Definition of Journalism

"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations."


George Orwell


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Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Definition of Journalism":

Ichabod -

Then, according to this Orwell definition of "journalism," how would you categorize that Blizzard of Sin letter that LCMS president Harrison wrote?

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

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GJ - That was a snow job, as the polar bears would say.

WELS DP Jon Buchholz to Brazil - Blame It on Rio

Confessional? Find this baloney in the Book of Concord.

06/18/12             WISCONSIN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNOD             10:10 am

                     P A S T O R   C A L L   R E P O R T
                       06/05/2012  through  06/18/2012

Buchholz, Rev Jon D     -   Latin America Admin Committee    -    06/16/2012
         Missionary in Brazil

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GJ - I am guessing here, but I think this was discussed in advance. Jon has been connected with Brazil already. When I visited his church in Tempe, Arizona, at his invitation, we discussed Brazil a bit with a missionary who was there.

Oddly, Sims, the former GA pope, was on the staff. He is now at St. Paul German Village (Columbus, Ohio), the big congregation that the Shrinkers shrank - Stolzenburg, Schumann, and Nitz.

Jon was elected DP as a reformer and buddy of SP Schroeder. Both have followed the same rapid descent. Jon was against CrossWalk (supposedly) and just welcomed Gunn's sheep-stealing operation into WELS. Lately his parish has been promoting Gunn as well. Truth on the scaffold, error on the throne.

Gunn's son is an atheist, so maybe he should evangelize his own family. But it does not matter, because everyone is forgiven and saved in WELS-land.

Jon signed the secret online petition against Mark Jeske, then reversed himself at the convention - a conversion more dramatic than Paul's on the road to Damascus.

Short lesson - all "mission" activity in WELS and Missouri is Fuller trained at best. I do mean 100% in the leadership, oversight committees, and dumb clucks who go out to spread Enthusiasm in the name of Luther, using Marvin Schwan's and Thrivent's money.

ELS Pastor Jay Webber has been the Buchholz peritus (theological expert) for Buchholz. In WELS, the ELS  is looked upon with great contempt, so this relationship is unique. Jay's strength is endlessly repeating himself on the same topic, and pontificating without any study of the issue. The district probably looks forward to the fading of the Webber star, just as Brazil looked forward to the fading of the Richard Starr.

How much did Webber and Kovo do for Ukraine? Shep and Company spent over $15 million of Marvin Schwan indulgence proceeds. The ELS spent money like water - on themselves. Trips around Europe. Fancy schools for more of the same.

Did they mind Lazarus starving at the gate, the dogs licking his sores?

Pietists Cannot Discuss Doctrine

Three distinguishing characteristics of Pietism are:

1. The cell group or conventicle. 
2. Doctrinal indifference, with an emphasis on works-righteousness.
3. Shunning.

The Synodical Conference began in Pietism, as Walther's history shows - not that the LCMS would ever admit the facts. Wisconsin is more honest, because they do not have a mountain of historical felonies to cover up. WELS is catching up. In the 19th century, it was Pietism versus Rationalism, so the "Old Lutherans" were Pietists. The SynConference Old Lutherans called the Muhlenberg Lutherans (ULCA eventually) the Mild Lutherans. In reality, Stephan studied at the same school as the founder of the Muhlenberg tradition - Halle University.

Pietists consider orthodoxy to be legalism, and they despise the Confessions. However, they esteem their own holiness and measure everything according to works.

When arguing doctrine with a Pietist, he will say:

• You have a small church, so you are wrong. 
• You are not in my immaculate synod, so you are wrong. 
• You have criticized our immaculate synod, so you have broken fellowship with us. 
• My grandfather was so-and-so; therefore, I am right.

Obviously, Pietists favor the ad hominem or personal attack. They have nothing left in their modest arsenal. They will say, "You belonged to several synods" unless someone mentions the total synods of Al Barry or Rolf Preus. They will complain, "You went to Notre Dame" without acknowledging their dishonest promotion of the pope. They have no qualms about making up information and using their inventions in their personal attacks.

Notice how they do the work of their Father Below in the synod. They shun anyone who disagrees with their false doctrine and urge others to do the same. If someone fails to participate in the shun-fun, that person is shunned until he is docile and compliant again. Bishop Stephan practiced this dictatorial policy, which makes perfect sense to the Pietists. They are perfect, so one must avoid contact with the impure.

Pietists emphasize a false purity of the person, but not purity of doctrine. An emphasis on doctrine makes them hysterical, and their defense is, "You are unclean. Touch not Lord's anointed!"

