Maxfield Parrish - Birthday Today

Bearing Lanterns

We saw this painting at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. We attended a lecture about early American art.

The art historian said Crystal Bridges has become a destination. One woman flew in from LA. She told him, "Everyone I know has been here, so I had to visit too."

Norma Boeckler wrote that she really enjoys her Parrish book.

He was born today, in 1870.

Justification by Faith - Luther Always Taught It - As Everyone Knows - Except the Leaders of WELS

From the Apple-Dumbling Gang:Yale Is Roman Catholic

I posed with Ben to celebrate our purchase of Yale with Masonic Lodge funds.

But from what we have seen on his blog, and in spite of the degrees he boasts of from such illustrious liberal and Roman Catholic institutions as Yale and Notre Dame, we doubt he has the capacity to do that.

***

GJ - Poor Glenda misses the point, but satire is not for academic under-achievers. Tim used used his unaccredited MDiv to prove that he was right and the member of his congregation was wrong. Most would call that logical fallacy pathetic.

And - He. Studied. Greek.

If those were valid arguments, my four-of-a-kind beats a single deuce - three master's degrees and a PhD.

He also defeated himself with a tortured sentence where Yale becomes a liberal and Roman Catholic institution.

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "From the Apple-Dumbling Gang:Yale Is Roman Catholi...":

(W)ELS - Becoming more confessional

We'll be seeing more of this written in Synod communications. It's intent is to dictate an understanding primarily because it can be believed in no other way. Certainly not by studying (W)ELS practice or by comparing their doctrines to Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions. (W)ELS has separated themselves from Christ through believing and teaching the false gospel of Universal Objective Justification. They have established their own way to righteousness before God and have rejected the faith of the Holy Spirit. Orthodox Lutheran confessor Hunnius condemned the UOJ teaching of Samuel Huber as satanic and opposed to Christ just as faithful Lutheran's do today.

(W)ELS minder and hireling Pastor Jon Buchholz recently included such a mindwash in his June monthly news bulletin for Emmanuel.
 
http://www.elctempe.org/home/180001623/180001623/images/2012-06%20June.pdf  

Martin Franzmann, UOJ. Another UOJ Watertown Professor

Martin Franzmann, 1907-1976,
taught for WELS and then for Missouri.
He is most famous for his hymns.

Although I sent off four boxes of Lutheran books, I also ordered a few items from Amazon and Alibris. If I can get a well known volume for for a few dollars, I order it.

I had a scan of Franzmann's commentary on Romans, but I saw the book on Alibris and bought it. The book is not a commentary at all and is certainly not scholarly. There are no references and no index. There is a list of some books on Romans with a brief description. I would call it a homiletical book.

One sentence gives away the theme of the SynConference:

In raising him from the dead, God was "justifying the ungodly" for whom He died; God was saying to a doomed mankind, "You are righteous, you shall live." There is in our faith, therefore, the same realistic recognition of the death of man that was in Abraham's faith, and the same expectation of the creative miracle of God's grace which raises the dead and calls into being righteous men.

Martin H. Franzmann, Romans, A Commentary, CPH, 1968, p. 86.

That was his statement about the ending of Romans 4. Franzmann's obscure words are the opposite of what Paul wrote.


KJV Romans 4:24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

God was telling all of mankind "You are righteous"? Of course, Franzmann is not that explicit. The UOJ writers are seldom that clear. But the thoroughly brained-washed know that is what those words mean. They agree with the Pietist Rambach, who argued that the resurrection of Christ absolved all of mankind - especially the unbelievers. Jay Webber and Jon Buchholz support the Halle Pietism version of  universal forgiveness and salvation. You just have to believe their dogma is true: justification by faith in UOJ. 

Franzmann was a leader of the conservatives, and he was just as UOJ as Richard Jungkuntz, the leader of the Seminex coalition.

The UOJ position is not in harmony with the efficacy of the Word and certainly opposes the Means of Grace. Can the blue text be brought into agreement with Romans 10? Isaiah 55? Not at all.

Richard Jungkuntz also started out WELS, also at Watertown,
and also joined the Board of Doctrine, LCMS,
after teaching at Concordia, Springfield, Illinois.
As chairman of the Seminex board, he headed the first
gay Lutheran seminary, by partnering with the Metropolitan Community Church.
Deppe was the Seminex professor who went with the faculty to teach at LSTC, ELCA,
and later joined the MCC, where he belonged.

ELCA News Briefs - Exposing the ELCA

Abolish ecumenism!
Replace it with "Spoiling the Egyptians...and Rome"!

ELCA News Briefs - Exposing the ELCA:



ELCA News Briefs
07/24/20120 Comments

ELCA magazine, The Lutheran, published an article titled, “Interreligious explorations.”  The article advised its readers to “Consider visiting different religious services from time to time as a way to keep learning more about other traditions.”

Any religion other than Christianity is the worship of false gods and demons.  Why in the world would a Christian magazine recommend this?  (see here)

-----

Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Mark Hanson, is now on twitter.  He announced this at last week’s ELCA Youth Gathering.  If you so desire, you can follow him by going here.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if Bishop Hanson advised everyone on how to follow Exposing the ELCA on twitter in his next press release?

-----

If anyone has concerns about what they heard while watching or attending the ELCA's 2012 National Youth Gathering and would care to write a blog about what troubled them, I would be happy to look it over and possibly post it.

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Augustana College, one of the 26 ELCA colleges in the United States has these statements on their Religion, Philosophy, Classics webpage:

“Have you ever wondered: Does life have purpose? Does God exist?” and “While our department teaches from within the Christian tradition, we’re never afraid to question dogma and learn from others.”(see here)

Is this noteworthy?  Some would say “no,” some would say “yes.” Either way, it is something to think about.


