Imitation Is the Highest Form of Flattery - Multiple Blogs Copy Ichabod

How many copy my style?
Badly?

Some people think I am offended by the anti-Ichabod blogs, but they are a great honor, albeit one I deserve.

An Englishman said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

How many blogs have picked up my ideas in order to counter my influence:

Rock-N-Roll was the first, produced by Church and Change's Joe Krohn. He picked up my nickname for his mission congregation - Christ the Rock Lutheran in Round Rock, Texas. Kudo Don Patterson and Where's-the-Loot Gurgle are now planting a new site almost next door to Doebler and Krohn. This blog tanked early.

Fake Ichabod came along, copying my blog name to grab some readers. He was supported immediately by Joe Krohn and Tim Felt-Needs. Tim's real last name is Niedfelt, but he adopted my nickname for him. Fake Ichabod started out trying to defend UOJ and the Church Shrinkers, doubtless because he knows the two go together like rats and the plague. Fake is typically WELS, full of anonymous sanctimony, contradictions, and self-parody. Fake took it on himself to attack my departed daughters, Bethany and Erin Joy, to make himself feel important. He erased all his files, disappeared, came back, disappeared, came back, etc.

Anonymouse is the nickname I gave to a daily comment producer, virulently nasty and always anonymous. A parallel blog popped up with that name and uses the same template as Fake Ichabod. People immediately saw the real character of the blogger (who is Fake Ichabod) when he posted about toilets and vomit, with bad Photoshops provided. That was all erased, and he urged readers to go to the "scholarly" Fake Ichabod. This sad specimen wants to make things better by attacking people by name. He objects to my dealing with false doctrine, using the sources, but he indulges himself in scatological personal attacks so low they would be banned by any broadcast, even given the low standards of cable TV.

He calls it satire but I call it typical WELS pastoral training. UOJ gives them a license to be Antinomians. Ask the murderers, the child molesters, the embezzlers, and the leaders who promote known adulterous pastors.

Plagiarism
I have known for a long time that the blogger is from Fox Valley. When I step on Fox Valley toes, he rages.

I received a copy of a Christmas sermon written and copyrighted by a Baptist minister and placed on his website. I also received a copy of the same sermon, preached by WELS Pastor John Parlow and posted on his website as his own. This happened in 2007.

I was going to post both texts, but I realized Doug the Unready will still protect Parlow and nothing will be done. I added another step to the WELS pastor quiz, on plagiarism, and the Fox Valley blogger lit up again.

The Shrinkers are un-original plagiarists, enchanted with the Babtists. One WELS pastor said, "We all used to think Kelm was so creative. We found out he was just copying from the Schwaermer."

The plagiarism issue reminds me of the issue in the college classroom, where it is a real plague. I have dealt with the issue many times. Some do not know any better and want help, because high school let it go by and never taught them otherwise. I worked with one woman for five weeks, which ended with her earning a C. She wrote, "You are the best teacher I have ever had, believe it or not."

Most plagiarists are not like that, and they make administrators laugh. They get caught and phone the bosses.
"That is the worst teacher I have ever had in my life."
"No one ever said it was wrong."
"I gave the citation" (for a 99% copied essay).
"You can't prove it."
As I have said more than once to a supervisor, "They already lied once when they plagiarized. You expect the truth from them now?" I have had learning teams cheat together and tell the same bad story.

I see a parallel with the WELS Shrinkers. Because the Shrinkers are too lazy and stupid to do their own work, they attack anyone who notices their handiwork.

Fox Valley not only hosted the team of Parlow and Kelm, notorious copiers, but also the current Groeschel tag team of Ski and Glende.

As some may recall, Parlow and Limmer actually plagiarized an email from Hybels of Willow Creek. Their church was a long-time member of the Willow Creek Association and linked there - until I published that fact a zillion times.

The head of technology for WELS also plagiarized Hybels, in his first and only congregation in WELS.

WELS paid mission pastors to be trained at Willow Creek.

Does anyone notice a pattern?

The Shrinkers flatter Fuller, Willow Creek, Groeschel, Driscoll, Stanley, etc because they love false doctrine. Someone imitates my blog because he thinks he can write polemics and satire.

Please keep revealing your brittle, dishonest, copycat nature - Fake Ichabod. We need a laugh after musing about how little is done about pastors like you.

You Can Be a WELS Pastor If You Pass This Quiz

Answers are provided below,
because we know how hard they study at The Sausage Factory.

1. How do you get ahead after graduation?
Answer - Get a drive-by DMin from Fuller Seminary.

2. How you become a Mequon professor?
Answer - Go to Fuller Seminary and lie about it.

3. You are not in fellowship with Missouri, so where can you go for some continuing education?
Answer - Willow Creek, Trinity in Deerfield, Granger Community Church, Mars Hill.

4. What if you do not have enough money for all those conferences?
Answer - Join Life.TV with Craig Groeschel. He will give you a license to use all his sermons, promotions, videos, and graphics.

5. Where can you meet leaders of WELS, such a district VPs and future DPs?
Answer - Exponential is a great conference for meeting all the leaders we admire from other denominations, plus many WELS pastors and staff members.

6. How do you deal with people discussing certain outrageous facts about WELS?
Answer - First say, "Who told you?" Second, trash the person who gave up the information. Third, make the curious individual a criminal for asking about it.

7. How do you make a DP go away?
Answer - Schedule a meeting where he knows there are doctrinal issues.

8. How do you explain GA?
Answer - "There is no GA."

9. How do you explain classmates and a DP in state prison?
Answer - Look blank. Feign stupidity and lack of knowledge. Try not to sweat.

10. Where did all the Schwan money go?
Answer - In the fulness of time, this will be revealed.

11. Is plagiarism wrong?
Answer - When Ichabod quotes us and gives the source, that is a horrible sin and against the law, especially since we have no time to erase the evidence. If we borrow Baptist or Pentecostal sermons and copy Groeschel, that is not plagiarism, because we are doing it.

Lenski in Every WELS Pastor's Study

Lenski's commentaries stay in print for a reason.

I bought my set of Lenski at a Mequon seminary book sale. Everyone else already had a set.

WELS students have often repeated this quip, "All you need to be a pastor is a Triglotta, Lenski, and boxer shorts."

Audience: "The horror. The horror."