I suggest following Rogue Lutheran to find out what is happening in the Missouri Synod. More on that in a moment.
The Lutheran News link is good for picking up everything out there. It is like wandering through a large library and finding new books without even trying.
Lately I have picked up a number of stories from people I have known (Wallace Schulz) or known about (Paul Hinlicky), not to mention those I went to school with (Stan Olson, ELCA executive).
Schulz was canned from Missouri's Lutheran Hour for opposing DP Benke's unionism. Schulz has always been known as the "chaplain of Christian News," but he was never one to back any conservative cause or pastor openly. He played it safe, like all his colleagues. He is now blasting the Quiche-niks, a bit late in life.
Paul Hinlickey is furious about ELCA, as I posted earlier. He is one of the Seminex graduates who veered toward the conservative side after a career in ELCA. The conservative side of ELCA is rapidly constricting. Like all other advocates of diversity, the ELCA bishop is getting rid of the opposition quickly.
Robert Benne is a respected academic on the Roanoke College faculty, proof of sanity in ELCA. However, he seems to be showing signs of shock that ELCA has finally accomplished what was planned in the beginning of the 1987 merger. The Lavender Mafia (in part, thanks to Seminex, see Hinlicky's bio) took control of the merger and established quotas from the beginning.
I knew an LCA pastor from Gay, Michigan. I offered to nominate him to fill the slot of a Gay Lutheran pastor. He was not amused.
The LCA insisted on quotas and got them. The actual legal votes on ELCA were managed by lawyers at the podium. The most liberal people I knew were "shocked, shocked" at this. And they are still there in ELCA today.
Wallace Schulz seems to have his own blog now. That would probably be a good link in following the campaign to unseat the current Synodical Pope. Matt Harrison seems to have a good number of nominations, showing broad support. I have no idea how that will translate into convention votes. Kieschnick, like Bohlmann, is good at using the apparatus of the synod to harvest votes, indeed to manufacture them.
Schulz has noticed, after 20 years of my published articles, that Lutherans promote the Babtists, but the Babtists do not tolerate baptismal regeneration. He actually restated, in so many words, my theory of the Non-Reciprocity of False Teachers. (I need a suitable Latin name for that.) As I mentioned so many times before, the so-called Lutherans promote Babtist doctrine while getting shunned and dissed in return. For copious examples, see all the WELS/LCMS/ELS evangelism efforts of the last 30 years.
Unfortunately, Schulz is weak in his exegesis, missing the correct translation of the Great Commission. He retains "make disciples," a Reformed pratfall, leading most people to think the disciples were commanded to manufacture something.
If we must use disciple for the verb, the proper translation is "Disciple all nations, baptizing and teaching..." The object of the verb is "all nations," and not "disciples."
The KJV is correct, and modern attempts have fouled up a perfectly clear, Means of Grace conclusion to Matthew's Gospel. Modern translators have turned a Gospel admonition into Mosaic Law, as they prostrate themselves before their Reformed gurus.
One CLC--sic--pastor went nuts at a meeting in quoting what I said on this, little knowing that I was quoting LI. That amused LI, as everyone might guess. When two WELS pastors also pointed this out, WELS got rid of both of them. The Michigan District is so firm on doctrinal discipline, in supporting the Reformed Pietists. The Shrinkers love their "make disciples," whether they are CLC, ELS, LCMS, or WELS false teachers.
KJV Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
I find the abundance of reborn Luthers rather tiresome in their sudden discovery of the apostasy that served them so well in the past. With their pension funds accumulated, they can now afford to distance themselves from Holy Mother Synod. They can retire and replay the image of grouchy old men, sitting on the front porch, threatening to shoot the kids who step on their lawns.
"Do you know who I used to be?" they will shout, waving their 22s.
