Someone Should Do Some Research on These Figures - How Thrivent Spends Lutheran Money

I read the Thrivent figures to Mrs. Ichabod and said, "Look at how they are spending your Lutheran money."
Mrs. I said, "Those aren't my Lutherans."

The LCMS, WELS, and ELS have no idea how little their votes mean about Thrivent leaving the Lutheran fold. That horse was out of the barn years ago.

First, get yourself a Guidestar account, so you can open and save the PDFs that I will discuss.

Guidestar gathers the forms that charities must fill out for the IRS if they have a 501c. Not all the forms are published at Guidestar, but many are up to date, as of the 2011 filings.

Concordia Publishing House files are there. In 2011, it showed Bruce Kintz earning $290,000 and Paul McCain drawing $190,000 in total compensation.

CPH had almost $48 million in assets at the end of 2011.

Herman Otten's Lutheran News is listed. They ended 2011 with about $460,000 in assets minus liabilities.

Thrivent

Form 990 Minneapolis, 2011.

Many congregations and ELCA area synods (districts) get $10,000 grants.

Habitat for Humanity received $10 million. That is $10,000,000.

The Fox Valley Humane organization and the Fox Valley Orchestra both got grants, about $5,000.

US Venture Open got $25,000 for a golf outting-charity thing, which sounds like the current St. Peter in Freedom golfing fest.

Appleton Education Foundation, $29,000.

Rebuilding Together Fox Valley - $53,000.

Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce - a worthy charity! - $12, 635.

Minnesota Orchestra - $33,000.

Minneapolis Council of Churches - $6,000.

Twin Cities United Way -  $10,260.

Salvation Army - $126,000.

ELCA Youth Ministry - $30,207.

Lutheran Educational Conference - $113,000.

Lutheran World Relief - $653,000.

Lutheran Theological Seminary - $42,000. ELCA?

Gettysburg Seminary - ELCA - 45,000. ELCA.

Wisconsin Lutheran College - WELS - $30,000.

Thiel College - ELCA - $24,000.

Wittenberg University - $24,000. ELCA. They just canned 20% of their faculty.

Orphan Grain Train - $424,000. Plus many smaller grants that total another $100,000 or more.

Time of Grace - New Age - $21,000.

Capital University - ELCA - $36,000.

Building Hope in the City - $23,000.

Valparaiso University - ELCA - $122,000.

Wee Creations Pre-school - $6,000.

Augustana College - $56,000. ELCA. There are two Augies, both of them ELCA.

Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago - ELCA. $24,000.

Lutheran Services in America - $246,000.

Adult Lutherans Organized for Action. ELCA/LCMS. $94,000.

Carthage College, ELCA. $39,000.

Lutheran Social Services of Michigan - ELCA. $47,000.

Michigan Lutheran Seminary - WELS. $17,000.

Compensation is listed.

Mark Jeske - New Age - $57,333 for 10 hours of work per week.

Many Thrivent executives earn between $1 and 2 million per year.

Another Roman Catholic Bishop DUI. Is a Bar Ministry in the Works for His Grace?

Roman Catholic Bishop Robert J. McManus earned
the James Tiefel DUI award.
Perhaps he can get a lawyer to erase the charges.

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Megan Rohrer's Beatles Mass - Is It Worse Than the...":

Boston area RCC bishop arrested for DUI:

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/05/06/bishop-mcmanus-worcester-arrested-for-drunken-driving-admits-terrible-error-judgment/yX75WO47hFk0hJ3i9apVYN/story.html 

By Travis Andersen and Todd Feathers, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent


Bishop Robert J. McManus, head of the Diocese of Worcester, was arrested for driving under the influence this weekend after police stopped him in Narragansett, R.I., police said.

McManus was arrested at 10:32 p.m. Saturday on charges of drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident, and refusing a chemical test, Narragansett Police Captain Sean Corrigan said. McManus is to be arraigned Tuesday in district court in Wakefield, R.I.

