Her Goofiness, the Big Nasty at Episcopal Headquarters,
may have set the ELCA prisoners free.
Lo, the religious empires are crashing:
- Church Without Walls has its expensive walls in foreclosure;
- D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge is selling off assets;
- Schuller cannot even sell property on his main campus;
- Time of Grace is shopping for a bigger, richer synod;
- ELCA went through another round of staff firings as congregations leave.
Katharine Jefferts-Schori pushed the limits of radicalism and began suing the congregations for daring to leaver her feminist-pan-sexual paradise. With entire sections willing to leave the Episcopal corporation and face their day in court, ELCA congregations--velcroed to these high-church Unitarians--have found their way to the exit doors. ELCA Congregations from my hometown of Moline are engaged in the same disputes. They used to be Augustana Synod: Augustana, as in Augsburg Confession.
The content of the departing ELCA members and pastors indicate how they are struggling to leave behind what was once familiar and comfortable. Two areas should be familiar to WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect on the Prairie:
A. Reading material.
B. Trusting God's Word.
Reading Material
The ELCA members and pastors have been directed away from good theological reading for over 50 years. Instead of reading their own substantial material from the past, they get the latest publications coupled with warnings against the evils of dead theologians. Under a pile of books, they became illiterate about Lutheran doctrine. Are WELS, Missouri, and the ELS any different? They were handed Fuller and Fuller-cloned materials for decades while training at their sausage factories veered into making the Lutheran Church safe for Enthusiasm. "They have so much to teach us, those Babtists and Pentehowlers and occultists."
If the ELCA members and pastors had stuck to Lenski, Schmid, Jacobs, Krauth, and Schmauk, they would have remained closer in doctrine to the Synodical Conference.
If WELS, Missouri, and the ELS had featured a few good theologians in their training and publications--Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard, Gerhardt--they would still be Lutheran.
ELCA is closest to Missouri in going Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox, closest to WELS-ELS-LCMS in promoting the Enthusiasm of Missouri.
Trusting God's Word
The revolution in the Episcopal Church shows that the Word is efficacious, even in the midst of apostasy. A core group has found the new thinking completely alien, so they have nothing left to trust but the Word of God. They are emphasizing the Scriptures instead of culture and tradition.Stan Hauerwas always liked to say at Notre Dame, "The Lutherans are always a day late and a dollar short." I am waiting to see a Lutheran bishop take his entire district out of ELCA, following his peers in the Episcopal Church.
Meanwhile, LCMS-WELS-ELS clergy and laity need to get over their lockjaw and start speaking out on doctrinal issues. Some will pay a price for this, which is called bearing the cross. There are also intangible rewards, which are great, because tangible rewards do not transport well after death.
Every doctrinal debate is a victory, even if there is a short-term setback. The apostates in the Lutheran Church do not want a debate. They accuse, following the pattern set by their Father Below. They scream:
1. You are criticizing Holy Mother Synod!
2. You dare the attack one of our Great Ones?
3. You are an evil, evil person.
4. All we want to do is make things better.
They want a political battle, because they always win those. Look at Wayne Mueller being voted out of office, or Gurgle voted in!
They fear a doctrinal battle, knowing they have nothing to offer and plenty to hide.
Every Church and Changer "has issues with Church and Change." And yet, they are posting on the secret listserve and galloping off to each Schwaermer conference.
They hate having their secrets exposed. They hate being quoted verbatim, almost as much as they hate traditional Lutheran quotations.
They even hate cute kitteh pictures. That should seal their fate once and for all.
