My wife asked, "Do you attack McCain's children?" I said, "No."
She wondered, "Why is he attacking our daughters?"
Mrs. Ichabod is going through extensive neurological tests, which means driving three hours to Little Rock, to the University of Arkansas Medical School, where a team is doing tests and gathering a medical history. We have been living in a puzzle, where some of the best neurologists in the world have been unable to come up with a diagnosis for Bethany and Erin Joy.
Part of gathering a complete medical history involves ordering our daughters' autopsy reports to be sent to UAMS. That also stirs up many memories, since certain doctors have been less than helpful. Most have been exceptional. We have outlived three of them already.
Needing an autopsy is not a pleasant experience for a mother. If you think the pain goes away, then you do not know what it means to be a mother...or a father. The vultures at LutherQueasy are still cackling over their great wit and discernment.
McCain has successfully dodged pastoral work his entire adult life. His only nominal call consisted of running Al Barry's campaign for Synod President, via full-time contact with Herman Otten. After that, McCain kept himself in office work.
And yet, McCain calls Bethany Lutheran Church a fake congregation and me a fake pastor. The Waltherians say a call makes a man a pastor, and the size of a congregation makes no difference. Why would McCain expose his ignorance so brashly?
McCain is contemptuous of our tiny operation, and it is small. A donated camera broadcasts 60+ services a year, free, over the Net. Instead of spending a million dollars on a mission start, plus oodles of money on salary and perks, Bethany has a tent-making ministry. There is some precedent for that, I understand.
I am contemptuous of someone who did nothing about St. John, Ellisville, a stone's throw from the Purple Palace, when it was both a Missouri Synod congregation and a member of the Willow Creek Association. I think doctrine is more important than the size of a mortgage. But I never went begging to a known adulterer for the loot to start a vanity journal.
I have an idea for all the Purple Palace drones who dress up in clerics when they are only clerks and bloggers. Starting with the Synod President, they should go out to the small, poor, under-served LCMS congregations in their own area on Sunday. Each Sunday they should preach an original sermon and give generously from their over-stuffed salaries.
Instead of congregating in their rich suburban churches, where they can preen around the coffee urn and play the role of celebrity clergyman, they should be ordinary pastors who lead the liturgy, preach the sermon, and actually visit the members.
Herman Otten, McCain's old political partner, has pointed out how many millions have been spent on huge district offices, the Purple Palace, and exploding staff salaries. Missouri lives off Schwan, Thrivent, and the foundations. The offering money does not go toward spreading the Gospel but feeding the middle-aged spread of the office staff.
When the trotters are in the trough all the time, the lupine start to look porcine.