“I made a terrible error in judgment by driving after having consumed alcohol with dinner,” McManus said in a statement. “There is no excuse for the mistake I made, only a commitment to make amends and accept the consequences of my action.”

“More importantly,” he said, “I ask forgiveness from the good people whom I serve, as well as my family and friends, in the Diocese of Worcester and the Diocese of Providence.”

Corrigan told reporters this afternoon that McManus was involved in an accident with another motorist at the intersection of Bridgetown Road and Boston Neck Road.

McManus drove off, Corrigan said. The other driver followed him and called police. Officers arrested the bishop about 20 minutes later in the Bonnet Shores beachfront community on suspicion of drunken driving, according to Corrigan.

He declined to release additional details of the arrest before the arraignment. Asked if the other driver was hurt, Corrigan said, “If there had been serious injuries, then the charges would reflect that. So there [were] no serious injuries.”

There was no answer this afternoon at the tan, ranch-style home on Colonel John J. Gardner Road where McManus was arrested, roughly two miles from the scene of the accident.

A neighbor, Michael Stanziano, 56, said McManus and his siblings inherited the property from their late parents several years ago, and the bishop occasionally visits in the summertime.

“He’s a great guy,” Stanziano said. “I’ve never even seen him drinking.” He said McManus and his siblings generally keep to themselves when they visit, but he and the bishop have spoken in passing.

“They’re great neighbors,” he said.

Stanziano said he was asleep at the time of the arrest but noticed minor front end damage to McManus’s dark-colored Honda Accord the following morning.

Another neighbor, who declined to give her name, said she did not see or hear anything during the arrest and also spoke highly of McManus. “We love him,” she said in a brief interview.

Pope John Paul II appointed McManus as the fifth bishop of the Worcester diocese in 2004.

Todd Feathers can be reached at todd.feathers@globe.com or at @ToddFeathers.
 

Megan Rohrer's Beatles Mass - Is It Worse Than the WELS Polka Mass?See the Thrivent Figures Posted Above

Megan Rohrer

Megan Rohrer bio: 

Megan Rohrer Megan Rohrer is a nationally recognized LGBTQ faith leader, historian, writer, homeless advocate, community organizer and speaker. The first openly transgender pastor ordained in the Lutheran church, Megan was awarded an honorary doctorate from Palo Alto University, won Out History's Since Stonewall Local Histories Competition and co-edited Letters For Our Brothers: Transitional Wisdom in Retrospect, which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in transgender nonfiction.

Megan Rohrer 4 months ago

Thanks for all your comments. Luther took secular tunes sung in pubs and changed the words to fit Christian themes. Your shock and noting that I would be lynched in another time surprises me. People have been using Beatles tunes in masses since the 60's. There has long been theological differences between ELCA Lutherans and Missouri/Wisconsonites, perhaps that is your beef. The words are standard theology. Blessings to you all. God is so much bigger than a video on you tube! Blessed be!

Erich Erving 2 months ago

Megan,

Please do some more critical investigation of Luther and his hymns:

“Of the melodies to Luther’s 37 chorales, 15 were composed by Luther

himself, 13 came from Latin hymns of Latin service music, 4 were derived

from German religious folk songs, 2 had originally been religious

pilgrims’ songs, 2 are of unknown origin, and one came directly from a

secular folk song.” (Data compiled from Squire, pp. 446-447; Leupold, ed., 

Liturgy and Hymns; and Strodach, ed., Works of Martin Luther, VI)

[GJ - Ulrich Leupold was my liturgy professor at Waterloo. He earned a PhD in his field in Berlin at the age of 23.]

Megan's ordination was a little unusual.
He seems to work at two small congregations.

