WELS is not the only sect filled with bullies. Missouri has its share. So does ELCA. The micro-mini sects are ideal for psychotic, in-bred bullies. Being closely related to everyone in the sect is not a good indication for one's DNA. Bragging rights in a sect may be a cause for alarm from the medical profession.
In school, no one has the right to assault, abuse, or dominate another person. That might seem obvious to many, but the WELS prep system is different. Not only is bullying encouraged, but those who dare to report it are bullied even more. Anything done in the name of getting even is considered fair, including destroying someone's property. The WELS clergy are so deep into this behavior that they think it is great. They brag about what they have done to others. The stated goal, as VP Huebner told me, is to "make sure everyone comes out the same." That may be why the ELS calls Mequon The Sausage Factory.
The ELS must love bullying, because they re-elected Pope John the Malefactor. They should have sent him packing after he took over control of various congregations because some doubted the plenary inspiration of the ambiguous ELS position on the public ministry. I lost count of how many pastors he got rid of in his re-enactment of Jesus Cleansing the Temple.
The ELS is used to being bullied by WELS, but they have no smaller sect to bully.
The best approach is to stand up to bullies. Their cowardice shows on their faces. If the bully waits to get even later, often through proxies, the time has come to separate for good. They should be pitied, because they are emotionally immature and seriously impaired in their thinking.
Here is one good example. A WELS pastor brags about his high level of education and tries to browbeat laity into accepting his divinely-inspired course of action. This same genius graduate of The Sausage Factory thinks - to stretch the verb - that copying the sermons and materials of a false teacher will:
- Save his congregation from fading away.
- Remain undetected by people who use the Internet.
1 comments:
Timely post. I think that the bullies look at the world differently than the rest of us do. When the Christians in the Middle Ages were sent off to do battle in the Holy Land there was an intellectual and spiritual crisis to deal with.
If the spirit of Christianity is to live a life of peace and to deal with others in a spirit of love, how then can one be motivated to go into battle and start hacking up people?
The answer (and I think it was Bernard of Clermont who came up with this) is that when one kills a Muslim he is not actually engaged in homicide. He is, instead, practicing malecide. He is killing false teaching, he is not killing people.
The same thing applies to the conservatives, and I can only speak of what I have observed in the ELS. Those twenty or so men who were forced out were given the boot by those who would justify their actions as malecide. This depriving people of their ability to make a living is a very serious ethical breach among the ELSians, and I suspect, for other Lutherans as well.
Recently one of the ELS maleciders, getting up in years and wishing to pass away into the next world with a clear conscience, wrote to one of his victims. It wasn't personal, he said. It was just doctrine. [It wasn't homicide, it was malecide.]
Are you kidding me?
The man who had suffered the indignities and the loss of income and livelihood wrote back in response. He said that he was ready to let bygones be bygones, but would there be a willingness to admit that the action taken was perhaps a bit harsh and maybe a little unjust?
There has been no response.
There is some unconfessed sin to be dealt with in this situation.
Norman Teigen
Lutheran Layman
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