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Ninevah the Great Has Fallen - But WELS Will Support It

WELS NNIV Obsessive Preoccupation is Window Dressing 'Black Cat' Over-Kill

Ichabod - Regarding your recent posting:

"The Owner of the NIV Living Open Dynamic Translation Resigns:"

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-owner-of-niv-living-open-dynamic.html

I find your comments beneath the one pic; very appropriate:

You stated:

>>>>>>> SP Schroeder's promotion of the NNIV continues, in spite of no interest in WELS. A group of younger pastors will "study" it for the next month. <<<<<<<<

I am a member of a WELS congregation [Bethel - Bay Co. MI] whose young pastor is one of these 100 younger WELS pastors who are assigned portions of the Scripture to "study."

I quote from the Bethel pastor's July 22nd quarterly "Congregational Report," handed out (last week - July 15^th) - one week before the quarterly rubber stamping voter's meeting of today:

>>>>>>>> "Translation Evaluation Committee (TEC): I have begun my assigned portion of translation evaluation for the TEC (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians). I plan to utilize some sabbatical time in August graciously offered by the church council to complete this assignment by August 31st. Please welcome any guest preachers that may be asked to serve our congregation during that time." - <<<<<<<<<<  [Pastor Mark Luetzow]

Also, from what I understand, it was announced this Sunday (at church) that Bethel's worship service bulletins will be utilizing the 3 translations [NNIV, ESV and HCSB] - integrating them into the worship service Scripture readings for the next several Sundays.

I furthermore understand that the aforementioned translations of Scripture readings, printed in the Sunday bulletins, will not be designated as coming from a particular translation. [It sounds to me that some sort of “popularity contest” is being arranged, here]

Lord only knows what the other (TEC”S) 99 younger pastors are doing with "their" congregations. What type of rides are they taking their congregations, on? Are they tinkering around with 3 translations, attempting to stick their pastoral fingers out in their particular congregational popularity winds, all to report back to the Translation Evaluation Committee for a concerted “feedback” appraisal to synodical headquarters? [We already know where the TEC stands, as it previously stated that the new NIV 11 would be suitable for WELS usage]

Ichabod - I hate to repeat myself again about what I think of the new NIV11 and how I believe WELS leadership and the Translation Evaluation Committee (with the help of 100 younger pastors) are paving the way for a final decision to adopt this new NIV 11 Bible for its official synodical publication use.  And, so, if anyone is interested in some of my prior remarks over this issue, all they have to do is type in the Ichabod search box at the top left of the home page, --  the following: 

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel on new NIV 

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/search?q=Pastor+emeritus+Nathan+Bickel+on+new+NIV+

Furthermore, it is my observing opinion that WELS from the bureaucratic top, is preparing the "congregational soils" in anticipation of securing [influencing] enough future votes for the next synodical convention for the eventual adoption of the new NIV 11. Those in opposition of this change-over, to the highly flawed gender neutral Bible translation and its universalism bent, are being, and will be, ignored [shunned].

I remember in the recent past, at about the turn of the year, emailing WELS synodical president Schroeder, about my concerns - and that he do what he could to help kill this craze for the infatuation with the highly flawed NIV 11. His “leadership” response back to me, (basically) was that the choice of a new official synodical translation, was out of his hands and that it was in the hands of the convention, since they decided to explore the issue.

I will also add that I shared the same concerns with WELS Rev. Jonathan Schroeder (nephew of SP Mark Schroeder) and also our own Bethel congregation’s pastor; and have not received an email reply back from them over that email.  [Perhaps, Jonathan Schroeder and Bay County Michigan's Bethel's pastor went to seminary together and / or know each other, and are possibly mesmerized by the Translation Evaluation Committee, which to my understanding, (the members of that committee) are popular with Bethel’s pastor].

Finally, I stated as I stated before, using Edgar Allen Poe's, short story work, - "The Black Cat," as a point of reference:

All this pre-occupation and obsessive time spent focusing the new NIV11 with two "stalking horse" [other] translations are all “window dressing” and "over-kill." Sadly to say, I think that the new NIV 11 will be WELS future official publication translation despite how many of the WELS membership are offended and alienated – and, who end up leaving over it.

One other thing:  I can foresee the convention adopting the new NIV 11 - and, as a "compromising" (meaningless) gesture, (for having jammed it down everyone’s throats), urging individual congregations to make their [own] choice. And, if certain congregations do so by adopting all their (own) materials according to a suitable non gender Bible translation, - those congregations will be placed upon the WELS bureaucratic black list.

Nathan M. Bickel - emeritus pastor

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

    

Promoting Mark Jeske

Time for Tubby Bye-Bye!
Time for Tubby Bye-Bye!
Time for Tubby Bye-Bye!

Ichabod -

Today I received an email from my Bay County, Michigan pastor, Mark Luetzow. This email was sent Bcc - so, I assume [think] that it was also sent to our congregation's total membership - at least those who have their email addresses on the church directory here at Bethel Lutheran.

In this short 6:05 minute message, out of state and Thrivent Board member, WELS Pastor Mark Jeske, of St. Marcus Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, stated the following, regarding the recent Aurora, Colorado shooting massacre:

"......and this is a solid reminder that there is no point in putting off our thinking of our Savior, till another day; or that we're all guaranteed to have plenty of time to take care of our spiritual responsibilities......

......through the forgiveness of sins in Jesus, we become immortal.And, we will rise from the dead, just like him."

