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| Thomas Cole, Dream of Arcadia |
narrow-minded has left a new comment on your post "Spinning the Bishop Stephan Story - Missouri Mytho...":
Thanks for the review. Since I am in the middle of reading "Zion," I have noticed some similarities to the present-day SynCon:
1. Wave the BOC and brag to everyone about how "Confessional" you are, yet practice Pietism (while condemning Rationalism, as if one is worse than the other).
2. If someone has the audacity to disagree with you, make him fall prostrate in front of you and profusely apologize before possibly granting him absolution.
3. Whine and snivel about how persecuted you are in order to avoid getting in trouble - or to advance your agenda.
4. Mismanage the money so you live like a king and enjoy luxuries. Meanwhile, your peons can get by with virtually nothing.
Since I am only partially through "Zion," I am amazed that the "late night walks" didn't raise many suspicions. Like today's SynCon, sexual sin is covered up, but the truth eventually surfaces.
Another thing I learned was that the polity was to be episcopal. In today's SynCon, the SP's and DP's can get outright hierarchical if you oppose their agenda. On the other hand, Congregational Polity and adiaphora are reserved for true errors in doctrine and practice.
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GJ - The graphic above, from Zion on the Mississippi, explains in a few words how the Stephan enterprise worked then and how the SynCons manage today.
WELS and Missouri deal with crimes committed by church workers today by covering up for the criminals and destroying the evidence. Severe doctrinal error is defined by them as denying the pusillanimous Universalism of world salvation without faith or criticizing the Barthian seminary--Fuller--that gathers them together in Church Growthiness.
