Rogue Lutheran:
About my blogging.......it just kind of fell in my lap and I ran with it. If someone had already been writing about the NID I never would have put myself in the public arena.
I did not take up blogging about Lutheran apostasy for ‘Grand Publis Aclaim’ (term I learned from fill in the blank faux Lutheran handouts to discourage speaking out prior to a church voter meeting).
I spent some time in a business where Druckerisms and the Total Quality program was easy for me to recognize. I realized I was being deceived and the internet offered information; just not enough Lutheran information.
But I did stumble upon Ichabod, and even though it was WELS oriented there was a ton of information. Especially helpful were the posts related to past events in LCMS that helped me backfill missing years. The pattern of defection from the Faith and the deception is all in there. Missourians should data mine that site. The pattern is the same, across all denominations and sects. Transformational LINOS are integrating another belief system in the Missouri synod. They are so big on signed covenants they forgot one (from the business community): the covenant not to compete.
A few Lutheran bloggers are sending out warning signals to fellow Lutherans or other Christians, but it would be great to see more. It annoys me that some public Lutherans dance around the apostasy in ambiguous vague generalities and refuse to acknowledge public errors or call attention to it in a direct way. The persons being damaged by false doctrine are individuals seeking the gospel truth and the rebellious Lutheran pastors should be identified for withholding same.
The legacy Lutheran media (Lutheran Witless) reads like a society column from a 1950 newspaper. It is not news you can use in this current state of Lutheranism.
The LCMS NID basically put me in this trick bag and inspired this blog. When I discovered deception and confronted my pastors they basically treated me like some addled old lady, patting me on the head with “Tut tut, there’s no church growth Willow Creek operation in here”.
The crux of the matter was and still is this, do I walk with these misguided fools or stand up to it? Am I going to walk the talk or turn into a comatose pietist just to identify with some aberrant form of Lutheranism. Some principles are extremely value laden, as in worth more than life itself so there’s just some Schlitz you don’t eat.
I’ve got no regrets about taking the plunge and I have never been an activist type. If lay people were addressing this issue there would be no need for my blog.
As far as I know the only other layperson blog in the NID (Chicagoland) talking about apostasy isAblaze for Christ. This person has chronicled problems with ELCA, homosexuals, racism, and Wheatridge the RSO since 1998. It is worth your time to read it.
It bewilders me to know that in this densely populated area there is just me and the Ablaze for Christ man speaking out against error in the NID.
The people hijacking faith are just waiting it out for the whole brouhaha and the old guard to die off. That’s why it is ignored. I’m on self-imposed Leper status, and it works for me. I can’t be in the same stall with fake Lutherans. I have nothing in common with timid Lutherans either.
I do wonder if there are enough real Lutherans left in this denomination to make a difference?
I’m still thinking through this denominational loyalty thing. I know I’ll never worship in that transformational LCMS church again and I am really disappointed with Lutheran pastors that just ‘go with the flow’. As far as truth in advertising goes, the Synod did little to warn or protect me from getting sucked into an apostate form of Lutheranism. There should be a proficiency exam for elders, my experience with them left me very underwhelmed.
I’m disinclined to parse through the different ‘affinity groups’ in the LCMS, too. Too much work. I think something will open up for me, though.
I just write to alert others, I’m not a professional writer (it shows) and my techno blogging skills are primitive (it shows). If I can put up a blog, anybody can. The point is that Missouri is dishonest and secretive. I’m all about alerting others to sinister forces and outing deceivers.
There are numerous patterns to follow because the script is from outside the denomination. The leadership is not particularly clever or original, this is all based on second-hand ideas leftover from evangelical outliers.
Every now and then I think I’m going to stop blogging, and along pops up some really bold and asinine statement from the pen of a LINO pastor and I just have to take a swing at it. See link. If you look at that post, ask yourself could that LINO pastor cite a more anti-Lutheran source?
I was amused that I got the attention of Charlie Mueller, Jr. Thanks for the blog traffic, Charlie.
The establishment types fear the mob (pew sitters) will wise up and they worry about losing their private fiefdom. This is the Google Age, according to Dr. Sweet, and the hive-like information system is here to stay whether we like it or not. We live in a panoptic society; more bloggers will come online and I can step down.
I don’t do divination (you’d have to see Lutheran Pastor Stutz for that) but whatever happens, let the record show that a vocal minority was not deceived by the shenanigans.
This is a battle for the mind just like the Apostle Paul said it was and Dr. Luther said the following about fake Lutherans slinking around in church among the faithful sowing discord and problems.
It is by your silence and cloaking that you cast suspicion upon yourself.
If you believe as you declare in my presence, then speak so also in the church, in public lectures, in sermons, and in private conversations, and strengthen your brethren, and lead the erring back to the right path, and contradict the contumacious spirits; otherwise your confession is sham pure and simple, and worth nothing.
Whoever really regards his doctrine, faith, and confession as true, right, and certain cannot remain in the same stall with such as teach, or adhere to, false doctrine; nor can he keep on giving friendly words to Satan and his minions.
A teacher who remains silent when errors are taught, and nevertheless pretends to be a true teacher, is worse than an open fanatic and by his hypocrisy does greater damage than a heretic. Nor can he be trusted. He is a wolf and a fox, a hireling and a servant of his belly, and ready to despise and to sacrifice doctrine, Word, faith, Sacrament, churches, and schools.
He is either a secret bedfellow of the enemies, or a skeptic and a weathervane, waiting to see whether Christ or the devil will prove victorious; or he has no convictions of his own whatever, and is not worthy to be called a pupil, let alone a teacher; nor does he want to offend anybody, or say a word in favor of Christ, or hurt the devil and the world.”
Martin Luther, F. Bente, Concordia Triglotta, Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Louis Missouri, CPH, 1921, p. 94.
Part II will address disinformation in the Steele video-- there’s a deceptive New Age piece of Schlitz in there.
