History has been kicked out of the Syn Conference.
This photo hardly does justice to the altar at St. John's in Milwaukee. Bading and SP Brenner were pastors there.
Pastor Kevin Hastings tagged (used spray paint) on a neighboring WELS church property. He was angry with them about an issue. Obviously that is not the third step in Matthew 18 - tag it to the church. However, he was repentant and paid for its removal the next day. He apologized.
The WELS District Pope chooses to encourage Church and Change leader Mark Jeske. No one in Church and Change has ever been disciplined for anything.
But this DP decided to get rid of Hastings and remove him from the WELS ministry. The congregation left with Hastings, so WELS cut off its own history. Do not hold your breath waiting for anyone from WELS to apologize. WELS leaders do not apologize because they are inerrant and infallible.
The DP is part of the Gang of Four (three Wisconsin State plus one Minnesota) that controls 75% of the church population and all of the issues. All four are on the Jeske bus, taking turns driving when he wearies from his labors for the Lord.
The hatefulness and spite directed toward this historic congregation is another indication of how the Syn Conference tore itself apart. It really began with Walther's tyranny and dictatorial attitude. The attitudes carried over with the stance that everyone else was wrong, evil, and unionistic.
Walther himself was a union theologian. Future research will show what is already evident, that he combined Pietism with Lutheran Orthodoxy and tried to make his custom blend the gold standard for everyone else. And it had to be his way.
Walther was an escaped felon, who, unrepentant for kidnapping two children, organized a mob to threaten, rob, and kidnap Bishop Stephan. A death threat, backed by a picked mob of 300 supporters, is a felony. Grand theft is also a felony. Holding Stephan against his will, forcing him out of his house, and robbing him of all his money and possessions - those are additional felonies. He was forced across the Mississippi River, which is the felony of kidnapping. Walther led the mob, stole Stephan's land, and took away the title to the 40 acres of land granted to Stephan.
Walther and his crooked felonious lawyers (Vehse and Marbach) began the Syn Conference tradition of - "We can do anything we want, because we are in charge here." To cover up these felonies, the Syn Conference has played them as justifiable because Stephan committed adultery. But the clergy knew that before they left for America with Stephan and pledged their loyalty to him.
This is another Syn Conference tradition - clergy can have sex with their members if they are popular at the moment. Discipline is not Scriptural in the Syn Conference. Walther was a bully, thug, and liar. His followers have continued that tradition.
In the Bronze Age, the old system worked. The Bronze Age clergy think everything would be fine if they could return to the days of the 1932 Brief Confession. It is funny how much they praise their men and their traditions while ignoring the Gospel. They can flog people because they imagine they have the true Gospel - the entire world is absolved of all sin, except for the people who get in their way.
"Write a letter, so we can excommunicate you for writing a letter."
"Meet with us, to tell us where we are wrong, so we can excommunicate you for trying to meet with us while we hid away and skipped the meeting."
"Let us discuss our differences in the ELS, so we can throw out the pastors who disagree with the Wayne Mueller position on ministry."
Precious few people care about rehashing the fetishes of CFW Walther, especially since his disciples only know how to quote Walther disciples.
Evidence of the weakness of this glorious Syn Conference position is everywhere. All three parts (and the micro-minis) collapsed into gross legalism and chasing the Fuller illusion.
The Lutheran school has become the Christian Academy Day-Care business. The congregation is not Lutheran, but The CORE, or CrossRoads, or CrossWalk (cute, eh?). The clergy are pals who love to golf and boat.
The Syn Conference lacks the guts to ordain women, but places them in pastoral roles anyway. Everyone knows, anything goes - with UOJ.
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bruce-church (http://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Who Broke the Franchise?Proof That Bronze Can Rust...":
Well said!
Walther is no better than Joseph Smith who led a mob to wreck a printing press and burn down a newspaper building in Nauvoo, Illinois. For that Joseph Smith went to jail. So Walther evaded jail time twice--once for kidnapping and one for leading a mod that committed felonies.
You wrote "40 acres" but it was "80 acres", which back then was a good sized farm. During the Civil War all farmers became prosperous since food prices were at a premium. They had been ripping off the Stephan family for decades before Walther perpetrated this final rip-off since they were basically renting that land without paying the rent! It's in the Bible that one should not hold the sons accountable for the deeds of the father, and now the Missouri synod is reaping the reward for not following that prescription.
The size of the farm doesn't come up readily in Google searches because there's a typo in the Stephan archive (aces instead of acres):
http://martinstephanforum.com/pages/StephanFamilyArchives.htm
"80 aces of land in Missouri"
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GJ - There were two parcels of land. The Society gave Stephan 40 acres. Walther changed the title when he "found out" about Stephan's adultery with at least two women. The evidence points to more, and Stephan was already investigated for multiple adulteries in Europe. Walther avoided Stephan as he traveled to Perry County to change the title. Martin Stephan Jr. studied at the new little seminary, and Walther tricked the son into giving up the 80 acres that the bishop bought with his own money. That land became sub-divided, so it was almost impossible to get back later. Stephan had no money, since Walther's mob stole it all, so he could not address the injustice until someone took on his case much later.
