Torches and Pitchforks

Bush was getting an amnesty bill ready for Congress and Arizona Senator Kyl was supposed to favor it.

I was near a congressman's office when I stopped to take an insurance exam. I walked in and said to the assistant, "If he votes for this bill, there will be pitchforks and torches brandished, and I will help lead them."

He said, "I take it that is a no for you." He smiled.

He added, "There are many more like you. This does not have a chance."

There are many ways to stop apostasy, but wishing it away does not work. Another failure is hoping for someone else to do the work.

If enough people show enough spine to speak against an error, the church politicians will cease for a moment.

About 20 years ago, the Methodist Church released the list of hymns for their new hymnal, which included "Strong Mother God." As liberal as that mainline church was, with all the defections over the years, the phone lines were so jammed that no calls could come through or go out. And that lasted for two weeks.

The LCA/ALC had a similar reaction over their hymn-list, which was going to include a free version (O Mighty God) of How Great Thou Art instead of the Billy Graham HGTA. They had 20,000 letters when 20 letters are considered a landslide. They bought the Graham version and--chuckle, chuckle--used it as a selling point when promoting the Liberal Book of Weirdness.

If large groups of people can go ballistic over a hymn list (and they should), they can also do the same when their leaders fail to maintain discipline. One WELS observer said, "The only thing heard is the sound of silence. Grand Inquisitor Englebrecht is likely heating the tongs for the Fox Valley Five."