTube, in my mind.

    But you are absolutely correct in raising the red flag to everyone that info on the web -- even if you intend it to be private -- can easily become very public (e.g. Tiger's twitters...oops, I'm sorry; I guess now they're calling him "Cheetah"...)

    I'm publishing this as Anonymous because I really am interested only in the philosophical question of what constitutes "private" vs "public" on the web. I find that question interesting.

    I. J. Reilly said...

    Mr. Jackson,

    I think you missed my point about my objection to the way you use the picture of Ski and Glende at the crab restaurant. That's probably because I didn't make myself clear. I will attempt to rectify that mistake here. When "Bishop" Katie published that photo, it was to show them taking a little break and having a good time at a restaurant. Whenever you use it, you do so to create the impression that this is the whole essence of Ski's personality -- that he is always some kind of idle-minded frat boy. I'm sure that you could, if you wanted to, find a picture or two of him looking respectable and "pastorly." You have no desire to do so and want to create the picture that he is not someone to be taken seriously. The fact that you often photoshop that picture to show him in an even more unflattering light compounds the issue. I'm sure there must be a picture or two around of you having a good time with friends and family where you look just slightly goofy. Would you consider it fair if someone took one of those pictures, ran it through a photoshop program to make it appear as if you were partying with John Calvin and made that the image that people thought of whenever they thought of you. This is why your use and abuse of that picture is, indeed, a breaking of the Eighth Commandment. I really feel sorry for you if you cannot see that.

    Anonymous said...

    Blame Shifting Not Required:

    "Bishop" Katie used bad judgement.

    Anonymous said...

    "Bishop" Katie! You said it I.J. Reilly, not me.

    from WELS church lady

    P.S. I like you Pastor "Reilly"! You're all right!