---
LinkedIn

Experience

Assistant Night Minister

Night Ministry

January 2013 – Present (5 months)San Francisco, CA

The San Francisco Night Ministry provides middle-of-the-night compassionate non-judgmental pastoral care, counseling, referral and crisis intervention to anyone in any kind of distress. Through our Crisis Telephone Line staffed by trained volunteer Crisis Line Counselors; and through person-to-person encounters with ordained clergy on the streets, this ministry is available every night of the year from 10:00 pm - 4:00 am.

Contributing Blogger

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

October 2010 – Present (2 years 8 months)

Welcome to LivingLutheran.com

Grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and join us at the table for a conversation about what it means to “live Lutheran.”

LivingLutheran.com serves up a daily blend of culture, conversation and community for ELCA members and friends. We’re looking for answers about what it all means and hope you’ll stop by to put in your two cents.

You won’t find breaking news here, although there’s plenty of commentary on what’s happening in the world and what ELCA members think about it. We have resources for congregations, videos to inspire and amuse and places to share what’s on your mind.

We’re probably being a bit presumptuous, but we like to think that Martin Luther would approve.

Executive Director

Welcome

June 2002 – Present (11 years)Old First Presbyterian Church, San Francisco, CA

Welcome seeks to provide a faithful response to poverty and to improve the quality of life for individuals in our community by providing: hospitality; education; food; and referrals for housing, health care and drug and alcohol treatment.

Major Projects include:
*Saturday Community Dinners (feeds between 150 and 300 individuals twice a month)
*Tuesday Welcome Center (feeds 25-45 each Tuesday and provides one-on-one care)
*Community Gardening Project (grown and given away more than 7,000 pounds of free produce on unused church properties in the San Francisco Bay Area)
*Just Lutheran (a do-it-yourself guide to responding to poverty)
*LGBTQ homeless youth leadership project (recording the oral histories of homeless youth around the country and mentoring San Francisco youth who use the history of a similar group in the 60's, art and magazine writing to advocate for their needs)
*SF CARES (a partnership with the San Francisco Night Ministry, St. Paulus Lutheran Church and the Faithful Fools to advocate for individuals with mental health issues and traumatic brain injuries).

Provider and Resource Manager

Project Homeless Connect

January 2012 – August 2012 (8 months)San Francisco, CA

The mission of Project Homeless Connect (PHC) is to provide a single location where non profit medical and social service providers collaborate to serve the homeless of San Francisco with comprehensive, holistic services.

Growing Home Community Garden Manager

Project Homeless Connect

April 2010 – January 2012 (1 year 10 months)Octavia/Lily, San Francisco, CA

The Growing Home Community Garden won the 2010 NEN Best Community Challenge Grant Project.

Growing Home's Seeding Resilience project, increases access to mental health services and provides employment opportunities and skills. A two year innovation project with major support provided by the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), the Seeding Resilience project is 75% focused on the Growing Home Community Garden (Octavia & Lily) and 25% on working with Urban Agricultural leaders in San Francisco to build a citywide network of support for mental health consumers.

SF Refresh, hosted six daylong citywide events that enabled San Franciscans to receive free whole body care in community garden settings in 2011. Activities included: gardening classes, yoga, life couching, meditation, trauma care, nutrition classes, massage, acupuncture, tea and coffee cuppings, movement classes, preventative health care information and more. In addition to providing direct services to those who need them, SF Refresh connected individuals and families to self care resources available through the city's system of care, local businesses and non-profit organizations.

Child Care Counselor

Children's Home Society, Sioux Falls

June 2001 – January 2002 (8 months)

Summer Conference Worker

Augustana College (SD)

1998 – 2001 (3 years)

Jim Jones and the Stephan Cult

Ferdy and his brother kidnapped their niece and nephew,
let Mrs. Buenger go to prison for hiding them,
and took the children to America, where they died later.
The police issued warrants for CFW's arrest -
it was good training for kidnapping Bishop Stephan at gunpoint.

