Monday, September 30, 2013

Ski Will Be Declared a Saint by WELS

Name one situation where a pastor has been removed for cause,
yet promised his job back at the same place a few months later,
the synod president and district president
colluding to mock the ministry and civil law.
"Lest the ministry be blamed..."


Ex-pastor Ski, removed from the ministry, will be declared a saint by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Sect.
An independent panel of Church and Change leaders cleared the way for Ski to be recognized as a saint when they approved a second miracle that was attributed to his intercession. Last week a panel of NIV salesmen  and Thrivent Planned Giving Counselors put their official stamp of approval on his road to sainthood. DP Engelbrecht and SP Mark Schroeder gave their prior approval for this neutral, objective, scientific group to form their own opinion about the case.
Ski's declaration was more of a surprise to many as DP Engelbrecht skipped past the need of a second miracle. 
The date for the canonization ceremony, expected to take place this year, has not yet been set.

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2013/10/dont-nobody-tell-me-ski-turned-down-for.html

More Humor from SpenerQuest.
LCMS Gots Its UOJ from Halle, not Luther


Walther knowingly covered for Stephan's adultery.
Stephan left his wife and family in Dresden,
but Walther helped make the man bishop-for-life.
Missouri's leaders admitted they knew all along -
see Zion on the Mississippi.

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Barry Propst (Barry)
Junior Member
Username: Barry

Post Number: 33
Registered: 10-2010
Posted on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 - 3:13 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post

From my brief experience with ELDoNA about 10 years ago, they really have an axe to grind with Walther, and it doesn't stop at polity. If sacerdotalism is an issue in LCMS, it really is an issue in ELDoNA. As far as refusing to accept objective justification, I can only say that as a desperate group of "pastors", they may very well have come to acknowledge that at this point, I don't know.
In a broad since, I think they must have been rejecting it for a long time to explain some of their strange-to-Lutheranism beliefs and practices, since this doctrine is ultimately tied to every other.

This group is bent on attacking LCMS and now apparently WELS, and they will do about anything to show it. I think of ELDoNA like I think of an injured and cornered animal. They are unpredictable and can be dangerous, doctrinally speaking. Their "injury" in large part (from the instances I observed) came from a Missouri Synod that failed to discipline. The 'State of Confession' that some were making in an attempt to stand apart from a weak synod was carried too far. These guys got sympathy from the wrong crowd at the wrong time, and to ELDoNA they fled. Sad.


Woods was a famous Calvinist, a wunderkind,
and this book is still in print.
UOJ is mainline dogma - everyone is forgiven and saved.

Will ELCA-WELS-LCMS Bagman Jeske Be There To Show His Support?


Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to install first female bishop


RELATED DOCUMENTS

ARTICLE EXTRAS
Updated: September 29, 2013 2:32AM


Schisms are nothing new to churches.
And when the Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, the first woman elected to head the nearly 4-million-member Chicago-based Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, becomes presiding bishop Saturday, she’ll inherit a church still tending wounds from its 2009 decision to allow openly gay clergy — a move that contributed to the loss of nearly 600,000 members.
But Eaton, who supported the gay clergy decision, says the church learned from the experience and will move forward while addressing challenges that include staying relevant and building membership.
“We’ve learned it’s really clear we’re not all of one mind,” she said.
The question, Eaton said, is “how do we find ways to continue to love and talk to each other, to help the church be a model of how to have a civil discourse in a [political] culture that’s sort of winner take all, or if you don’t agree with me, you’re wrong, but not only are you wrong, you’re probably on the side of Satan.”
The church hasn’t figured out the answer but has learned “we’ve got to find a way to have deep disagreements but still see Christ in the other,” she said.
Eaton, 58, is a native of Cleveland. She was ordained in 1981 and first elected bishop of the ELCA Northeastern Ohio Synod in 2006. She holds a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School.
Listening will be key to increase relevancy and build the church’s membership, she said, noting that she has been encouraging people in her synod to go outside the church and ask people what their communities need and what gives them hope “instead of us telling people what we think they need to know.”

