Many people are shocked by the thuggish nature of WELS clergy, who glory in their behavior and brag about how rotten they are.
No Gospel
But they are not alone. What do Glende, Jenswold, and McCain have in common? They are ardent promoters of Universal Objective Justification. McCain probably celebrates the Assumption of Mary, while Glende honors the infallibility of Groeschel - those are simply two flavors of the same Enthusiasm.
All three clergy are incredibly nasty, nasty in their published or broadcast communications, nasty in their general behavior, nasty enough for public rebukes from many sources.
UOJ is not the Gospel - it supplants the Gospel in the name of the Gospel. All the UOJ advocates back away from UOJ when people take a look at what they are saying. They retreat to justification by faith, but their redoubt (great pun, no?) is a fraudulent appendage to their one and only dogma - everyone is forgiven.
Like ELCA, they mean universal absolution when they say Gospel!. Like ELCA, they mean every single cannibal and polytheist and Mormon is forgiven of all sin--before birth--when they say grace!.
I have provided abundant proof, with the help of friends and the late Robert Preus, that the orthodox Lutherans never taught UOJ, that the Book of Concord does not have a speck of it.
More importantly, for those who worship the Olde Synodical Conference, my researches have shown that justification was the ONLY justification taught in many publications--Missouri and WELS--for many decades.
The documentary evidence--from Luther, Calov, Gerhard, Melanchthon, Chemnitz, Andreae, Chytraeus, Gausewitz, the LCMS German catechism, the LCMS KJV catechism, and Robert Preus--shows that justification by faith alone is the Biblical, Lutheran doctrine.
No Faith
The natural result of teaching against faith in the Word is to destroy that trust. If someone could audit the leadership of WELS, Missouri, and the Little Sect on the Prairie, he would find that many leaders have no faith in God. They are simply marking time, waiting for their pensions to kick in, and hoping for a smooth exit.
How else can anyone explain their ease of fellowship and close working relationship with ELCA? Only shameless apostates would remain in the same room with ELCA leaders, who pay murdering the unborn with their lavish health plan for clergy.
Only atheists who hated the Scriptures would promote the New NIV. Murdoch's New Age Bible is so bad that the Baptists do not even want it sold in their denominational stores, let alone adopted for all their religious publications. WELS is hotter than Georgia asphalt for the New NIV, especially among their dunderhead UOJ faculty.
No Love
The Olde Synodical Conference likes to hold itself superior to ELCA, but many have fled the lovelessness of the Walther cults for the generic niceness of ELCA.
The Syn Conference leaders would like to pretend that the backsliders leave. No, people flee because of emotional, sexual, and physical abuse. They are nauseated by leaders who back up murdering church workers and cover up for sexual abuse of women and minors. ELCA (venereal warts and all) reported clergy in trouble for their abuse in The Lutheran magazine, but WELS will not admit to its own District President going to state prison, its vicar in state prison, its youth leader arrested for playing with boys, its adulterous Shrinker expert promoted back into the parish (!), and its straying parish pastor promoted to mission consultant. And the list seems endless.
God will judge. God has judged and the members are fleeing, because they do not hear the comfort of the Gospel and see only the results of lawlessness. They could enjoy the same perversions in the Roman Catholic Church with better brands of incense and fancier robes.
No Mercy
The Syn Conference pastors think they have a right, an obligation, to beat down the members. They have a nice racket going. First they demand royal treatment if anyone dares to disagree with their fanatical heresies or unethical behavior. If someone tries to follow every commandment in their Talmud, that person is condemned for doing the very thing demanded in the first place. "How dare you tell me I could be wrong? How dare you tell me to my face? How dare you quote the Scripture and Confessions? I will talk; you will listen."
Coming to the pastor is converted into the Greatest Sin of All Time, which May Destroy Our Beloved Parish and Holy Mother Synod. (Pause to sigh, "Tragic, tragic.") Now the question is whether individual is guilty of 15 or 50 felonies. Forget the false doctrine, which pales in comparison. Forget the molested teen or embezzled money. What about the 8th Commandment?
Clergy born free of sin cannot possibly be wrong, because they are free of sin. No one has explained how that does NOT apply to anyone else. That is not something to think too long and hard about. Better not to think at all.
Pray. Pay. Obey -
the Roman Catholic way.
I know of one UOJ parish where the layman apologized on the spot for the smallest slip of a tongue, a statement that happened to be true. The clergy went after him for weeks, with statement after statement about how he was a miserable sinner who had to repent. He sent me the stack of documents to show the relentless pursuit of a contrite man. And this Gospel-soaked UOJ parish shut down faster than beauty salon in a hippy commune.
No Forgiveness
If someone wants to see a lack of forgiveness, just get to know one UOJ Enthusiast. I posted something unrelated to justification on another blog. Immediately, someone posted anonymously - "Aren't you the fanatic who follows Larry Darby?"
