and they opened another can of 8th Commandment on me.
And Matthew 18."
As all the readers know, WELS has no trouble with criminal defamation. The synod leaders and pastors practice it all the time. They do not even answer when addressed privately and personally. They are immune from the Eighth Commandment and do not need to respond to Matthew 18, because they are WELS.
The corporate world calls this push-back. If someone thinks a mistake has been made, the response is to find out what is wrong with the whistle-blower. A clever switch is made. "Yes, of course you are right about this concern, but you have gone about it the wrong way." Someone who persists will discover going about it the wrong way is a felony while the mistake was a misdemeanor - if that. Fortunately there are procedures in the secular world that limit the harm done, unlike church organizations.
For instance, push-back with plagiarism can mean, "How do you know?" and "Do you have proof?" and "Do you have copies of the proof with you?" Push-back can also involve, "She is close to graduation," and "She has connections with the staff."
If pursued in a court case, where a student sues for his diploma, in spite of his blatant plagiarism, the issue of intent is raised. There is no way to prove the individual intended to plagiarize (so they claim). I had one of those rare cases, someone who just did not know, due to lazy public school teachers. I worked with her for five weeks, and she was able to pass a writing course and learn how to avoid plagiarism.
Cheating is so prevalent that every assignment submitted (both schools) must be run through a nifty plagiarism checker. A 20% score is the max, but only if it includes properly cited sources. I have seen 83% scores, meaning the student actually added a few words to what was copied verbatim. Wikipedia is a favorite source. Sometimes the Wiki codes (citation needed) are left in the copied material.
Since deliberate plagiarists are liars and cheats, they rail against anyone who catches them in the act. One woman said angrily, "I changed a few words." Another one said, "I did not know it was wrong. I changed the order of the quotations." So I said, "Then you knew it was wrong, because you were trying to hide the evidence." One man came up with 12 very intellectual points on one slide, 12 parallel points on the next slide. Surprise, they were right off the Net. They do not just fuss and fume - they make up stories too. (Imagine that, WELS victims!) My favorite invented story was having the class watch a pro basketball game from the Net - for four hours. Two witnesses shot that one to pieces, because normal organizational structure allows for the facts being heard.
That does not happen in a crooked, corrupt, false-teaching synod.
The plagiarists in WELS are rewarded with multiple calls and serve as featured speakers at synodical events.
I have seen the latest examples of WELS push-back. One blogger lost all his sources. Another one confessed that he did not go to the false teacher first, although many people had already done that, without any result. End of blog number two. The Intrepids were warned, "You have questioned the clear teaching of the synod."
Ski does his own push-back. He called up one layman and pressured him for daring to disagree with his copied Groeschel false doctrine. WELS Pastor Tim Glende published a number of anonymous blogs, but he stopped when identified. "A watched man watches himself."
Anyone who knows the Book of Concord realizes that WELS/LCMS/ELS leaders are lying when they cry "Eighth Commandment!" about rebuking false doctrine. According to their own Confessions (Book of Concord, Large Catechism, The Ten Commandments), the Eighth Commandment does not apply to public false doctrine. Their accusation of "Slander!" is yet another lie, showing they are servants of their Father Below - or so inept that they should leave the ministry.
When they say, "You should have gone to him privately first," the synod leaders are switching between private sin and public false teaching. Matthew 18 would apply when someone sees the pastor shop-lifting (or appearing to do so) and asks him about it privately, rather than going public.
Notice how adroitly the synod leaders pile error upon error. First they cry "Slander and Eighth Commandment!" when someone objects to a pastor proclaiming false doctrine from the public. Next they use Matthew 18 to confuse the members, as if it is a terrible sin to confront error in any way.
But here is the ultimate, the master-stroke in their demonic doctrine. These same synod leaders slander people (behind their backs, of course) to anyone who will listen. In the hardness of their hearts, they get even - not only with the original dissenter, but anyone in his family and any friend as well. They have no problem with breaking up a marriage, ruining family relationships, destroying friendships.
These synodical felonies are not limited to WELS or the Little Sect or the Missouri Sect. ELCA and earlier bodies practiced them with a little more smoothness.
If an ELCA congregation wants to leave the Lavender Mafia, the ELCA bishop insists on coming to the church and preaching the sermon for that Sunday. The Iowa bishop preaches on the love chapter, I Corinthians 13. That conjures up images that may lose the argument, but it lays a foundation for saying to anyone, "You are not being loving. A loving person would allow for various opinions. A loving person would not condemn an alternate lifestyle. A loving person would not push people away."
Love can be used to condemn a lot of people, but love is not a fruit that grows on the tree of apostasy.
One person said I should stop "bashing WELS" for Advent. All I do is teach doctrine and that includes rebuking false doctrine. I know a lot of very nice people in Lutherdom, not just in WELS or the ELS. They are aghast that the synods are so poorly led by such weak, vacillating, uncertain men. As a result, they suffer from the results of pastors teaching against the Word of God.
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Daniel Baker has left a new comment on your post "Controlling the Masses with Biblical Deception":
To be fair, the push back isn't what stopped me from blogging. Ultimately, after realizing that there is false doctrine much closer to home than Appleton that needs dealing with, I'm focusing my efforts on my local congregation for the time being.
Having said that, I'm contemplating listening to all of Ski's sermons for the past 3 months (and perhaps beyond) to determine a pattern, but I just haven't been able to subject myself to that kind of torture yet. Perhaps after the semester is over I'll have a chance to get on that.
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GJ - A few WELS laymen have shown what can be accomplished by publishing a factual article about doctrinal error, plagiarism, and Whoopee Worship. Do not write a letter - publish a letter.