Graphic: Fewer ELCA members
Church Growth - WELS/LCMS style.
Thinking outside the pew also will be important.
“Do we have to have services at 10 o’clock on Sunday morning?” Eaton said. “For a huge demographic, that doesn’t work. How do we say we’re going to be more creative about when we invite people to be part of worship?
“We have some congregations who have worship services in restaurants, at coffeehouses. Those creative approaches are things we have to try.”
In targeting younger members, she said, “It’s not just about talking about what we believe. They want to see justice combined with faith.”
Building diversity remains a challenge and will be a priority.
“We still have congregations who will not interview a woman to be a pastor, and we’ve been ordaining women as pastors in the ELCA since 1970,” she said. “We have folks who will not interview a person of color if it’s a predominantly white congregation. Those are some huge barriers.”
Only 23 percent of clergy in ELCA are women, according to the church’s website.
Eaton’s “presence will bring greater inclusivity,” said the Rev. April Ulring Larson, who was the first woman bishop in the ELCA.
Becoming a more diverse church is important because the country is more diverse and because “that’s God’s vision,” Eaton said.
Her focus on inclusiveness will address members who, because of their scriptural convictions, are opposed to the church’s homosexuality stance but decided to stay.
“This was a very costly decision for us,” she said. “Families were divided. Congregations were divided. It’s important to acknowledge the sacrifice of people who stayed even though they don’t agree with the decision. We need to make a space for them to have a voice.”
Asked if she plans to forge a relationship with the North American Lutheran Church, the group that formed out of the controversy, she said: “They’re our brothers and sisters. They’re always welcome. But the manner in which that denomination was formed caused a lot of pain for this church, and that’s not quickly forgotten.”
Humility is required of both sides, she said.
Representatives from the breakaway group did not return calls for comment.
“Her synod had a really tough time,” said the Rev. Wayne Miller, bishop of the ELCA’s Metropolitan Chicago Synod, who noted that the gay issue wasn’t a big deal in Chicago.
As synod bishop, Eaton spent a lot of time in church fellowship halls dealing with angry crowds, Miller said. “She was incredibly steadfast and faithful.”
Among her priorities will be helping the church live out key Lutheran themes.
“Our first and highest goal . . . is to be where there is suffering, where there is hurting,” Eaton said.
“We’re church first, church for the sake of the world,” she said. “Of course worship is primary and the thing we do. But if we’re just having our little conclaves and our own little congregations and say, ‘Well, too bad about everyone outside,’ we are completely missing the point.”
Email: Fknowles@suntimes.com

Mark Jeske, the all-synod man,
sits on the Thrivent Board and shares your wealth.
Planned Giving Counselors are Thrivent salesmen who earn
commissions for their divine calling.

Katy Perry often displays her lack of talent,
but Fox Valley WELS is in love with her.

Resident Hater in a Fanatical Sect Finds Eldona a Fanatical Sect -
For Its Potential Support of Justification by Faith.
Ask Kurtzahn and the CLC If Incestuous Adultery Is a Sin.


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George Mueller (Mueller)
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Username: Mueller

Post Number: 907
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Posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 - 8:58 am:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post


Among some orthodox Lutherans the theological method becomes quite insular and parochial, consisting mostly in quoting other members of the group. Since they deem themselves orthodox and outsiders heterodox their students rarely give much attention to what outsiders say. But, alas, they sometimes make poor arguments and the bright students become impatient, and seek instruction elsewhere. That explains the Paul Rydeckis of this world. Bright, dissatisfied, arrogant, and just a little bit smarter than the average bear.

