rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure - Free Download fro...":
It has come to the point where I wonder if the WELS is now the theological equivalent of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. An analogy could not be drawn in every situation. However, some of the key concepts from the novel have similarities which are quite eerie.
Examples would include but are not limited to doublethink, thoughtcrime, Newspeak, and the Memory hole. What is most disturbing is the "Emmanuel Goldstein treatment" that has been given to Dr. Jackson on more than one occasion. This is otherwise known as the "two minutes of hate". Also, in a strange play of words, there are the various ministries in Oceania. In Orwell's country of origin, Great Britain, a ministry is a government agency. Bloated synod-ocracies have all these "ministies" which have the opposite effect of their title, just as in 1984. [GJ - illuminating typo - a mini-sty? I like it.]
For those who try to deal honestly and forthrightly with others in the real world, it is often difficult to change gears and operate the WELS way. What is most distressing is the lack of results, satisfaction and closure when trying to address their concerns. Many have been the recipients of the cockroach letter.
It appears as though all of these objectionable CG methods come with a built in snare when "lutheranized" the WELS way. Those who raise a stink are darned if you do and darned if you don't. The resisters to CG rot are run through a meat grinder of dead end activities that are designed to absorb your resources of time and energy. This list has been posted here several times. If one wisely chooses to not engage the apostates, then they are demonized for not speaking up. Recently, I let several key individuals know why I was leaving my former congregation. That should have been enough. Even with that, my position was misrepresented in the letter of transfer that was sent to my present congregation. If anyone else wanted a better explanation, they could have contacted me. I would have gladly gone through my laundry list of concerns. Not one elder or any other concerned member took it upon themselves to get the story straight from the horse's mouth.
Fear is control and many WELS laity are afraid of the truth.
I have been given the silent treatment. As Luther told George Major - "it is by your silence and your cloaking that you bring suspicion upon yourself".
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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "My Interpretation of Recent Events":
The calling process in the WELS is a sick joke at best, but more closely resembles a tyrannical power play. Sometimes, it is the lack of receiving a call which is also used to club some into submission or to make a point with the alleged unruly.
That point is be careful whose toes you step on. My aunt told me about a young pastor who languished without a call while there were many vacancies. The bishop (DP) would give no reason why this candidate did not have his name placed on any call lists. My aunt concurred that it is a divine call with a lot of human intervention.
It must have been genetic. This young pastor's father was also abused by the calling process. His father was the pastor who confirmed me. He was not well liked by some but was very Confessional.
Many years ago I asked a young LES teacher if they taught anything about the doctrine of the divine call at Dumb Man's Last Chance. She gave me a confused look. It seemed like such a logical inconsistency for called workers to be subjected to this process but not know anything about the theology behind it. Then again, maybe there is no theology behind it with the manner in which it is being implemented.
You have to give these bishops credit for being innovative in the way that they handle dissenters. You give them credit like you would give a scheming criminal credit for their effort in trying to pull off the perfect crime, but eventually get caught by overlooking some details.
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GJ - WELS is so abusive that the leaders use calls to stick the knife in. For example, one pastor dared to question Church Growth, rather mildly, only at some meetings. He got a Calumet call. Friends phoned him and said, "What on earth did you do wrong?" The point of such calls is to humiliate the pastor. Calls are also used to say, "We approve of this adulterer."
I was recently told by one DP, "We are giving calls to those guys to break up that group." That is gutless discipline in WELS. No one took the calls, except for Witte, who was promoted for being a Church and Money Changer pioneer. Doubtless they knew, if the calls even appeared, that it was a sham, a fraud, another smokescreen to keep the gullible peaceful.
This is my intuition, taken completely from my fertile mind, and not based on any inside knowledge, memo, intercepted email, or pillow talk from some Shrinker's girlfriend:
The Church and Change group, which is used to running the show and being paid lavishly for it, sat down with SP Schroeder and had a Come To Jesus meeting.
This may have happened in one dramatic moment or dribbled out over a period of time, with various laity taking part in their own ways.
The message was, "We will continue and you will keep your hands off. Otherwise, we will walk with several millions of dollars of donations per year. And you can count on a bloody civil war going on for years, because you are being divisive."
Mark Jeske has been building his own synod for years. He promotes a youth meeting as synodical. His Board of Warbucks includes people across the synod, sending shivers of fear down the alleged spines of all the DPs. One Daddy Warbucks gave $500,000 to Willowcreek's Little College in Milwaukee (WELS for donation purposes only - the WELS Valpo).
If Kieschnick had been re-elected, Jeske's implied threat was taking the whole bunch out and joining the LCMS. He got the Missouri Synod RSO status (a goldmine) when LCMS ministers are denied it. That is an interesting parallel to Stolzenburg getting a Marvin Schwan grant even though he was kicked out of Missouri and kept out of WELS.
Kieschnick was defeated by his corpse-cold ambition, but Jeske's ambitions remain. He can easily take the group out on its own or affiliate with one of many new Lutheran groups. I doubt that anything will happen, because congregations care more about Holy Mother Synod than about sound doctrine. A state of Limbo is perfect, and that can continue for years, as it has already.
The Church and Money Changers joined the Reformed New Agers decades ago. They bragged about it in TELL, promoted one another into Love Shack sinecures, took over various entities and renamed them to show their conquests, routed out their opponents, and elevated their scrofulous pals to college and seminary positions, not to mention First VP of the synod. In one episode after another, Shrinkers have triumphed in new jobs, untouched by the economic devastation they visited upon confessional Lutherans.
The passive clergy wag their tails every time a Shrinker gets near, in hopes of improving their sorry lot. There is no growling at the wolves, for it is more enjoyable to bite than to be bitten, to run with the pack than be driven off.
