narrow-minded has left a new comment on your post "Hoosier Daddy":
Thanks for the Loehe articles. Were it not for a hall named after him at Ft. Wayne, who would know anything about him? On the other hand, the mere mention of Walther's name results in mass prostrations in the LCMS.
There's not much info on the web regarding Grabau/Buffalo. Were they theologically solid? The only info I can find is the bad-mouthing for episcopal polity (Hint: Hyper-Euro).
People will enjoy reading more about the Buffalo Synod. Here is more information.
More about the old synods can be found here.
Buffalo is probably most influential as a foil for Missouri's attitude about the ministry, carried over into WELS. Seeing these controversies at a distance, one is reminded of cardboard cut-outs on sticks, each one flailing away at the other. Many would be happy to be in the old Buffalo Synod today. Instead they find the Syn Conference a pathetic imitation of Willow Creek. Walther went out of his way to alienate other Lutherans and denounce them, but that worked so well in the past for him, in getting rid of Bishop Stephan.
Next I will be identified as a Loehe fan or Grabau disciple. That is the contentious spirit that Walther bequeathed to his sect and its imitators. If I quote Lenski, who is still a favorite exegete across synod lines, I "worship Lenksi."
Walther earns the credit for the toxic legalism of the Syn Conference, especially in its remnants. The CLC (sic) worries that the American Legion is a church, so no one can be a member of the American Legion. Incest is not a problem, but the American Legion is anathema. Likewise, Thrivent is bad - unless one belongs to a big congregation that enjoys Thrivent benefits. Fleischer excommunicated Wehrwein on the spot for daring to question the double-standard. Does that sound familiar to Syn Conference victims?
Everything is available on the Net. Lutherans are interested. The daily page-reads here are around 1700 in the midst of summer vacations. The Intrepids are standing up to the pathetic leadership of The Sausage Factory. Simply discussing things in the open is a new experience for many Lutherans.
I appreciate the questions.
- "Simply discussing things in the open is a new experience for many Lutherans."
This was difficult to do before Al Gore invented the Internet. The syn conference bullies could get away with murder, and less, because so many of their antics were done in secret. If a mere lay person caught a whiff of it and tried to go public, or at least ask for clarification, they were promptly beaten down. Like true victims of abuse, they found it difficult to break the cycle. Progress is being made because the cost of knowledge has been lowered significantly.
Sherlock Holmes 2929 has left a new comment on your post "Pope John the Malefactor - A Grabau Disciple":
As I leafed through the Grabau articles, one name leaped out at me: "Kudu Don" Patterson. Patterson seemed to take his cue on treating congregational members from Grebau. What do ya' think, Joe?
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Sherlock Holmes 2929 has left a new comment on your post "Loehe Gets a Hall at Ft. Wayne, But Who Is Grabau?...":
I must agree with rischultz here. I think about how "California" and the Kokomo families suffered their persecution alone. At least Rick Techlin and the Krohns can tell the world. I know it may not be much comfort, but at least it's some. Some light, no matter how small, has been shown on the Syn Conference bullies
6 comments:
If anyone is a disciple of Grabau it would be ELS President Moldstad who violently usurped Christ's authority and maliciously undermined Pastor Preus' ministry and eventually had him removed from the Pastoral office.
I was mocked by ELS Pastor Dalke for describing the heinous actions of President Moldstad as violent.
After a little research I produced the following quote which I believe vindicates my use of the adjective and condemns the apathy shown by the ELS clergy.
(C.F.W. Walther’s article posted in Der Lutheraner, 1867), “As our readers know, Pastor Grabau shamefully dismissed and expelled his former so-called 'Deacon' (Diakonus), Pastor Hochstetter, from his office when he no longer wanted to allow himself merely to be Grabau's compliant slave. Grabau himself dismissed Hochstetter with no "appearance of right," without any due process, simply by the brutal authority of his trustees whom he urged on and mislead into such action. This was all the more shameful because earlier Pastor Grabau himself had battled against this sort of thing as if against a barbarism when the Trustees here in America had ventured to establish and dismiss pastors, to open and close churches, to promise church property according to their own wishes to this or that party that pleased them, and in addition to misuse the authority given to them thorough the civil laws in several of our states. Pastor Grabau, who earlier apparently battled for the holiness of the preaching office, committed a horrendous crime against a sacred thing, a robbery of the church, when against all right he carried out this violent expulsion of a Christian preacher, a minister of Christ and His church. It appears to him also, now that the deed is done, not to have been an especially praiseworthy thing to do. It seems his conscience accused him and bit at him and the thought came to him that he had revealed and branded himself before the entire church, indeed, before the entire world to be an enemy of all divine and Christian order (wherever these stand in the way of his plans and especially of his desire to rule).
In light of Walther's own history this also seems self condemning.
Thanks for taking time to provide the links and for your commentary. This will be interesting reading.
You are welcome. I learn by doing. The more people ask, the more research I do.
"Simply discussing things in the open is a new experience for many Lutherans."
This was difficult to do before Al Gore invented the Internet. The syn conference bullies could get away with murder, and less, because so many of their antics were done in secret. If a mere lay person caught a whiff of it and tried to go public, or at least ask for clarification, they were promptly beaten down. Like true victims of abuse, they found it difficult to break the cycle. Progress is being made because the cost of knowledge has been lowered significantly.
I must agree with rischultz here. I think about how "California" and the Kokomo families suffered their persecution alone. At least Rick Techlin and the Krohns can tell the world. I know it may not be much comfort, but at least it's some. Some light, no matter how small, has been shown on the syn conference bullies
As if Lutheran orthodoxy didn't have enough problems staving off Pietism in the 17th and 18th centuries...King Frederick William III ordered that Calvinists and Lutherans must get along just prior to the 'Lutherans' immigrating to America in the 19th century. The church fathers of WELS and Buffalo come from the old Prussian Union. These guys have goals and it is their job to save souls! You are wasting their time and getting in the way of this work if you want to talk about doctrine.
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