The Loss of Rev. Mason Beecroft
I’m saddened by the departure of Mason Beecroft from the LCMS roster of the ordained, as reported by The Lutheran Witness in its September issue.
I was privileged to meet him at the Model Theological Conference on Worship in January 2010. His presentation there, essentially saying that the key to revitalizing our synod was the restoration of the Mass, was excellent.
Rev. Beecroft had stepped down from his office at Grace Lutheran in Tulsa for health reasons. We prayed for his health, but now there are other concerns.
I’m told (and verified with a second source) that he has left for Roman Catholicism, and this disappoints me for several reasons. First, because all of the good things that he did will now simply be poo-pooed as “Romish.” Secondly, because he was a good scholar whose services will not be in the LCMS employ any more. Finally, because of where he’s going, how one can renounce justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone? The man-made law can only bring an appearance of comfort.
And he’s not, in Roman Catholicism, going to avoid theological liberals.
Please come home, Rev. Beecroft.
***
GJ - One Lutheran lady told me about the LCMS pastor who kept a rosary. Soon after he was a priest. Many Lutheran clergy are promiscuous in their use of these terms:
- Mass
- Father
- Mary
- Saints
- The Holy Father, aka The Antichrist
Someone told me that Robert Preus wrote Justification and Rome to deter his own seminary from poping, but that obviously did not work.
I am happy to say to all those Lutheran clergy who have left for Rome or Constantinople - "Stay there. You probably never grasped Biblical doctrine in the first place."
*** GJ - Someone told me that that a WELS pastor in Alaska went Russian Orthodox. Now that's cold.

5 comments:
Ultimately the person leaving is the one responsible for his leaving, but with many district and synod personnel taking their cue from PLI, TCN, Fuller Seminary, and other sources, I can see why the person who desires a reverent and historical Divine Service would want to look outside the current Lutheran organizational structures for a Divine Service that tries to have some ties to what has been passed down for the ages.
We can do a better job of keeping pastors from being tempted to go to works-righteousness religions. True, they are seminary trained, should know better, and have taken vows to that effect; but they are human, too.
If Rev. Beecroft went RCC (it seems this has not been confirmed), could his Evangelical background have been his undoing? Although his emphasis on liturgical worship was laudable, did he fail to fully trust the efficacy of the means of grace, the distinguishing feature of Lutheranism? That's ultimately what causes burn-out among clergy, whether you are pro-liturgy or not.
Hey wake up...
he did will now simply be poo-pooed as “Romish.”
It is because he was Romish in his heart in the first place, what would ya thunk?
The mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart. So no surprises there. Rome will teach you to be suspicious of such Romanization of Lutheranism.
LPC
How does a guy get thru eight years of Lutheran training and then later on after he's been a pastor for some time, do a 180 and become Roman Catholic? What effect must that have on his congregation to see their called shephard basically tell them everything he's said in the pulpit up to that point, even HE doesn't believe? One would think he'd have those Romish leanings during college or his seminary years and if that were the case, why does he continue to pursue a call and ordination in the Lutheran church? Just to go thru the motions? Wouldn't or shouldn't his professors recognize those leanings in their student? Hmm, hmm, hmm... so many questions it boggles my mind.
They take as many as they can with them. Richard J. Neuhaus was recruited by Avery Dulles, SJ. Neuhaus' friends at Lutheran Forum became Roman Catholic priests. Neuhaus' friend from Concordia, St. Louis, Robert Wilken, became a Catholic layman. It is easier to recruit from the inside. Fenton worked a long time in the LCMS, helped with the hymnal, repudiated Lutheran doctrine and became Eastern Orthodox. Pastors still sigh about him, as if he were Helen of Troy - "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships, that toppled the topless towers of Ilium?"
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