bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Suspending the Doctrinal Pussycat in WELS":
I wonder if the problem is they set up the WELS disciplinary system back before the pension and health insurance packages came from the synod. Before pensions and health plans were a big deal, or were in existence at all, people were more willing to stick up for what they saw was the truth since they didn't have much to lose. Now the stakes are so high that it's impossible for someone to get the required 3 or 4 other people to stick their neck out publicly for the truth. They just look at you as though your crazy, and are trouble (short for troublemaker).
The same thing happened in universities. Before pensions and big perks came along, there was diversity of thought, but now the universities are just a system of secular humanist gulags. Conservatives like to say that the Marxist professors were intolerant of the "other," and drove conservatives out, but in reality the very capitalist system that conservatives tout raised the stakes and had a big part in the creation of the university gulag system.
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GJ - I agree except that people put themselves under that yoke by trusting benefits more than they trust God.
Social Security was invented to keep people from revolution. I think Bismarck gets the credit for that idea.
I teach at two universities - no pension, no benefits. I would rather be free than loaded up with golden chains.
All the synods depend on Thrivent, and Thrivent uses them as cheap lead sources - while throwing millions at Habitat for Humanity. But it is all worth it - getting the free flower charts, napkins, cups, and planners.