The WELS descends into theological sloganeering rather quickly. That doesn't make her wrong. Just annoying. But Rydecki, knowing he knew more than his fellows, knowing he was smarter than they, confused himself. He saw the shortcomings in the way WELS was wont to articulate the gospel and attributed them to doctrinal error. True enough, some within WELS might present the objective/subjection distinction in terms that appear to make the gospel mere information about a past justification. Appear to. Don't actually do so, but men like Rydecki are looking to find fault for other reasons as well. So he chucks objective justification. He knows better than his teachers.

The self-assurance of the ELDoNA crowd and their apparent scholarship and familiarity with authentic Lutheranism made them a good home for this disaffected WELS man. Why not join with a group of disaffected Missourians?

Here's the sad irony. While they all have plenty of legitimate criticism to level against their former synods, they are rejecting, not only a truth on which both of these synods agree, but a truth that is far more precious than any of the things with which these bright men occupy their minds.

Let him that thinketh he stand take heed lest he fall. Pride is the chief cause of the fall.

[GJ - Plus there is just plain schtoopid.]
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Timothy Blank (Timothyblank)
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Post Number: 488
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Posted on Friday, September 27, 2013 - 1:29 am:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post


Seems the ELDONA has gone from a fringe group in Lutheranism to a fanatical sect.
To list, as I have counted them thus far, their deviations from orthodoxy:
1) At best, tolerance of deniers of objective justification, and at worst, outright rejection of Christ's complete work on the cross.
2) Belief that the Great Commission is directed only to future clergy and not to all believers.
3) Rejection of the priesthood of all believers. More specifically, they reject that Christ commits to all believers the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and commissions all believers to preach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments. (Brief Statement, par. 30)

Timothy the Blank
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Tim Schenks (Tschenks)
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Username: Tschenks

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Posted on Friday, September 27, 2013 - 6:50 am:   Edit Post Delete Post Print Post


I recall that Pr. Rolf Preus, resident Lutherquest chaplain, didn't want anything to do with the Eldona either.

But I'd like to hear what Pr. Eric Stefanski has to say about this, as he did join Eldona. To bad he won't post on LQ.

Tim Schenks Schanks Schunks

Sunday, September 29, 2013

Sing Along German Hymns with Lyrics


Alle Sing Mit Lieder

Gerhardt - Lobet den Herren, alle die ihn ehren

Gerhardt - Befiel du deine Wege. Psalm 37:5.

Gerhardt - Du meine Seele, singe

Gerhardt - Ist Gott für mich, so trete

Gerhardt -  O Jesus Christ, Thy Manger Is (warning - English)

So nimm denn meine Hände

Schönster Herr Jesus

Weil ich Jesus Schäflein bin

Nun danket all und bringet Ehr



***

GJ - These hymns are linked for easy access. 


But Jeff Schone's Martin Luther College (WELS) Loved Hosting an Abortion Advocate on Its Campus



The tent in the back at the very start says "MLC KNIGHTS" - yes, this was filmed on the sacred campus of holy Martin Luther College, New Ulm - WELS.

MLC staff and students were used in addition to MLC equipment. Dr. Nolte and the AV Department were even given the day off class to "work" the presentations in the auditorium and setup the sound equipment and stage outside for this Roman Catholic pro-abortion Obama cabinet member.

Regina's platform is borrowed from the MLC choir.

http://www.nujournal.com/page/content.detail/id/531457/Surgeon-General--Making-health-f---.html

Surgeon General: Making health fun is the key

September 30, 2012
By Josh Moniz - Staff Writer (jmoniz@nujournal.comThe Journal
NEW ULM - Making people "joyful" and excited about healthy activities was the focus of Saturday's speech by U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin during the New Ulm Area Day of Play held at Martin Luther College.
The Day of Play event is part of a world-wide event started by the children's channel Nickelodeon to get kids outside and away from televisions through fun activities. Martin Luther College hosted the event on its grounds in partnership with Hearts Beat Back: The Heart of New Ulm Project and the New Ulm Medical Center. Several hundred children turned out Saturday to participate in activities ranging from an inflatable wall climb to dancing with The Narren to hula hoops.
This year's event was organized around the visit by the U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. The Surgeon General arrived in Minnesota on Friday to participate in a health conference hosted by the University of St. Thomas on Friday in Minneapolis. Her visit was generated a grass-roots effort by students of former Sen. Dave Durenberger's class. She provided the closing remarks for a forum that included representatives from the New Ulm Medical Center.