Aforementioned taken from:

Mark Jeske's "Time of Grace" - "Colorado theater shooting: reflection and prayer"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTznBNZ3Mi0&feature=youtu.be

I wonder how many other WELS pastors circulate Mark Jeske's "Time of Grace" utube videos? This is the first time that I've seen and heard this "Time of Grace." And, if many of them are like this, I would have to conclude that Rev. Mark Jeske is one of those Christian pastors who regularly preach the twisted teaching of "universal objective justification" as I've also been hearing from our own church, here at Bethel Lutheran:

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2012/07/pastor-nathan-bickel-on-uoj-in-wels.html

I find it sad and pathetic that a Christian pastor - especially a Lutheran pastor would preach his devotion to a mixed online audience and not differentiate between Christian and non Christian; regenerate and unregenerate; believer and unbeliever - and, in the context, not to preach repentance and faith [justification by faith alone as Luther taught it]. It was if Rev. Jeske was speaking to a Christian congregation when, in reality, he is speaking to a mixed audience of Christians and the unregenerate. To speak of Christ, the Savior as "'our Savior" to a mixed audience - some, or many of whom are heathen, is neither proper or scripturally, wise. [God is not your Father, unless you are one of His children].

Then, Rev. Jeske makes the statement - "......through the forgiveness of sins in Jesus, we become immortal. And, we will rise from the dead, just like him."  That is not Scriptural! It is by God's grace, through faith [in Christ] that a person becomes one of God's children and becomes a member of the Lord's heavenly throng. [Ephesians 2:8;9]

What is the Gospel? How is it perverted?

http://www.thechristianmessage.org/2012/05/what-is-gospel-how-is-it-perverted.html

Finally, the more I hear from WELS pastors, the more I hear a corrupted message - that "universal objective justification" teaching which takes the Scriptural place of grace through faith generated by God the Holy Spirit - that "justification by faith alone" teaching as Luther taught it. It's as if all, these universalism preachers can understand, is John 3:16 and not the whole chapter in context.

Pastor emeritus Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

Author! Author!

Paul McCain said his essay was so much in demand that he had a Word document for people to download.

I downloaded it.

The listed author is "David Strand." Last modified by Paul T. McCain.

Propeller-heads know that the properties of a file are revelatory, though not infallible. Sometimes a template is authored by a staffer then used by many others.

Maybe David Strand, in communications, copied the post into Word and sent it to McCain as a favor. The document was authored "today" but the post was published yesterday.

---

From Rogue Lutheran:

David Strand, husband of Sherri Strand, (LCMS attorney in their high profile cases) and McCain's ghost writer?

The dot connector item:

Christian News: LCMS Deceives Supreme Court About Its Doctrine
christiannewsmo.blogspot.com/.../lcms-deceives-supreme-court-abou...Nov 11, 2011

– Christian News, November 14, 2011 ... The article by David Strand in the LCMS Reporter, and obviously approved by his wife Sherri Strand, ...

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Brett Meyer has left a new comment on your post "Author! Author!":

McCain, "While we can not ultimately, to our own satisfaction, explain precisely why the world is a place where horrible things happen,"

At the same time that Paul McCain attempts to explain this horrific incident based on his anti-christian confession he blunders over the clear Biblical teaching of sin. His bloated ego is an impediment to understanding and articulating clear Biblical doctrine.

Former Inver Grove Heights pastor sentenced to year in jail in scheme to defraud his synod - TwinCities.com. Who Was Jailed for the Missing $8 Million? No one.

"Didn't I say not to reveal all the money I spent on Girl Scout Cookies?
Do you know how much trouble your Brownies got me into?"

Former Inver Grove Heights pastor sentenced to year in jail in scheme to defraud his synod - TwinCities.com:


Former Inver Grove Heights pastor sentenced to year in jail in scheme to defraud his synod
By Christopher Magan
cmagan@pioneerpress.com

A Dakota County District Court judge found some middle ground between the drastically different portrayals by defense and prosecuting attorneys of Leon E. Piepenbrink, who admitted to embezzling money from a Wisconsin synod.

The defense presented the story of a man who took money to help the needy, admitted to his crime and should avoid jail because he already lost everything because of it.

In contrast, prosecutors said the former pastor developed an elaborate scheme to defraud his church for years and lied and forged documents to keep his thefts hidden.

In the end, Judge David L. Knutson accepted some of each portrayal and sentenced Piepenbrink Tuesday, July 24, to a year in the county jail and 20 years probation for taking as much as $300,000 from the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

"I do find you have expressed remorse and accepted responsibility for your actions," Knutson said. "I don't find you at risk to reoffend. There is no justification for this, absolutely none, whatsoever."

The 52-year-old Piepenbrink, of St. Paul, had pleaded guilty to seven charges of theft by swindle in April.

Piepenbrink, who worked with the Hmong community from an office at Shepherd of the Hills Church in Inver Grove Heights, was fired in August 2010 when allegations arose. The thefts took place from 2007 to 2010.

Piepenbrink's attorney, Kenneth Udoibok, said Tuesday he was surprised at the length of the jail term. "What he did was wrong," Udoibok said.

"I'm comforted in knowing everything he took wasn't to enrich himself, but to help needy people."
Prosecutor Scott Hersey had asked the judge to follow the conclusion of a presentencing investigation and incarcerate Piepenbrink for 27 months. He called Piepenbrink's claim that he took money to help the needy "highly suspicious" and characterized the crimes as a violation of trust.

"Every time he took money he had a chance to stop," Hersey said. "I imagine it took quite a number of collection plates to come up with $300,000."

Piepenbrink was also ordered to pay restitution and how much he took is still in question. Udoibok is expected to request a restitution hearing in the coming days. Prosecutors say he took $301,581 between May 2007 and July 2010, but Piepenbrink claims the amount is much less, about $90,000.