Against the Confessions - The Synodical Conference

rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "The Rich Man, Lazarus, and Faith":

I once mentioned to a certain WELS pastor that studying something from the Book of Concord would be a good idea. My suggestion was met with an uncomfortable smirk and a shake of the head. Yet, this same pastor hosted a public viewing of "Fireproof Your Marriage" from Sherwood Babtist church. There are so many so-called Lutheran pastors who simply believe that the laity are incapable of understanding anything from the Lutheran Confessions. Or is it that they are afraid that the laity would understand the Confessions and take them to heart?

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GJ - The SynConference pastors do not know the Book of Concord.

In another similar situation, the WELS pastor said, "The Book of Concord is boring and irrelevant."

The Missouri and WELS pastors like everyone dancing around the footnotes, never getting to the real issues:

1. What did Walther mean by "church"?
2. Some notes on our glorious history.
3. Remember our dogmatics notes? Here they are again.

SP Harrison sold Minnesota South down the river. The first thing I saw on "Steadfast" was post on what a great leader he was.

The Rich Man, Lazarus, and Faith

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/04/luthers-sermons-luke-1619-31-first.html

Luther's comment is so appropriate for people today. The growth of unbelief, especially among the clergy, explains the corruption, lawsuits, prison sentences, and deceit. Fruit is not going to grow on a dead tree, and nothing will be fruitful when separated from the True Vine (John 15:1-10).

Lutheran clergy conferences are full of talk about outreach, but they do not visit their own members with the Gospel, do not return emails asking about doctrine, and show no trust in the Means of Grace. For them, evangelism is talking about outreach, going home and watching reruns of the Packers games. They fear discussing doctrine because they know little more than their talking points.

How odd it is, to find clergy posturing about what is wrong with their sister synod, or their sister seminary (Missouri), or those Evangelicals and Pentecostals. The first question should be - are these posturing pastors teaching  justification by faith - the chief article of the Christian Church? If not, they are no better than hired hands, thieves, and wolves. If they teach against justification by faith, they are wolves bent on scattering and devouring the flocks, no matter what their resume says on LinkedIn.

The hardened hearts are on display for everyone to see.

• Look at the pretty shiny buildings at Concordia, Ft. Wayne. Avert your eyes from the felonious tuition charges there. 
• Admire the Marvin Schwan Cathedrals at Concordia, St. Louis and Martin Luther College and Bethany Lutheran College. Do not ask about poor Lazarus at the gate, his first wife and the mother of his children, dying in despair and depression, leaving a note about his cruelty and infidelity. Money buys absolution.
• Gush at the Church Shrinkers promoted by the various synods (WELS, ELCA, LCMS, ELS, CLC - sic). Do not question their doctrine.
• Rebuke everyone and shun them, except those who can benefit your career. They deserve and welcome the most abject admiration and hypocritical praise. A kiss on the bishop's ring, or anything else, is money in the bank.

Jesus did not warn the clergy against false teachers in Mathew 7:15ff. He warned everyone.

Even though the great Wayne Mueller thought it wise to invent new doctrine, or copy it from the Pietists, the great warrior against the Pietists had something else to say.

Loescher called justification by faith "the article on which the Church stands or falls." That is almost always quoted by the UOJ Hive in the context of their justification, which is world absolution without faith.

Every UOJ Enthusiast is a liar, because each one quotes Loescher while teaching the opposite of  Loescher. They usually quote the Book of Concord on justification being the "chief article, the prince..." Blah, blah. They do that to switch over to their hideous dogma, because their favorite dogma is missing from the Bible and the Confessions, so they must start off everyone on one topic before reversing direction. They use the truth to introduce and support the worst kind of error.

We are not talking about whether Holy Communion and Holy Baptism are sacraments, but whether all the   atheists, polytheists, and cannibals are born forgiven - from the beginning of time. If you deny the absolution of the atheists, you are a false teacher and ready to be given the Left Foot of Fellowship by your synod, whether it is ELCA or Missouri or WELS or the Little Sect on the Prairie.

In other words, the ordinary Babtists or Methodists or Presbyterians have a better chance of hearing the basic Gospel than those Lutherans who are under the Satanic teaching of UOJ.

I doubt whether the sloppiest of the Evangelicals and Pentecostals would try to bray, "You are forgiven, whether you believe it or not." But the SynConference leaders have become bolder by the minute (or more scared) as they expand upon their hellish dogma.

Below are the Wayne Muller graphics, followed by the Sodomites absolved graphic. One leads to the other. The mainlines simply dropped "but you gotta believe it" from their arsenal. Teetering on the edge of pure Universalism does not make a UOJ Stormtrooper into a Christian. It simply makes him more dangerous.

This is utterly ridiculous.