Upset About ELCA 2012 National Youth Gathering - ELCA Today:
An adult chaperone who went to the 2012 ELCA nation youth gathering sent this letter to her church council after returning from the event that was held last week. (note that I disagree with the person's assessment of the message given by Rev. Bolz-Weber - read my thoughts here) This letter appeared on the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau (ALPB) forum (see here - post #73 - refreshing page may be need).
Dear Church Council and Pastors,
I want to share my thoughts with you as a parent and chaperone on the recent trip to New Orleans.
First of all, I have to say that I love our kids! I spent a week with wonderful children, full of energy and enthusiasm and hunger for giving of themselves. Out of the whole experience the overwhelming majority of them lifted up the service project as their favorite part of the trip.
On Thursday, we worshiped with our Synod in the morning and then spent the afternoon learning about discipleship and doing a scavenger hunt to find places or items that would represent the 7 faith practices: Prayer, Worship, Evangelism, Study, Giving, Encouraging, and Serving. These were positive experiences where the Bible was lifted up.
Most of the kids' favorite speaker at the dome was Nadia. I agree with them. Her message was theologically very solid. Aside from a slam to the parents who were concerned prior to the youth gathering, she was entertaining and had a great message. [GJ - Seriously? So you wonder why ELCA is messed up? You are funding it.]
Unfortunately, I have very little more that is positive to say about the gathering. I am alarmed at the direction in which the national church is moving.
a. The Bibles that the kids received have microscopically small font. They are portable but not usable.
b. There was no Biblical foundation for devotions. Zero. No verse to be found. Highs and lows, excerpts from speakers at the dome and prayer were they only aspects of "Final 15".
c. At every level, at the mass events in the dome, there was a reference to homosexuality. Every speaker, every skit. Frequently this was tied to anti-bullying.
d.. There were frequent anti-American references and more than one pro-Occupy Wall Street reference. Other political themes had to do with immigration-reform, anti-war, social justice.
e.. Half of the songs were secular.
f. Gandhi's quote, "Be the change you want to see in the world" was more emphasized than any Bible verse - even the theme verse from Ephesians took 2nd place to Gandhi. Seriously. 4 varieties of the quote were available to purchase as t-shirts.
g. On the service day the video about justice told our kids that justice means "doing what is in your heart that you know is right." Secular Humanism another frequent theme of the gathering.
I found myself dreading the dome experience. What kind of emotional manipulation with horrible theology would we be exposing our kids to tonight? There was a very clear open agenda that the national synod is using to indoctrinate the youth. I just wish it was using a Biblical foundation and not a political and social one.
I don't want my year old to miss out on the fun of a large youth group experience, but my husband and I will not be sending her to the Gathering in Detroit in 2015. Nor will I ever attend another ELCA gathering.
Please let me know if you would like to see any of my notes from the gathering, or if you would like to talk to me and the other adult leaders. I am not the only one that was horrified.
Sincerely,
(name withheld)
'via Blog this'
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California wrote:
The posting of the letter to the ELCA congregation from one of the adult chaperons who attended the ELCA National Youth Gathering is typical of parental objections expressed and ignored when decades ago LCMS National Youth Gathering feature Pete Seeger (communist folk singer) as a performer at the event. Before being "departed" from WELS in 1977, I had voluntarily left an LCMS congregation in 1964, when the political philosophy of the left was influencing youth in the churches in south SF Bay area.
Some parents were wondering why their teens were returning from youth retreats led by a pastor who oversaw the retreats in the neighboring Santa Cruz Mountains, with ideas not too different from the UC Berkeley radicals of those 1960's times.
Another LCMS pastor was running up and down the SF Peninsula giving presentations about anti-communism at any LCMS gatherings who would invite him. His message was not anti communism, but warning about anti-communists. He was listed in a report from the California Committee on Unamerican Activities as a supporter of the communist front organization, "Committee to Insure Justice for Morton Sobell". That can be documented. I have a hard copy of the report. Nobody seemed to take such activity seriously.
Eventually that pastor was placed as pastor for the LCMS UC Berkeley Campus chapel which served students . When the time came when I could no longer in good conscience invite anyone to attend church or participate in church activities for fear of what leftist political propaganda they would be exposed to in the name of religion, I left the LCMS to go to the new WELS mission congregation in the area where there were some good years until other issues surfaced in WELS which resulted in involuntary departure after 12 years.
ELCA isn't the first offender to politically brainwash youth. LCMS was right there beside them way back half a century ago.