Pastor emeritus Nathan Bickel has left a new comment on your post "Unwarranted Claims about the Innocence of Stephan ...":

Ichabod -

Do you think that the late Jim Jones of Jonestown, secured some of his ideas from the Stephan cult?

Nathan M. Bickel
www.thechrisitianmessage.org
www.moralmatters.org

Chilstrom was a Pietist who became a gay activist -
like Fox Valley mentor Andy Stanley.

***

GJ - Cults have a lot in common. When a WELS pastor sent me a book about abusive churches, I wrote back, "It sounds like it was written about WELS."

I could also add the LCMS, although the effect of Walther has been watered down.

Cults see women and children as their possessions, to be used by the leaders as they wish. The polygamy first practiced by Joseph Smith among the Mormons is still highly regarded by that cult today. Some estimated that 10,000 polygamist families lived in the Phoenix area, the second largest group of Mormons in America, after Salt Lake City.

Power is invested in a few, who teach that their organization is the only one. Because it is the only God-glorifying group, the leaders are treated as gods. They are infallible.

The Holy Spirit does not allow
Deputy Doug Engelbrecht to err,
even when he endorses plagiarism and overlooks multiple cases  of sexual harassment.

Sex Selection Abortions

bruce-church (https://bruce-church.myopenid.com/) has left a new comment on your post "Unwarranted Claims about the Innocence of Stephan ...":

It’s a Girl, a documentary about the tragic practice of sex-selection abortions in India and China, is being widely screened by pro-choice groups across America, including the New Jersey Chapter of the National Organization for Women and feminist groups on university campuses. It was an official selection for the Amnesty International Film Festival in 2012 and appeared in Ms. magazine’s feminist movies review. But as organizations and groups evaluate whether to screen this movie, they should be aware that the film’s director worked for Harvest Media Ministry, an organization that makes pro-life and other videos for church groups (video trailer):

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/05/it_s_a_girl_a_pro_life_movie_embraced_by_pro_choice_groups.html?wpsrc=upworthy

Narrow-Minded Replies to Synod Worshipers

Ah, the new Stephanites.

narrow-minded has left a new comment on your post "Unwarranted Claims about the Innocence of Stephan ...":

Since I am being called to repentance, I will respond, although I'm disappointed that the Eighth Commandment wasn't specifically mentioned [Please insert "Aw, not the Eighth Commandment again" icon here]

According to the author of Zion on the Mississippi, the Saxon churches had several liturgies from which they were free to choose. One of the liturgies was the "orthodox" one, and the Saxons chose to use it.

I would equate this situation with today's Lutheran Service Book. There are five Divine Service Liturgies from which to choose. A parish can choose the Vatican II/ELCA-wannabe Divine Service Liturgies ("This is the Feast," "...and also with you," et al), or they can choose LSB's Divine Service Three, which is nearly identical to TLH 15. As a side note, my former parish, when it switched to the LSB, used Divine Service Three, and I was certainly pleased with that decision, however I wondered why we spent the money on the LSB. When we gave away our old TLH's to another parish, an elderly lady of the parish and I joked that we were giving away the wrong hymnals. [GJ - Look at the cost of each new hymnal - it's almost all profit for Concordia Publishing House.]

Secondly, my post was not intended to condemn the Saxon laity, who were probably sincere; and I actually feel sorry for them for being brainwashed by a narcissistic, power-hungry leader like Stephan. To say that the LCMS was the sole possessor of Lutheran orthodoxy in the United States is a stretch. If I had to give away such an award to the best of a very poor lot, I would probably go with the Tennessee Synod, the first synod to translate the BoC to English. (Source: David Henkel Against the Unitarians, by David Henkel, Repristination Press, ISBN 1-891469-36-3)

Lastly, I will again restate that according to the author of Zion on the Mississippi, the Saxon Lutherans would have been left alone had Stephan ceased his small group meetings, the trademark of Pietism. While Stephan professed to opposing Rationalism, Pietism is no better. Actually, the two eventually have to merge. This is proven with today's UOJ-loving SynCon. [GJ - Zion is also quite clear about the number of times Stephan was caught with young women at night, which became a constant source of irritation to the authorities. If anything, they were far too lenient with an unrepentant and wiley predator.]

