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| ELCA and the Olde Synodical Conference have united around UOJ, Church Growth, and Thrivent. |
I was serving an LCA congregation when the merger was developing. I was writing for The Lutheran magazine (as a stringer) as well. I expected the merger to leverage the radical elements in the ALC, LCA, and AELC - and it did.
The tacit quota system guaranteed that ELCA would be a nightmare, and it was.
I was shocked at the clergy apathy. The greatest number of memorials concerned the pension fund.
My family left the LCA before merger, but we found that the other synods were already in a de facto merger with ELCA, thanks to AAL/LB and a mutual enthusiasm about Church Growth.
I became a Lutheran in the 1960s, when there was genuine interest in Martin Luther. The friend who influenced me to join a Lutheran congregation is now a Transcendental Meditation teacher. Another friend from the same church is an atheist.
I have seen my generation destroy the Lutheran Church, its Confessions, its liturgy, its hymns, its sermons, and its missions.
I expected ELCA to accelerate that process, and it did. The alleged shock of the 2009 decision was a revelation to me - where were those people for 20+ years? The ALC started Lutherans Concerned with offering money.
The departures from ELCA and the Episcopal Church USA were a sign to me that corporate denominationalism is dead.
Our blessing from this turmoil is an appreciation of Luther, Melanchthon, Chemnitz, the Book of Concord, Leyser, Jacobs, Reu, Loy, Krauth, and Schmauk.
There should be a special place in Hell for the Baby Boomers who destroyed the Lutheran Church - and I do not limit that to ELCA.
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GJ - Thousands of others are expressing the same disappointment in the Baby Boomer Lutherans - the synodical leaders, professors, and pastors.