---

Criticism[edit]

Her political support for abortion access had been cited as a source of controversy, since Benjamin is a Roman Catholic and the Catholic Church opposes such access. However, she has also received an award from Pope Benedict XVI.[24] Benjamin also sits on the board of the Catholic Health Association[25] and is active in her local church.[26] Benjamin served on the board of trustees of the Catholic Health Association. She was endorsed by Lloyd Dean, the president of Catholic Healthcare West, the largest hospital system in California, who issued a statement saying he was "delighted" by her nomination.[27]
During her confirmation process, critics also sought to make Benjamin's personal weight a source of controversy.[28][29]
New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman said that Benjamin, "like most of her predecessors", avoided controversy, and avoided criticizing industry. The 2010 report, he said, blames "the victims" for eating too much and not getting enough exercise, while ignoring the marketing of junk food, and the scientific evidence for the contribution of sugar-sweetened food to obesity.[30]

---

Wisconsin Lutheran College is way ahead of MLC:
gay archbishop R. Weakland gave a special lecture,
public invited, at WLC.
His priests also participated in the program.

New Ulm Journal Carries Article on Scandalous Shut-Down of "Inherit the Wind."
MLC Does Not Teach Critical Thinking Or Lutheran Doctrine

WELS has perfected selective outrage.
They think Jeff Gunn and Rick Warren are the bomb,
but they cannot abide JBFA Rydecki.

NUACT production of ‘Inherit the Wind’ canceled

MLC concerned about play’s dealing with evolution, creationism

September 27, 2013
By Josh Moniz - Staff Writer The Journal
NEW ULM - The New Ulm Actors Community Theatre's production of "Inherent the Wind"?was canceled last week due to cast dropouts stemming from objections by Martin Luther College professors and local WELS members over the play's depiction of the evolution/creationism debate.
NUACT originally slated the play as its fall production with MLC student Zach Stowe as director. The play deals with a fictionalized version of the evolution/creationism debate in the 1925 Scopes "Monkey Trial." The play is also a metaphor for criticizing the suppression of free expression under the McCarthyism of the 1950s.
The play was not slated to be performed at MLC, but a final audition was scheduled on campus on Friday, Aug. 30. NUACT previously used MLC for auditions, rehearsals and performances.
After seeing the poster for the audition, several MLC professors raised objections about the play's subject to the administration.

