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| This law firm stole the property and endowment of Historic St. John in Milwaukee (former WELS) so WELS could keep it empty, imitating the Episcopal Church in Milwaukee. |
The abusive Wisconsin Sect tries so hard to prove me right. I recall warning Bishop Suffragen Steve Spencer that Gurgle was not necessarily the dream candidate for Synod President. After blowing through another windfall (The Schwan Indulgence), Gurgle had to be ushered out of office.
The next dream candidate, Mark Schroeder, took even less time to make his predecessor look like Martin Chemnitz. Only Mark Schroeder could co-author a letter with future felon Joel Hochmuth condemning the homosexual libertines in ELCA, then publicly absolve Hochmuth for his hundreds of crimes against boys, who were raped so Joel could have his stash of photos and videos at WELS headquarters and at home.
The Edge of Edginess
I remember the WELS that denied being involved with the Church Growth Movement, of such there was none, according to WELS CG leader Wayne Mueller. At least they were ashamed of their vices in those golden years of Carl Mische, the Synod President who got away with covering up two murders - and God only knows what else.
Now the thugs are out of the closet, no longer hiding their evil desire to destroy Lutheran doctrine and worship. Compare and contrast - WELS Pastor Paul Rydecki wanted to discuss and debate justification by faith. Though promising to do so, Mark Schroeder's pal Jon-Boy Buchholz condemned Rydecki as a false teacher, kicked the congregation out of WELS, and foreclosed the property. The congregation stood behind sound doctrine and even took over the financing of the property.
The same Buchholz had been talked into signing a petition against Mark Jeske, but switched sides at the WELS convention and spoke in favor of Mark the Apostate. Birds of a feather. Likewise, Buchholz slowly pivoted from being a critic of Jeff Gunn and Rick Johnson to being an advocate who funded the false teachers and condemned their critics. Chameleons are normally found only in Africa, but clergy chameleons can be found everywhere.
Mark Schroeder changed from being a critic of the New NIV to endorsing all paraphrases as God-pleasing. Mark Jeske must have muttered at him, "Change or die!"
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| ELCA reduced its size by 20% adopting the philosophy of Change or Die! |
Change and Die!
Let us now consider the newest version of Change and Die! and harvest the wealth of hypocrisy in that event.
The first Change and Die conference was rather low-key, replacing the Church and Change conferences that Mark Jeske, Don Patterson, and John Parlow set up over the years. They even had registration set up for Church and Change conferences on the WELS website. Bishop Spencer told me the den of thieves had been dispersed, but I pointed out they were organizing via the official synod website. I kept reproducing the links until that went away - the link, but not the Changers. Later their public website went away, but their sub-groups multiplied faster than a malignant cancer.
I recall an early Change and Die! event - perhaps the first - being sponsored in an oblique way by Thrivent. Now it is funded by the Siebert Foundation, which has $100 million to spend. From the beginning Change and Die! was ELCA plus WELS plus LCMS. The conference is always pan-Lutheran, with the ELS strangely missing. WELS does that with worship conferences, too.
WELS is in fellowship with everyone except the Evangelical Lutheran Synod.
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| "I wanna join Koine and earn $3,000 per gig." |
Who speaks at these Change and Die conferences? First of all, ELCA clergy always do. Secondly, ELCA's female leaders also join the frolic. LCMS Church Growth gurus plan and speak. WELS Shrinkers always plan and speak.
Paul Kelm, WELS plagiarist of Fuller materials, has been fired and retired more than once. But he is back as a Visionary. He has more lives than Rasputin.
John Parlow was one of the original Church and Change organizers. Another was Steve Witte, now running the Asian porta-seminary. John Lawrenz, another Changer, headed the porta-seminary and stayed around to guide Witte during Steve's first year, lest Witte slip into Lutheran doctrine or some other bit of malpractice.
Parlow used to post "his" sermons on his church websty. WELS clergy noticed they were almost verbatim from the sermons posted earlier by Babtists and others. Once I ran the comparison, with help from leakers, the sermons were taken down. Those who were interested had to pick them up at the office. No thanks, John, I will just Google "Babtist sermons."
For those who are geographically uninformed, Parlow and Witte are from the Anything Goes District, where Engelbrecht presided until his heart attack. Kelm was there, too. Fox Valley is where the foxes guard the henhouse. Fox Valley Lutheran High is where they invite an alcoholic and verbally abusive pastor to lecture the kiddies on sex education.
Engelbrecht praised clergy plagiarism in a formal paper, and backed Glende and Ski in excommunicating Rick Techlin for opposing plagiarism. So don't be so judgmental. In WELS, right is wrong, and wrong is right. Do this and you will live - in the synod - not necessarily in eternity.
Here is the irony - There are faithful pastors who could share their life-long experiences in being leaders in worship and doctrine. WELS and Missouri will have none of that. Instead, they glorify lifelong apostates who sit like Smaug on the synod treasury, to spend it on themselves, their luxuries and vices.
Therefore, the LCMS and WELS have devoted themselves to getting along with ELCA while training people to hate Lutheran doctrine and worship.
And they have the nerve to condemn a tiny little blog for speaking the truth about them.
