grumpy has left a new comment on your post "Lookee Here - They ARE Selling the Love Shack":
Dr. Jackson,
Not even a small "zing" on this one is merited.
Headquarters is NOT a college, seminary, or prep. It does not remotely have the same emotional power of an educational institution.
If anything, the sale of HQ only STRENGTHENS the argument that the colleges/preps/seminary are SAFE, at least for the next 5 years.
Now, THAT deserves a BA-ZING-OOOO !!!
Grumps
***
GJ - You gave good reasons for the dissolution of the schools taking longer, Grumpy.
Here is the other side
- :
- Schools are money pits, demanding large sums for basic repairs and maintenance, a critical problem when enrollment declines.
- The tuition bill has gone from reasonable to pricey, but the educational content has declined to substandard Babtist. Why not go to Wheaton for a quality Baptist education?
- Three WELS/ELS colleges are within a day's drive, so the old monopoly or single-purpose school is gone. Long ago: guys only went to NWC. Teachers only went to MLC. Bethany was just a junior college for the ELS and the Preus family. WLC was not beefed up with Schwan indulgence money.
- Gustavus Adolphus (ELCA) is not far from MLC. An ELS leader's daughter went to GA instead of MLC or Bethany - for music!
- WELS has already made plans to divide up MLC, and I was not on that committee - just reporting the facts.
- WELS has been trying to close Michigan Lutheran Seminary since 1992 or earlier. Gurgle and Wayne Mueller really turned up the heat to boil the frog.
- Mequon is also targeted for possible liquidation.
Previous power plays have reduced school loyalties. WELS got rid of Mobridge long ago. They got rid of the New Ulm prep by "moving" it to Prairie, where it could not survive, wasting a ton of money. The locals created their own area high school to replace what was on the New Ulm campus, dividing loyalties and killing the market for Prairie. But Prairie had to have music building for .5 million to 1 million bucks - while discussing its sale as a prison.
The lying went into overdrive to get rid of Northwestern College in Watertown. The NWC alumni were not allowed to vote on it. School loyalty got a thrashing there. NWC moved to New Ulm, where the faculty got neutered and filled with estrogen. Instead of two tracks, as promised, MLC merged all training.
The convention vote was a lie, too, since it failed. The vote counting committee reversed the total and said it passed narrowly. Gurgle next insisted that the districts all ratify the lie because the contracts had already been signed! So the lemmings approved the lie. Gurgle also spent $30 million on this cost-saving merger, when he said it was only $8 million.
The money blown that I know about would be enough to start another synod. Oh wait, two synods have started during this time, rather than turn to the doctrinal orthodoxy (ha) of WELS.
Moving NWC to New Ulm meant leaving a good job market (Milwaukee area) for a horrible one (New Ulm/Comfrey).
Moving NWC also meant that the future pastors could watch the future male teachers go out and party while they stayed in to keep up with Greek and Hebrew. Teachers have much easier requirements.
School loyalty means a lot, serving to draw the big donations. Marvin Schwan is proof of that. He went to Bethany when it was a clapboard little junior college, barely able to furnish tp in their outdoor johns.
WELS knows how to kill that loyalty, wherever and whenever possible. MLS was once called The Plywood Palace for its shabbiness. As president, John Lawrenz expressed his willingness to end MLS as a prep, right in front of the convention.
Lawrenz said on the convention floor, when MLS was fighting for its life, "We are willing to accept whatever role the synod gives us."
So much for "We are the synod." No - they are the synod. The Church and Changers are the synod, so sit at the back of the bus and spit on those shoes when you shine them.
But now I will voice the opinions of two readers. Both think the primary problem of WELS is the educational system, starting with the parochial schools. They think the entire system should be dismantled. The system of hazing turns its graduates into brain-washed robots who will accept anything and tell any lie to cover for classmates.
