Now the video is a deliberate mocker!
Before the students could not tell Liberace from Tiger Woods.
A Brief History of the Party in the MLC Video.
A WELS member wrote me and gave me the link to the video. He was too disgusted to watch all of it.
The video was gayer than lavender hose, quite deliberately so. I looked over the data on the YouTube video and saw it was an homage to another video Party in the Fire Island Pines.
Fire Island has long been known as a homosexual resort, with features about it on mainstream TV and a recent history on cable TV.
Comparing the two videos, the Martin Luther College (WELS) version was almost a frame by frame copy, except it also added one student grabbing his crotch...twice. Michael Jackson's grab was relatively mild compared to the WELS version.
When I linked the video on this blog, MLC and Willowcreek's Liberal College took notice. Dozens of comments came in.
Soon an article appeared in the WLC student paper, claiming that the students did not know what they were doing. Compare that claim, which was obviously a lie, to the current deception.
The students were rather sullen in their comments, but claimed they were taking the video down from YouTube voluntarily, under no compulsion from the college. The students were shocked, I heard, that I read their student paper.
The video was picked up by homosexual sites, since many people know how to copy and upload anything on YouTube. But YouTube no longer showed it as active.
Soon the video was uploaded again, twice - on YouTube and on Facebook, where a special fan page was created for the video. The YouTube link is there right now.The FB page also posted the original, Party in the Fire Island Pines.
The Facebook fan page has almost 1400 fans.
I mentioned WELS hypocrisy on this issue when I reviewed Randy Engle's Rite of Sodomy, volume 1.
Brett Meyer met WELS SP Mark Schroeder at the Emmaus conference. Mark's face turned red when he was going to say something about me to Brett. He thought twice about it and said, "I should tell Greg directly." Brett agreed with that, but I have not heard from Mark. He used to phone and email me, but I imagine the spin was not working well for him.
Herman Otten knows me phone number and email address. He just emailed me today. But he did not ask about the video and its history. Nevertheless, he thinks he knows all about it from Mark Schroeder.
Notice the new lie about Party in the MLC:
"CN has been told that the video criticized by Jackson was created for a homecoming skit entertainment several years ago as a mockery of the gay lifestyle, not an endorsement of it. none of the students responsible for the skit approve anything relating to homosexuality. Unlike most denominations, the WELS strongly opposes homosexuality." Christian News, page 1!, June 6, 2011.
Lie Number One versus Lie Number Two
Anyone can watch the video and see if the students knew what they were doing. They can compare it to the original, which they plagiarized, and judge whether any straight person would miss the flagrant displays.Lie Number One - "We did not know Party in the Fire Island Pines was a gay video," published in the WLC student newspaper.
Lie Number Two - "Party in the MLC was a deliberate mockery of the gay lifestyle." How could they mock what they did not comprehend?
Otten apologized to Schroeder for printing the truth about the WELS video.
Wait, There's More
Life is full of irony. In the same issue, on the same page, in the choice upper right-hand corner is a blurb about What's Going on among the Lutherans, by Patsy Leppien and Kincaid Smith (drive-by DMin in Church Growth). Smith referred to it often as his book. Ahem.
Otten praised John Brug (Tim Glende's uncle) for endorsing the book. What courage! What scholarship! John is a nice guy, but his endorsement was no more than saying water is indeed wet and can freeze when chilled long enough.
If the reader opens up the book, he will see a paragraph thanking me for all the research I did for the book. I was happy to help out in every way possible. Working with Patsy was a delight, and she worked very hard at making everything clear, the facts invulnerable to attacks from the liberals.
When Jay Webber found out I was helping, he had a hissy fit, shouting about why he was not asked. He was a seminarian. I was a PhD in theology. That might have been one reason. I probably offered to help, since I was writing Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure at the same time.
I also had the research for Out of the Depths of ELCA behind me. Pastoral experience in the LCA provided some perspective.
My book about ELCA, published before ELCA came into being, was a complete issue of Christian News. Otten sent it everywhere and sold copies of it for many years. My name was on it. I did not hide behind a fake name or let people think Otten wrote it.
WELS was profoundly embarrassed about my effort. They were in bed with ELCA via AAL and LB (soon to be merged into Thrivent).
I do not recall any courageous scholars supporting the truth about ELCA when I published in Christian News. The WELS leaders, Mark Schroeder included, use CN for spin but despise it the rest of the time.
I published hundreds of articles against Church Growth, quoting WELS sources, in Christian News. I do not remember any courageous WELS scholars admitting there was a problem. In fact, when I complained to Brug about Valleskey giving the paper about Church Growth, he immediately went to David's house to tell on me. I know, because Valleskey bragged about it.
Not Done Yet
I have been told that the petition to discipline Mark and Avoid Jeske will not go through if it is connected with Ichabod.
All I did was publish the petition and the link.
Typical WELS: "Do what we say, as a favor, while we call you a liar for telling the truth, after demanding an apology from Otten because you told the truth."
Two words: mattress room.
