C. P. Krauth

Why Does Rome Look Like Home to Lutherans?Weaned on Papalism and Holy Mother Church, They Want the Real Thing

ELCA (ThD) and Fuller (DMin) trained this LCMS leader. WELS and Missouri both look to Hunter as their guru.

Eastern Orthodoxy and the Church of Rome are havens for those who abhor the silliness of Church Growth, Emergent Church, Becoming Missional. Although EO and Rome seem to have enormous doctrinal structures, based on long histories and weighty tomes of dogma, they are big tent operations. Smells and bells are fine, but let's not upset the troops about doctrinal issues. There is a lobby, a little corner in the tent, for every persuasion, inclination and affection.

Long ago, Eastern Orthodoxy wore itself out on the Two Natures of Christ. Bloody riots started over the meaning of statues of Christ. That is why the Orthodox adopted the icon wall, the two-dimensional depictions. Concordia Seminary Ft. Wayne likes Eastern Orthodoxy and Rome because the faculty would rather avoid the real issues. The bickering of the Syn Conference Lutherans is just a way to feign doctrinal purity while chasing every fad since Moses. Those who hate Fuller cling to Rome like lint on Velcro.

The WELS Church and Change re-education brochure, above, reminds me of a cheerful used car brochure, absent check-marks about satisfaction guaranteed and quality control. Appearing on such brochures would be a career-killer if the sect actually knew what the Confessions taught. But no, this is a career-booster in WELS, just as the equivalent would be in Missouri or the Little Sect on the Prairie. All are dying - wonder why? My first guess is - not enough coaching going on. We need more clergy couple coaches coaching the coached, so they can learn how to coach the coachable in a winsome, inspirational way.

Somehow I missed a pilgrimage to the C. F. W. Walther shrine. Perhaps I could not get enough vibes going to make that trip, to stand in awe of a criminal who did not found a synod, but gets credit for it, a felon who did not stop at kidnapping his own niece and nephew from his father's parsonage, a mob organizer and thief who lectured on Law and Gospel without seminaries crying themselves hoarse - with laughter.

Sick of it all? B-16 will welcome you into the Church of Rome. Become a priest and stay married, or not. Rome is quite flexible about everything. Encouraging points: - you can buy forgiveness, just like the Syn Conference. You can believe anything you want, as long as you don't get too traditional - just like the Syn Conference. Everything will look like a sham compared to the sum and substance of Rome. You will imagine, "That was hell in the Syn Conference." Rome will introduce inductees to the real thing.

WELS and Missouri Paving the Way for LCMC, NALC, and the Church of Rome

The sinuflecting blogs of Lutherdom do not feature this quotation.

Someone disgusted with WELS asked, "Why do you think we would be interested in the LCMC? They have women's ordination and open communion?" I thought, "And WELS does not have both?"

Most WELS members do not realize how much the real WELS, Missouri, and Little Sect are like the LCMC, a group which began as soon as the ELCA merger took place, 1987. The LCMC remained in the background until the 2009 ELCA convention, when the wraps came off the hidden agenda. ELCA voted for homosexual ordination and marriage. The retired ELCA bishops soon started the NALC, quickly adding about 200 congregations to the 700 parishes from NALC, most of them exits from ELCA. The Barnhardt website has regular updates.

The websites of the LCMC and NALC suggest they promote:

• Open communion.
• Vague confessionalism.
• Women's ordination.
• A flexible attitude about the Scriptures.
• Backdoor Pentecostalism.

In other words, the new groups are just like the LCMS, WELS, and ELS. The micro-minis are similar too, just more hypocritical about it.

The Emmaus Synod Presidents--Hopeless, Helpless, and Hapless--do not want their members thinking about being in bed with ELCA. The Syn Conference leaders have far more affinity for ELCA attitudes than they do for their own historic standards.

Exhibit A - The First VP of WELS is a Fuller Seminary alumnus. I do not know if he actually bought a drive-by degree there, as MLC Professor Larry Olson did. But Huebner did study at Fuller, making him one of many WELS leaders to do so. And Jim Huebner is a walking-talking Ken Doll for Fuller, mouthing the Fuller doctrine and livin' the Fuller dream, Soul Cafe and all.

SP Mark Schroeder thinks that getting people to stop posting on Ichabod will change the public image of WELS. Hardly. He should look at his own posts, if he wants to spin the image of the Wisconsin sect. Who endorsed and promoted the feminazi women's conference from Church and Change? SP Schroeder. Who elevated a founder of Church and Change to President of the Portable Asian Seminary? SP Schroeder. Who first quietly and now loudly supports the porno-mytho translation called the NNIV? SP Schroeder. He is always Helpless when it comes to dealing with Church and Changers, but most Helpful in promoting them and their causes.

I was 25 years early in publishing about the ELCA. Northwestern Publishing House printed that book--Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure--and it sold well.

So here is my prediction about the Syn Conference - Missouri, WELS, and the Little Sect will formalize the de facto merger they have enjoyed the last few decades, perhaps staying as geographical entities within one legal corporation. To save face and legal complications, this may be a paper unity rather than one where they share each other's scandals and lawsuits on a formal basis. They have to close plenty of schools but keep something open, for fund-raising purposes if nothing else. They will be like ELCA, claiming ministries all over the world that are really token participation in ecumenical storefronts.

For instance, all three can be in Peru if they chip in for one ELS missionary. All three can be dealing with sin in Rio if Missouri alone stays in Brazil. But all three will continue to abuse their members and pastors, so people will look for similar doctrinal laxity without the baggage. The LCMC and NALC will suit all those people looking for a fresh but familiar alternative.

The Syn Conference is financially bankrupt because they were doctrinally bankrupt long ago. Hopeless, Helpless, and Hapless cannot even teach justification by faith. They are blood-brothers for Enthusiasm, as exemplified by J. P. Meyer.