It's also unclear where the money went. Piepenbrink says he gave it to needy families and a pastor from Laos he recruited to come to the U.S. for training. Piepenbrink was working to set up a ministry in Laos.

The synod is a fellowship of about 1,279 churches and 389,545 members in 48 states, the group reported.

Before sentencing, Piepenbrink said he wanted to prove his remorse through his day-to-day actions."

"It is not an understatement to say I lost the trust and respect of practically everyone I know," Piepenbrink told the judge. "I have to accept that and deal with it the rest of my life."

Christopher Magan can be reached at 651-228-5557. Follow him at twitter.com/cmaganPiPress.


'via Blog this'

Got a top lawyer, got less than a year in the klink, got work release!
He is still on the WELS.net website.

Philadelphia Church Official Sentenced to 3 to 6 Years in PrisonPhiladelphia Church Official Sentenced to 3 to 6 Years in Prison - NYTimes.com.How Many Lutheran District Presidents Should Join Him for the Same Crimes?

Philadelphia Church Official Sentenced to 3 to 6 Years in PrisonPhiladelphia Church Official Sentenced to 3 to 6 Years in Prison - NYTimes.com:


Philadelphia Church Official Sentenced to at Least 3 Years in Prison
By JON HURDLE and ERIK ECKHOLM


PHILADELPHIA — Msgr. William J. Lynn, the first Roman Catholic official in the United States to be convicted of covering up sexual abuses by priests under his supervision, was sentenced to three to six years in prison on Tuesday.

Matt Rourke/Associated Press
Monsignor William J. Lynn.

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“You knew full well what was right, Monsignor Lynn, but you chose wrong,” said Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina as she imposed the sentence, which was just short of the maximum of three and a half to seven years.

Monsignor Lynn, 61, a former Cardinal’s aide, was found guilty on June 22 of one count of endangering a child, after a three-month trial that revealed efforts over decades by the Philadelphia archdiocese to play down accusations of child sexual abuse and avoid scandal.

Monsignor Lynn served as secretary for clergy for the 1.5 million-member archdiocese from 1992 to 2004, recommending priest assignments and investigating abuse complaints. During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that he had shielded predatory priests, sometimes transferring them to unwary new parishes, and lied to the public to avoid bad publicity and lawsuits.

The conviction of Monsignor Lynn, now punctuated by a prison sentence, has reverberated among Catholic officials around the country, church experts said.

“I think this is going to send a very strong signal to every bishop and everybody who worked for a bishop that if they don’t do the right thing they may go to jail,” said Rev. Thomas J. Reese, a senior fellow of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. “They can’t just say the bishop made me do it, that’s not going to be an excuse that holds up in court.”

In a three-minute statement before he heard his sentence, Monsignor Lynn, dressed in a black clerical shirt and white collar, said: “I have been a priest for 36 years, and I have done the best I can. I have always tried to help people.”

He said that he respected the verdict of the jury, and he apologized to the abuse victim in the case at the center of his conviction. He turned toward relatives of the victim in the courtroom and said, “I hope some day that you will accept my apology.”

But he did not comment on the broader accusations that he put children at risk by repeatedly protecting “monsters in clerical garb,” as Judge Sarmina described it at the sentencing.

The sentence was a victory for the Philadelphia district attorney who said, in at impromptu news conference outside the courtroom, “Many people say that the maximum still would not have been enough.”

But Monsignor Lynn’s lead defense lawyer, Thomas Bergstrom, called the sentence “unbalanced.”

Last week, the defense team asked the judge to spare Monsignor Lynn from prison and instead sentence him to probation and work-release or house arrest. They argued in a memorandum that a long prison sentence would be “merely cruel and unusual,” and “would serve no purpose at all.”

But prosecutors urged the judge to impose the maximum penalty. They told the court last week that the gravity of Monsignor Lynn’s crime — giving known sexual predators continued access to children, causing lifelong anguish and damages to some — was “off the charts.” They wrote that Monsignor Lynn had refused to accept responsibility and had an “apparent lack of remorse for anyone but himself.”

Monsignor Lynn’s lawyers have promised to appeal the conviction, saying that the child endangerment law at the time of the events in question did not apply to supervisors, and that the judge erred in allowing testimony about Monsignor Lynn’s handling of priests who were accused of sexual abuse outside the statute of limitations.

Ann Casey, who attended the sentencing and said she had been a friend of Monsignor Lynn for 36 years, said she believed that he was a scapegoat and a victim of his intense faith in the leaders of the archdiocese. “It was his vow of obedience to the church that landed him this morning in jail,” she said.

During the trial, Monsignor Lynn’s lawyers argued that he had tried to protect children, but that his powers were limited and that he had followed the instructions of the cardinal at the time, Anthony J. Bevilacqua. But prosecutors argued that Monsignor Lynn played a central role in deciding how to handle complaints against priests and that “following orders” was no defense.

Monsignor Lynn’s conviction was for lax oversight of one former priest who had a known history of abuse, but was allowed to continue in ministry. The former priest, Edward V. Avery, now 69, spent six months in a church psychiatric center in 1993 after an abuse episode, and doctors said he should be kept away from children. But Monsignor Lynn, though aware of this history, sent him to live in a parish rectory and did not warn parish officials.

In 1999, Mr. Avery undressed with a 10-year-old altar boy, told him that God loved him and had him engage in oral sex. Mr. Avery pleaded guilty to the assault just before Monsignor Lynn’s trial began and was sentenced to two and a half to five years in prison.

Monsignor Lynn was acquitted of a conspiracy charge and of a child endangerment charge involving another priest.