Stetzer, who cannot spell disciple,
has a diciple in Glende.
Jeffrey Schone, MLC's VP of Student Life, declined to name the objecting professors, but stated the administration similarly became concerned about being associated with the play.
MLC is the college of ministry for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), which believes in creationism that teaches the Genesis story as a factual, historical account. Schone said MLC was concerned about making it absolutely clear to its students, WELS members and the public about its beliefs and teachings on creationism. He said he recognizes the subtext of the play, but feels it is unfairly critical of creationism and that most people would only see the criticism.
"We felt it was not compatible with what [the school] teaches the Bible says about the universe and the world,"? said Schone. "This is a ministerial school. People employing our students need confidence about their views."
Schone informed Stowe on the morning of the audition that it could not be held on campus. The audition was then rescheduled to a new location.
On the following Tuesday (Sept. 3), Stowe resigned from the play. He cited a flood of e-mails and letters objecting to his association with the play from MLC professors and local WELS members for his decision. He was also concerned that MLC administration would maybe take their concerns further if the outcry kept growing, so he decided to focus on the more important issue of his schooling.
However, he said he felt his creative freedom had been stifled and that he was very disappointed that some of the criticism seemed to come from MLC. He said he shares WELS' belief in creationism. He said he believes open discussion about the topic is essential to proving its validity.
"The play does not just say evolution is right. It treats Christians with respect. The entire point of the play is both sides need open, free discussions,"said Stowe. "But, I don't have any negative feelings about it. Everyone acted how their conscience directed them in this situation. I can respect it."
In the following two weeks, six NUACT members dropped out of the cast after consulting their WELS pastors or officials about being in the play after Stowe's departure.
On Sept. 16, the NUACT board voted to postpone the show indefinitely due to insufficient time to replace and retrain the lost staff before Oct. 4, which would have been opening night. NUACT Executive Director Paul Warshauer said the group still hopes to put on "Inherit the Wind," but no date has been determined.
Schone said he feels MLC did not put any pressure on Stowe or the NUACT cast. But, he said he feels it is appropriate for the college to voice concerns about the extracurricular activities of its students.
Schone's only regret was the timing of the decision due to when the administration learned about the audition. He said he apologized to NUACT for the inconvenience. He said NUACT and Stowe can use the MLC campus for future plays, and that the concerns were only with the content of "Inherit the Wind."
(Josh Moniz can be e-mailed at jmoniz@nujournal.com)

WELS is run by unbelievers
who despise the Means of Grace.

Schone Liked the Miley Cyrus Gay Video, But Shut Down a Legitimate Play

VP Schone displayed his fashion sense
at the national WELS coven.

http://m.mankatofreepress.com/MFP/db_264901/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=z06x7JPi&full=true#display

NEW ULM — A community theater’s plans to stage a play based loosely on a trial that pit evolution against creationism have been derailed after its student director and all but one of the actors were persuaded to drop out.

The play’s former director, Martin Luther College student Zak Stowe, said that he left the production of “Inherit the Wind” on Sept. 3 because of numerous emails and letters objecting to his association with the play. The New Ulm Journal first reported the story Friday.

“Even more than having to deal with public pressure, I didn’t want to have to deal with professors coming up to me and saying ‘Are you still doing this?’” Stowe said.

The New Ulm Actors Community Theatre board voted Sept. 16 to indefinitely postpone the performance because there wasn’t enough time to replace the cast before the Oct. 4 premiere. The group still expects to put on the  play but hasn’t picked a date.

But they want to continue the discussion about the play’s message, so they’ve scheduled a reading of “Inherit the Wind,” for 7 p.m. Oct. 8 at the John Lind House in New Ulm. The group does a non-dramatic play reading every month.

The group decided last year to include “Inherit the Wind,” a fictionalized version of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, in its 2013 lineup. Executive Director Paul Warshauer figured the choice would raise eyebrows, but he didn’t anticipate it would be so controversial.
“We looked at it as a matter of freedom of thought,” he said, and about the value of reasonable discourse.

So he finds what happened next to be “tremendously ironic.”

College cancels audition
Martin Luther College canceled an on-campus audition for the play that had been scheduled for Aug. 30.

The college’s vice president for mission advancement, the Rev. Michael Otterstatter, said in an email that the administration thought this would be a minor change for the theater group, but the short notice left them in an awkward situation. He acknowledged the administration “could have possibly timed its action better.”

He also wrote that the college did not tell the students in the play that they should withdraw and there would have been no consequences had they performed it. Instead, some faculty members told students they were concerned about “perceptions that could be formed by some constituents due to the material portrayed in the play.”

[GJ - This is a lie from Ottersbladder. Stowe has to attend weekly meetings with Schone now. MLC is even worse than NWC was in their pin-headed Stalinism. This is not what I would call higher education - more like abusive sect stupefaction.]

The college’s vice president of student life, Jeffrey Schone, told the Journal that “this is a ministerial school. People employing our students need confidence about their views.”
Stowe, who is planning to become a teacher, said he understands it’s part of Schone’s job to preserve students’ reputations.