---

But he was assumed into heaven, whether at his death or without dying.
Cue angel voices.

narrow-minded has left a new comment on your post "Unwarranted Claims about the Innocence of Stephan ...":

I neglected to make a few points. I don't believe the author of Zion on the Mississippi had "an ax to grind," as I have been accused. Even under the likely assumption that his account was not without error, I doubt the LCMS account is infallible and without bias. The Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and other States had more at stake regarding their reputation than Walter Forster, author of Zion.

I can watch MSNBC, Fox News, and InfoWars and receive three different accounts of a current event. That being said, I have read plenty of Melanchthon, Loehe and Grabau-bashing on "confessional" Lutheran blogs. Were they flawless? No, but to suggest that CFW Walther wasn't immaculately conceived is considered heresy. This is why we read and study.

The Saxons who came here were afflicted with disease, hunger, the death of loved ones, frustration, and poverty. Guess who was in charge of the people's money? Guess who helped himself to the people's money to advance his lifestyle? Many Saxons returned to Europe in poverty, disgust, and grief from the mess they left their homes for.

***

This church was organized and managed by Pietists,
and Stephan trained at Halle University.
His main ministry was conducting cell groups,
and Walther's circle moved from one Pietistic leader
to Stephan, after the first conventicle leader moved away and died.

GJ - Everyone critical of the Stephanite migration or Walther's dogma is put down in the LCMS chronicles. Vehse is one target. The author of Zion was "a failed LCMS pastor." Walther called Stephan a Pietist! Hyu. Hyu. Hyu. What did that make Walther, his devoted disciple?

Mrs. Stephan was the cause of her husband's adultery, according to Walther. So it was not the fault of the little bishop, the one one dictated everything about the migration?

Everyone not with Walther was a false teacher, and Ferdy drove away whole districts like Ohio when he should have been sitting down to learn from them.

"Ach - heresy!" the synodocats cry out. Ferdy is the Prophet who explains all and teaches all. He answers to no one, but all answer to him.

Celebrate Walther's 200th by continuing
the breathless hagiographies.

No Views So Far. Only Two Fund-Raisers This Week at St. Peter, Freedom. Wendy Maintains Deception of The CORE Being a Congregation

Unwarranted Claims about the Innocence of Stephan and Walther

Gary has left a new comment on your post "The Saxon Exodus to America Did Not Arise from Per...":

Shame on whoever posted this comment.

Any church in Prussia that refused to use the merged liturgy with the Reformed, was closed down by the Prussian king. Saxon Lutherans left Germany due to their religious convictions, not to support just one man.

Sounds like someone has an axe to grind. I suggest you pray to God for forgiveness. Your comment is truly "below the belt". (pun intended)

***

They love to coo and preen about their history,
omitting the pertinent facts.

GJ - The facts are recorded in Zion on the Mississippi. Some supplemental facts can be found in the Stephan book, In Pursuit of Religious Freedom.

Stephan was not being persecuted. He was protected from criminal behavior for the longest time and did not plan the final migration until he was under house arrest, his career shattered by promiscuous behavior, syphilis, and financial improprieties.

Yes, the Stephan sex cult had a persecution complex. They thought they were the only True Church. They punished someone in the group who questioned that the Word of God was no longer in Germany when they left.

They sounds bizarre unless someone knows what the LCMS, WELS, and ELS are like - not to mention the micro-minis sects that fell from the old Synodical Conference.

This is a good summary of Stephan's influence
and peculiar nature, and it reflects poorly on his pastoral followers,
especially Walther - the pimp and enforcer.
The SynCons pimped for their adulterous benefactor, too,
blessing his behavior while collecting indulgence grants.