But the prosecutors, in their sentencing recommendation last week, said that Monsignor Lynn’s handling of Father Avery “was no aberration,” but rather “part of a continuous, systematic practice of retaining abusive priests in ministry, with continued access to minors, while taking pains to avoid scandal or liability for the archdiocese.”


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Austria church mounts billboard search for priests - Yahoo! News

Austria church mounts billboard search for priests - Yahoo! News:


VIENNA (AP) — European men take note. While unemployment is growing in much of the continent, a powerful international organization is now advertising vacancies in Austria for hundreds of white-collar jobs.
Requirements: a sense of religious mission and a commitment to celibacy. Benefits: a possible inside track to Heaven.

Seeking to repopulate its thinning clerical ranks, the Roman Catholic diocese of Austria's largest province launched a province-wide billboard campaign Tuesday meant to recruit priests.

Nuns are welcome as well. And the posters are also looking for part-time help — laymen and women prepared to dedicate at least part of their life to Catholic religious and social service.

Such mass advertising for priests is rare anywhere — and the decision of the Lower Austrian diocese to turn to it now reflects fears that the Catholic Church in this country many soon not be able to carry out its mission due to the lack of clergy.

Austria formally remains an overwhelmingly Catholic nation, with more than 64 percent of its people declaring themselves as church members. But many are Catholics in name only.


'via Blog this'

Getting Advice from a WELS Attorney Is Like Shopping for Fruit with Satan

The original art is worse than the NNIV.
Worse?
Yes, even worse.

quercuscontramalum (http://quercuscontramalum.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "WELS Hired Lawyers Threaten Congregation. Sierra V...":

"... and without that non-profit status, no donations, fundraising, or other endeavors could be legally undertaken."

WELS has hired a lying snake for an attorney. Not having a 501c3 designation absolutely does NOT prohibit any person or organization from accepting donations, fundraising, or other endeavors. The 501c3 status merely changes how the donor characterizes it his own tax return.

WELS' attorney delivered a malicious lie to a WELS congregation.
[What else are they willing to lie about?]

If WELS doesn't correct this LIE by its attorney in the same manner as the lie was communicated, then WELS itself is complicit in the lie. Shame!

***

GJ - Today most banks want incorporation papers or a 501c3 designation, but that can vary between banks across the street from each other.

I did not see District President Jon Buchholz' name on the attorney's letter. That is one way to do the deed and not take credit. Let someone else be the hatchet man. If there is a firestorm, say, "Oh, he made a mistake. He was too severe. I corrected that." Damage control. Cover your assets. Spin.

It is much easier to destroy a congregation than to build one. The DPs and SPs in Walther's SynConference papacy are wreckers, not builders. They will retire in style while their grandchildren gingerly step through the ashes of their legacy.

Meanwhile, I will wait for Circuit Pastor Steve Spencer's repudiation of the letter - and a rebuke aimed at Buchholz on Intrepid Lutherans.

Montessori School of New York principal Lina Sinha sentenced in sexual abuse of a student from age 13 - NYPOST.com

Crying for herself.
WELS had a female teacher caught in a car with a female student.
That story disappeared faster than a July frost.

Montessori School of New York principal Lina Sinha sentenced in sexual abuse of a student from age 13 - NYPOST.com:


TEARFUL: Lina Sinha weeps at her sentencing yesterday in the sexual abuse of a male student from the age of 13.

She tried arguing that she “faints” and has anxiety, and even that her boy victim had enjoyed it.

But there was no mercy yesterday for Lina Sinha, the beautiful former headmistress of an Upper East Side Montessori school, who was finally sent away to serve at least 2 1/3 years in prison for her twisted and damaging sex affair with a student who was just 13.

“This is a woman of every advantage, and she preyed on her victim for years,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman said as the predatory ex-principal stared glumly down at the defense table.

“She hijacked his life as a child,” the judge said of the victim, who grew up to be a New York City cop and had compellingly taken the witness stand, describing years of trysts on class furniture and in a field-trip van with the Montessori School of New York headmistress he called “Miss Sinha.
”
“She did try to destroy his life,” the judge said. “So time has passed, but the victim has not regained the childhood the defendant has stolen for him, and I presume he never will.”

Sinha, 46, had remained free on bail, pending appeal, for the five years since a Manhattan jury convicted her of a depraved predation that might never have been exposed.

The victim came forward only as a police officer in training, after he finally broke off their nine-year “relationship” in 2004 and Sinha embarked on a rampage of vengeance against her former boy toy, including making bogus accusations of assault and rape and repeated 911 calls and Civilian Complaint Review Board allegations.

“This case came at great personal embarrassment to him,” Assistant District Attorney Robert Hettleman, chief of the Manhattan DA’s child-abuse unit, said of the victim, whose courage he praised.

The victim, whose name is being withheld, was a Queens-based, 24-year-old rookie when he testified against Sinha in 2007, and remains a cop, Hettleman said.

But life for the victim and a second male student — on whose rape allegations the original jury had hung — has been far from fun and games, the prosecutors said.

“I was in contact with him for years” after the conviction, the prosecutor said of the victim cop. “It’s been very difficult for him in the interim.”

Sinha spoke briefly, and tearfully, at the proceeding, wasting not a word on apologies or regrets. Instead, she went on about how difficult the past eight years have been for her and her family, and the great sacrifices she had made to become an educator, given her family’s money and “the many doors open to me.”

“Most people thought I did a very good job” in education, she told the judge. “If you deem it fit for me to go to prison, then that is what I will do,” she said.

“I have gone through their life savings,” she complained, referring to her family. “I have gone through my life savings a long time ago.”

Sinha tried through veteran defense lawyer Gerald Shargel to argue for a reduction in sentence. She suffers from glaucoma and diabetes, and has fainting spells and anxiety problems, Shargel told the judge.

