Just singing in the WELS
What a glorious feelin'
I'm running the ELS.
I'm laughing at clods
So dark up above
Paul Kelm’s in my heart
And I'm ready for love.
Let the Intrepids chase
We’ll quote them the Eighth
And bring on the pain.
I've a smile on my face,
I walk down the lane,
Cause we browbeat the ELS,
Just singin',
Singin' in the WELS.
Please look over this page on Christian Universalism - Universal Reconciliation, which was linked by Church Mouse on his excellent blog.
Today many people can see the reason why I advocate studying comp dog (comparative dogmatics), so we know what we believe in comparison with the confessions of other groups. I used to commune George Lindbeck at Yale University. He taught the comp dog class, but I was not able to fit his course into the schedule. Lindbeck was the official observer at Vatican II. Soon after Yale I spent most of my time on comp dog at Notre Dame, seven years in all. Nevertheless, I am always learning.
If you study the page on Christian Universalism you will recognize arguments used for Universal Objective Justification. They are not quite the same, but they are twigs on the same branch of Enthusiasm. Hoenecke's main teacher at Halle, Tholuck, was a Universalist.
My neighbor in Columbus was a Universalist minister. He invited me to do the complete service at his church. I did not want to be the visiting monkey, so I declined, even though I could have taken an organist along and controlled all the content. He hastened to point out how conservative the Universalist part of the UUA merger was. The Unitarians became extremely radical and controlled the UUA after that merger.
Recently I looked up Universalist hymnals on Google Books. The theology books seem to be all from the Harvard Library. Many of those hymns from the early days were exactly what we sing today, including the same words, not all manipulated like the Mormon or WELS hymnals.
And it all comes down to love. If you question this, you are not loving and you question God's love. Do you feel bad now? You should.
Christian Universalism is that warm feeling one gets just before becoming a confirmed, loud-mouthed, obnoxious atheist. Follow the UOJ Shrinkers and you find that trajectory in their lives.
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LutherRocks has left a new comment on your post "Church Mouse Update on Rob Bell - WELS VP Huebner'...":
Thanks for posting these...so much of it sounds eerily similar to what I have seen in print and taught by WELS 'theologians'. Here's a rhetorical question; What's the common denominator?
