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The Shrinkers in WELS like to howl about how I have wounded their sect in so many evil ways, but I have good relations with many of their clergy and members. Northwestern Publishing House wants me to review their books and products, and they graciously gave me the copyright to re-publish Liberalism.
My book was one of the first in their doctrinal series. They expected the doctrinal books to sell poorly. So what was the price of water when the gold prospectors came to California? About $10 a gallon - because Southern California is a desert!
Liberalism sold very rapidly, thanks to promotion in Christian News. I think McCain reviewed it. Patsy Leppien and Kincaid Smith brought out What's Going On Among the Lutherans? at about the same time. I helped a little with that book, doing some research here and there.
Liberalism sold very well for a long time, going into three printings, but the book was almost burned by the Shrinkers. They kept delaying the book's printing. I was not even allowed to review the proof sheets.
When I got the first copies, hot from the press, DP Mueller and VP Kuske were ready with another attempt to remove me. The final chapter, about the Means of Grace, made Oelhafen, Adrian, and Kovaciny go crazy when it was read as a conference paper. The chapter was quite mild, but they were all shouting and carrying on. Orthodoxy in WELS = UOJ, adultery, and Reformed gimmicks. Any deviation from that superhighway to Hell is punished, without remorse or delay.
Their tantrums at the conference proved to me that the paper had to be the Cure chapter. Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure was already accepted, but the last chapter was not written. As the editor at NPH said, "You have a Cause so far but no Cure." That was Jerome Albrecht, a very kindly gentleman, great to work with. When he asked permission to provide some comments on the draft, I said, "Be cruel." Later, he said, "You told me to be cruel." He was not.
The Ohio Conference did not approve my paper. They also did not approve my paper on logical fallacies. What they disapproved became chapters and the books went around the world.
A final note. NPH put Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant on their calendar for printing. The Shrinkers found out soon enough and a letter arrived canceling that. I had to "change my attitude" first, before they would print the book. I was trying to figure out how I would start endorsing McGavran and Wagner, clergy adultery and entertainment seeker services.
Oddly enough, NPH showed their remorse by doing a fabulous job promoting CLP, which was being distributed by Christian News. NPH mailed color brochures to their entire list, more than once. I know where the nixing came from. Another printer wanted to my works, but he found out he would lose Bivens and Valleskey from his list if he did. He was really threatened with total economic shunning. He said, "I have to take care of my family."
I know many people who spoke to Valleskey about his false doctrine, as I did. Valleskey got rid of all of them. I expected retaliation because I saw how the mainline churches worked. I was appalled at how WELS let that happen to their own pastors. The results are pretty obvious today.
No one has done anything about The SORE or St. Mark's Depere or St. Peter Freedom or Bethany, Appleton - all monuments to WELS apostasy.
The LCA in the 1960s was far more Lutheran than WELS is today. No one in the LCA would have allowed munching popcorn and slurping soda pop during a worship service. No one would have sponsored a rock band for untalented wannabees. LCA services were liturgical, and youth meetings included traditional worship. The so-called conservative Lutherans should stop looking down their noses at ELCA, using that an excuse to feel confessional, and start looking at their own past - or there is no future.
I realize I am a convenient excuse for all the turmoil in WELS. I knew nothing about the Fox Valley group debacle until WELS members let me know. Laity got nowhere addressing the issues. Pastors got nowhere addressing the issues. The DP is a no-show, hiding below the deck on the Leaking Lena, like Cap'n Huff-n-Puff. Someone I have never met visited The SORE and found it even worse than he expected. He also wrote letters, and got one reply so far. Maybe he is behind in his blogging. Perhaps the synod is blaming him for all the turmoil in Fox Valley.