“The punishment should fit the crime,” he said, referring to the conduct as “a love affair” and alluding to trial testimony in which the cop had admitted keeping the relationship secret as a boy because he had enjoyed it and didn’t want it to stop.

“There was a love affair that continued,” the lawyer told the judge.

“This was an extended situation,” the judge countered. “Until he was of, quote, ‘legal age,’ he was still being abused, overpowered psychologically.”

“I think the defendant’s sentence is actually remarkably lenient given the continuing offenses,” she said.


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/aw_poor_perv_eODtequvsBsNp3CivMcofO#ixzz21XTpE51k


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Norman Teigen has left a new comment on your post "Montessori School of New York principal Lina Sinha...":

In the wake of the Penn State situation, I did a little follow-up on an issue which you have previously discussed. Particularly, I note that Penn State University has removed the statue of Joe Paterno from the outside of the football stadium.

You have reported on the sex felon, Joel Hochmuth, of the WELS. I leave Mr. Hochmuth's case to the courts and the mercy and love of the Lord Jesus Christ. One would think, wouldn't one?, that the WELS would remove Joel Hochmuth from its public profile. Not so.

Some time in the past Hochmuth interviewed Mark Neumann, a one time congressman and now a candidate for the US Senate. Neumann was given a forum to promote his particular social and political values (which I personally find greatly offensive, but that's not important). Why would WELS keep up Hochmuth and Neumann as a public testimony to its beliefs? Why give the convicted sex offender any public recognition at all?

Neumann, by the way, if apparently very influential in the WELS although it is more than unlikely that he will do anything in the elections.

We have a similar situation in the ELS where an extreme right-wing political candidate for the 1st Minnesota Congressional District (who will go absolutely no where in the election) has become extremely influential in the little synod.

The ELS, however, does not present the interview of a sex offender in its public space. Shame on WELS. Shame on WELS.

Norman Teigen, Layman
Evangelical Lutheran Synod

ELCA Is UOJ - Just Like WELS and Missouri. They Also Promote Emergent Church Speakers

Link to video

Apprising Ministries - No like.

Nadia Bolz-Weber preached at the recent ELCA Youth Gathering. ELCA should do those youth events jointly with WELS and Missouri, so people see what is really hatching at their headquarters. After all, Mark and Avoid Jeske straddles all the Lutheran sects today.

And - Jeske is bisectsual, truly modern. He presents himself as a Lutheran to get his funding, but bases all his work on the emergent Babtists sects like Andy Stanley's and Ed Stetzer's.

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Jay Bakker is another Emergent Church illustrated minister.
See Ray Bradburgy - The Illustrated Man.

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "ELCA Is UOJ - Just Like WELS and Missouri. They Al...":

Ichabod –

Thank you for providing for your viewers an antithesis of Christian Gospel proclamation (as Luther taught it).

Apparently, this woman can only speak about herself. But, why wouldn't she? Apparently, she is comfortable with her new addiction - "narcissism." At least she is somewhat normal. She speaks in Scooby Doo "like" "I mean" (character) fashion.....

I think it a shame that young people are exposed to freak presentations such as this. Apparently, this woman has no shame. Hasn't this so-called ELCA "pastor" read her Old Testament where God is displeased with marring and marking one's own body? Has she no shame of her past? Can't she cover up that which God is displeased? Also, doesn't she know that God forbids His Name to be frivolously used? But then again, - why should she have any shame? Now, ELCA ordained, she can absolve both herself and her diverse worldly congregation in one happy feel good, church service – a prayer of confession, followed by a quick absolution announcement; capped off with the celebration of Holy Communion………

The pathetic thing of her presentation - and, I say, "Presentation," because it departs from Gospel proclamation, is, that she talks more about herself than Christ. Christ came to save sinners from themselves, not that sinners would be full of themselves.

Finally, toward the very end of her talk, she makes a plug for Lutheranism, - as if being a Lutheran is being someone like herself! I'm sorry, but her antics don't help the proliferation and spread of the Gospel as the Scripture proclaims and as Luther taught it. Lord have mercy on the future of the Christian Religion with flawed and freaky teaching such as come from sources such as this woman.

In short, this woman's idea is that the world should come into the church. Not that the church stands against the world and does its part to help snatch souls out of hell's waiting fires.......

Nathan M. Bickel

www.thechristianmessage.org

www.moralmatters.org

WELS Hired Lawyers Threaten Congregation. Sierra Vista Law Firm.Where Is Circuit Pastor Steve Spencer?

WELS needs a full-service law firm, just for its clergy and Love Shack staff-members.

Mequon is pleased to have their toll-free number.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5009355/20120702-Boroweic-Ltr-1.pdf
Above is the public link to the PDF.
Click on the images above for a bigger view.

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Steve Spencer, below, is the circuit pastor named in the letter.

GJ - Circuit Pastor Steve Spencer is supposedly on the side of the angels, with his leadership of the Intrepid Lutherans. Did he endorse the sending of this threatening letter?

I remember ELCA being scorned for hiding behind lawyers when they merged. Twenty-five years later, WELS is using the same tactics - under the reformers SP Mark Schroeder and DP Jon Buchholz.

This lawyer letter is so full of blarney - I would swear the authors were Fitzgerald and Fitzgerald. I have heard that a 501c can cost $500, but I missed the part about $10,000 being involved. That must include bribing the Mexican police after buying a trunkload of weed.

The congregation could probably get along fine with an IRS tax number, in the interim, and an honest law firm helping them with the rest. There is always Legal Zoom, etc. I doubt whether this DUI and sex offender law firm really wants to give useful advice.

