bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "John Shep Has a Question for the ELS/WELS":
Plenty of people know the answer to Rev. Shep's question. The answer is that for some reason it was felt necessary to pay Bishop Horpynchuk a salary midway between a Western salary and the $250 per month wage that the average Ukrainian made at the time, and still does. So $1,000 per month was four times the average salary of the average Ukrainian, so it is no wonder he was able to accumulate enough money to build such a nice house.
Of course, if the WELS, ELS and LCMS laymen were supporting their seminaries and seminarians like they should be, this would never have happened since they would not have been in a position to even THINK about paying a Ukrainian that much money.
So now we have seminaries where roughly half the graduates receive certificates that aren't accredited, and in many cases don't even need any college credits to attend seminary. That's right. I asked a SMP person where he attended college, and he said he never had!
Ironically, the laymen think everything is fine and the seminaries are supported enough since there are hardly any calls open.
6 comments:
Dear bruce-church,
I confess to you that I am responsible for giving Horpenchuk that salary when I served as bishop in Ukraine. I was naive. I should have known better. I was wrong. However, real estate prices in Kiev are higher than in the U.S. A salary of $1,000 per month will not build you a mansion on prime real estate in Kiev.
WELS President Mark Schroeder's brother, Pastor Neal Schroeder, was the Ukranian point man for WELS many years ago. After a few trips he returned with a young Ukranian girl. Her mother was not doing well and allowed her to leave with him to the United States. She lived with his family for a few months, attending a local (W)ELS school. If I remember correctly it was meant to be a permanent situation but after some issues she was sent back to the Ukraine. Very odd situation. Maybe Pastor Shep could shine some light on what the situation is in the Ukraine that the (W)ELS would allow the clergy to arrange such things.
http://lutheran-weekly.blogspot.com/2010/11/convention-of-ukrainian-lutheran-church.html
If the Ukraine is anything like Russia, there is a lot of "underground economics" going on....
Not saying that is what the situation with a huge (8,000 square foot ????) house would be, but there may be other "income" sources involved....
Off the record,
On the QT,
And VERY Hush-Hush.
Grumps
The bishop's McMansion in a pricey neighborhood reminds me of how the rich can never seem to keep to the "implied" bargain that got them rich. Once the bishop had no more need of further ToF money since he became independently wealthy, up goes a McMansion, and who cares what the church people will think.
In the old days, a diehard tenet of Calvinism was that believers should be allowed to get rich, and this was seen a sign of their election and favor from God. The bargain with the rulers was that they ought not flaunt their wealth openly, and it ought to be used for the good of society. That's why the Netherlands was the richest part of Europe, yet didn't have many large houses, and the exteriors were somewhat drab but the interiors gilded, where the poor couldn't see it.
In the US the Calvinistic ideal of letting the rich get richer was followed by Calvinistic protestants, especially under Reagan, because they would supposedly invest it in factories and otherwise help out society. However, they never helped out Americans, and instead worked to cut welfare and stigmatized the poor. They immediately turned to building factories, but not in America, but in the most non-Calvinist of places, Mexico, China, etc. After getting free trade passed, they closed the American factories down. This strips the US of wealth, especially the middle class. The estimate is 25 million manufacturing jobs have been lost this way in a period where there should have been huge gains. Then finally the flaunting of wealth occurred and McMansions popped up everywhere, and money was plowed into the housing market until the lower middle class could barely afford a house since houses were no longer houses, but were someone's idea of an investment. Now no one seriously argues anymore that low taxes for the rich help everyone (a rising tide doesn't raise all boats equally), and so soon we'll probably go back to the old Progressive Tax tables that followed WWI and II. Besides, the rising US debt demands we do that soon, or else by 2012 or 2014 US money will be no good anywhere, and we'll have to start using Euros or Chinese money just like early Americans used Brit and Spanish money more than greenbacks:
A 8,000 sq feet house is a McMansion:
http://www.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&biw=1094&bih=787&tbs=isch%3A1&sa=1&q=8%2C000+sq+feet+house&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=
Bret, I met a M.L. Prep student from Ukraine who graduated 3 years ago or so. Her last name started with a Z, but I can't recall her name beyond that. Her sister from Ukraine was working in Chicago at a secular job and wasn't at her graduation, and didn't seem to support her financially. It seems as though ToF was footing the entire bill for her being there.
I thought the situation was odd because she wasn't an orphan, and it doesn't sound as though her sister helped put her through school. I think maybe ToF wanted her to go back and teach Lutheran school at some point, but it didn't sound as though she was going to attend MLC or go back to teach in Ukraine.
I hope the WELS taking over the Ukraine mission will get more results for the money spent, and put a stop to all the funny business.
This post refers back to:
John Shep Has a Question for the ELS/WELS
http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2011/01/john-shep-has-question-for-elswels.html
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