But he said he should have been trusted to form his own views.

“I’m also an adult, and my opinion isn’t necessarily the same as his,” Stowe said.
Besides, directing a play off-campus seemed innocuous.

“I’m trying to direct a play. I’m not telling people to sacrifice goats in front of the Hermann statue.”

College owned by church
Martin Luther College is owned and operated by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, a conservative denomination that believes creation happened in the course of six consecutive days of normal length.

“We believe that the Bible presents a true, factual and historical account of creation,” the church’s website reads. The church also rejects attempts to harmonize the scriptural account of creation with the theory of evolution.

Play seen differently
Though the play is set in a small Tennessee town in 1925, it is a metaphor for the McCarthy trials of the 1950s. One of the play’s authors, Jerome Lawrence, told Newsday in 1996 that the play is “not about science versus religion; it’s about the right to think.”

Christianity, though, is occasionally described as a stand-in for the forces of intolerance, as when the play’s preacher turns on his own daughter, who pleads with her father not to damn the teacher to hell. In the play, as in real life, the teacher was on trial for teaching evolution.
“If it’s a metaphor for McCarthy, why is there a focus on mocking Christians?” said Mark Santelman, a Winthrop man and actor with the community theater.

He refused to audition for the play and counseled Stowe similarly.

“I shared with him, at length, why I felt it was not a good thing for him to be involved in,” Santelman said.

He said he first heard about the selection last year and figured the theater’s board would change their minds early on. When that didn’t happen, he said he didn’t decide to fight it, at least not for his own sake.

“I made a decision that if my Lord and Savior is going to be mocked and ridiculed, I’m going to stand up … and try to defend him,” he said. “And defend him on every act of Scripture. If they throw that part of the Bible out, when are they going to throw the Gospels out?”

Santelman said he would not have objected to a fair-minded debate about creationism and evolution but said the play has an anti-Christian hidden agenda.

Warshauer, though, sees the play entirely differently. He says it is less about faith than about the perils of telling other people how to think.

In one scene, the defense attorney calls the prosecutor to the stand as an expert on the Bible and asks if he’s ever read Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.”

The prosecutor says he hasn’t and never would, to which the attorney replies: “Then how in perdition to you have the gall to whoop up a holy war against a book you’ve never even read?”

The play ends on a note of reconciliation, or at least impartiality, as Henry Drummond, the play’s version of defense attorney Clarence Darrow, picks up a Bible and a copy of Darwin’s “The Descent of Man.”

“He looks from one volume to the other, balancing them thoughtfully, as if his hands were scales. He half-smiles, half-shrugs. Then Drummond slaps the two books together and jams them in his brief case, side by side.”

Stowe, the student director, said the scene with the reverend condemning his daughter is clearly hyperbole to prove a point. And while he said Christians are sometimes portrayed negatively, he said the play is a commentary on intolerance, not on Christianity.

“They’re making fun of the idea that the fundamentalist right, if you will, won’t even listen to the other side,” Stowe said.

“Inherit the Wind,” incidentally, was initially a replacement for another proposed play, “Doubt: A Parable,” which was deemed far too controversial. “Doubt,” the subject of a 2008 film, is about a Catholic priest suspected of molesting an altar boy.

“It’s a great play,” Warshauer said of “Doubt,” but the board decided that it would’ve prompted outrage in New Ulm. So they went with the safer choice, “Inherit the Wind.”
Santelman said the controversy has been good because everyone has learned something, including the community theater’s board, of which Stowe is a member.

“I think they heard from their public that this might be the wrong thing to do,” he said.
The play’s advocates, though, have clearly learned something else.

“We feel we were shut down by religious forces,” Warshauer said.

This is what Schone approved and allowed on YouTube for a long, long time.

"Me evolve into a human?
Do I look that stupid?"