The Boogey Man tactics are funny. They must work collecting on debts from illegals in Sierra Vista. "The military has its sights on your trailer-home. They might blow you to bits at 2 AM. Pay your cable bill or else."

Extending the Left Foot of Fellowship is one thing. Sending in the legal thugs is another. Like I said before, the UOJ Stormtroopers are all Law - not all Gospel.

Parish Response to Having Their Pastor Kicked Out <<Mequon Grads - This is a link.

Febreeze - On WELS Kicking Congregations Out

Febreze has left a new comment on your post "DP Jon Buchholz Drives Out Two Congregations While...":

This isn't the first time WELS leadership has come to congregations with a condescending attitude full of arrogance. They are bullies. Wake up people.

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GJ - Pope John the Malefactor used the same threat to get rid of pastors. Every time a congregation caves into the bullying, it gets worse.

DP Buchholz said he had the right to walk in and get rid of any pastor. But, he added about Jeff Gunn, "I have to be concerned about the souls of all those people."

If he were concerned, he would have gotten rid of the Fuller-faking false teachers. Instead, he embrace and welcomed and funded them. Now he wants to take the same management skills to Brazil?

Do not pray for him to leave the country. All the DPs are the same. If he does move to Brazil, to bring the message of everyone already saved, the next guy will be a carbon copy. What did the previous DP in California-Arizona do? He got rid of eight (8) pastors.

If they stick with "You're fired for membership losses," then the DPs should all be fired, along with the Church Growth staffs at Mequon, New Ulm, and Willowcreek Liberal College.

Has WELS grown in numbers with SP Mark Schroeder? Yes! Before, they had only ONE headquarters  - The Love Shack. Now they have TWO headquarters - The Love Shack plus Pewaukee Universalist Towers.

They would give Mark another raise but Piepenbrink ran off with $300,000+ in funds.

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WELS church lady has left a new comment on your post "DP Jon Buchholz Drives Out Two Congregations While...":

Very sad letter! Where is our leadership. Perhaps some church and changer pastor/leader in the WELS has been opposed to the pastor that was suspended. So...retired WELS Pastor Bill Winter is "somewhat" responsible for the suspension? I have met with Pastor Winter, and we had a nice chit-chat. This was around fall/winter of 2011,as everyone was wearing coats.

I was very sorry to read Pastor Joel Lillo's latest comment on Fake-o-bod! I will not repeat it here. The infiltration faction of the WELS lied about Hochmuth and Bachmann. They will not mess with me, as they risk further exposure. THOSE THAT WERE DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN THE TWO SAID HOAXES SHOULD BE REVOKED AND KICKED TO THE CURB. SHOULD THEY BE WILLING TO CONFESS, THEN THEY SHOULD REMAIN WITH THE STATUS AS LAYMAN!

I will ask Brother "Steve" if he would be so polite as to expound on the situation in AZ.

In Christ,
Rebecca

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "DP Jon Buchholz Drives Out Two Congregations While...":

It makes me wonder if their pastor stepped on some toes. A similar situation happened to Pastor Hastings and historic old St. Johns. Pastor Hastings was removed from the clergy roster of the WELS. THis forced the hand of the membership. The WELS leadership says "either accept the sock puppet that we send your way or depart from the synod ye members who dare to oppose the mighty Oz of WELS leadership".

DP Jon Buchholz Drives Out Two Congregations While Welcoming Jeff Gunn's Sheep-Stealers with Joy

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/5009355/20120611-PastorPoetterSuspension-MEMO-BW.pdf
The link above will provide a clear PDF of the letter.
Click the images below for a bigger image.

Protect your career in WELS - join Church and Change,
now under the same old apostate management,
but a new name and new cell groups.

Jeff Gunn: "Jesus is my rice."
But his son is an atheist.

Penn State hit with $60 million fine, other penalties for Sandusky scandal - southbendtribune.com. God's Judgment Against SynConference Leaders Will Be Worse

Penn State hit with $60 million fine, other penalties for Sandusky scandal - southbendtribune.com:


Edith Honan
Reuters
9:44 a.m. EDT, July 23, 2012


(Reuters) - The governing body of U.S. college sports on Monday banned Penn State University from post-season football bowl games for four years, fined the school $60 million and imposed other sanctions in an unprecedented punishment for not taking action after being alerted to child sex abuse by former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

At a news conference in Indianapolis, Mark Emmert, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, said Penn State football scholarships would be reduced to 15 from 25 and the team's victories from 1998 through 2011 would be vacated.

Emmert said the NCAA chose not to levy the so-called "death penalty" that would eliminate an entire season or more for the scandal-scarred football program because it would have harmed individuals with no role in the Sandusky scandal.

In June, Sandusky was convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years. This month, former FBI director Louis Freeh released a report that criticized the late Joe Paterno, the school's revered longtime head football coach, for his role in protecting Sandusky and the school's image at the expense of Sandusky's young victims.

The NCAA penalty was handed down one day after Penn State removed a statue of Paterno from in front of the university football stadium.

The NCAA acted with unprecedented speed, relying on Freeh's findings instead of conducting its own investigation.

Freeh's report, commissioned by the university's board of trustees and released on July 12, said Paterno and other high-ranking school officials covered up Sandusky's actions for years while demonstrating a callous disregard for the abuse victims.

Paterno was fired by Penn State's board in November, days after Sandusky was arrested for the abuse. He died in January of lung cancer.

Sandusky, 68, awaits sentencing. He faces up to 373 years in prison.

(Additional reporting by Greg McCune; writing by Dan Burns)


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Rick Reilly: Joe Paterno's True Legacy - ESPN. How Are Missouri, WELS, and ELS Different?

The Freeh report indicates conclusively that when Joe Paterno, shown in 2011 with assistant coach Mike McQueary, talked, people at Penn State listened.
GJ - The "conservative" synods have a policy of denial, covering up, and destroying evidence.

Rick Reilly: Joe Paterno's True Legacy - ESPN:

What a fool I was.

In 1986, I spent a week in State College, Pa., researching a 10-page Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year piece on Joe Paterno.

It was supposed to be a secret, but one night the phone in my hotel room rang. It was a Penn State professor, calling out of the blue.

"Are you here to take part in hagiography?" he said.

"What's hagiography?" I asked.

"The study of saints," he said. "You're going to be just like the rest, aren't you? You're going to make Paterno out to be a saint. You don't know him. He'll do anything to win. What you media are doing is dangerous."

Jealous egghead, I figured.

What an idiot I was.

Freeh Report Reaction

By lying, Joe Paterno betrayed himself, his legacy, his university and, most of all, the children who were victims of Jerry Sandusky's serial pedophilia, writes Gene Wojciechowski. Story

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In the aftermath of the damaging Freeh report, the NCAA needs to come down -- and come down hard -- on Penn State, writes Mark Schlabach.Story

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The Freeh report makes it clear that Penn State no longer should be allowed to have a football team, writes Howard Bryant.Story

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If the NCAA is going to act on Penn State, it is time for it to sanction those who were supposed to lead the university, writes Jay Bilas. Story

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In the wake of the Penn State scandal, the question now is whether educators have the guts to fight powerhouse sports programs running amok, writes Ian O'Connor.Story

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Rick Reilly admits that he was fooled all along by Joe Paterno, who was not the saint everyone thought he was. Story

• Van Natta Jr.: Devastating details
• Rittenberg: Campus contradiction
• Radio: Mike & Mike | Gottlieb Show
• SportsNation: Legacies altered?
• Big Ten blog

Twenty-five years later, when former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was accused of a 15-year reign of pedophilia on young boys, I thought Paterno was too old and too addled to understand, too grandfatherly and Catholic to get that Sandusky was committing grisly crimes using Paterno's own football program as bait.

But I was wrong. Paterno knew. He knew all about it. He'd known for years. He knew and he followed it vigilantly.

That's all clear now after Penn State's owninvestigator, former FBI director Louis Freeh, came out Thursday and hung the whole disgusting canvas on a wall for us. Showed us the emails, read us the interviews, shined a black light on all of the lies they left behind. It cost $6.5 million and took eight months and the truth it uncovered was 100 times uglier than the bills.

Paterno knew about a mother's cry that Sandusky had molested her son in 1998. Later, Paterno lied to a grand jury and said he didn't. Paterno and university president Graham Spanier and vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley all knew what kind of sick coach they had on the payroll in Sandusky. Schultz had pertinent questions. "Is this opening of pandora's box?" he wrote in personal notes on the case. "Other children?" "Sexual improprieties?"

It gets worse. According to Freeh, Spanier, Schultz and Curley were set to call child services on Sandusky in February 2001 until Paterno apparently talked them out of it. Curley wasn't "comfortable" going to child services after that talk with JoePa.

Yeah, that's the most important thing, yourcomfort.

What'd they do instead? Alerted nobody. Called nobody. And let Sandusky keep leading his horrific tours around campus. "Hey, want to see the showers?" That sentence alone ought to bring down the statue.

What a stooge I was.

I talked about Paterno's "true legacy" in all of this. Here's his true legacy: Paterno let a child molester go when he could've stopped him. He let him go and then lied to cover his sinister tracks. He let a rapist go to save his own recruiting successes and fundraising pitches and big-fish-small-pond hide.

Here's a legacy for you. Paterno's cowardice and ego and fears allowed Sandusky to molest at least eight more boys in the years after that 1998 incident -- Victims 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10. Just to recap: By not acting, a grown man failed to protect eight boys from years of molestation, abuse and self-loathing, all to save his program the embarrassment. The mother of Victim 1 is "filled with hatred toward Joe Paterno," the victim's lawyer says. "She just hates him, and reviles him." Can you blame her?

What a sap I was.

I hope Penn State loses civil suits until the walls of the accounting office cave in. I hope that Spanier, Schultz and Curley go to prison for perjury. I hope the NCAA gives Penn State the death penalty it most richly deserves. The worst scandal in college football history deserves the worst penalty the NCAA can give. They gave it to SMU for winning without regard for morals. They should give it to Penn State for the same thing. The only difference is, at Penn State they didn't pay for it with Corvettes. They paid for it with lives.

What a chump I was.

I tweeted that, yes, Paterno should be fired, but that he was, overall, "a good and decent man." I was wrong. Good and decent men don't do what Paterno did. Good and decent men protect kids, not rapists. And to think Paterno comes from "father" in Italian.

This throws a can of black paint on anything anybody tells me about Paterno from here on in. "No NCAA violations in all those years." I believe it. He was great at hiding stuff. "He gave $4 million to the library." In exchange for what? "He cared about kids away from the football field." No, he didn't. Not all of them. Not when it really mattered.

What a tool I was.

As Joe Paterno lay dying, I actually felt sorry for him. Little did I know he was taking all of his dirty secrets to the grave. Nine days before he died, he had The Washington Post's Sally Jenkins in his kitchen. He could've admitted it then. Could've tried a simple "I'm sorry." But he didn't. Instead, he just lied deeper. Right to her face. Right to all of our faces.

That professor was right, all those years ago. I was engaging in hagiography. So was that school. So was that town. It was dangerous. Turns out it builds monsters.

Not all of them ended up in prison.

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