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| Mark Jeske helps to fund ELCA and Planned Parenthood through his board membership, Thrivent Insurance. Ski and Glende worked for him - and he protects them. |
WELS member Ben Wink sent this post, published verbatim below:
I find the entire incident to be disappointing. Now how can anyone say that the synod is
better than the Roman Catholic Church in dealing with errant ministers? Just move them along to a new parish, several
states away and move along nothing to see here, right? Seems like the Roman way. Disgusting.
There are plenty of other qualified pastors who do not have
a call and would be a vital asset to any congregation. Instead, why bend over backwards for these
guys?
Why so eager to get this guy a
call somewhere? And I didn’t just fall
off the turnip truck yesterday, so I know that this is not an isolated incident
that managed to get play on Ichabod.
Am I without sin? Do
I stumble? No and often would be the
correct answers respectively. I don’t
presume to have a holier than thou attitude about this. Of course our ministers are supposed to be
held to a higher standard. This is quite
clear from Scripture. Also as those
called are also sinners, I expect they stumble as well. Can a minister that was removed from ministry
repent of their sin and throw themselves at God’s feet asking for mercy? Certainly.
All faithful Christians fall into temptation and sin and they all can
ask for repentance. Does this mean that
they get their positions of ministry back?
Every situation is different and perhaps after sincere repentance they
can reenter the public ministry. Perhaps
the nature of the sin even after repentance would be an incredible hindrance to
future ministry. But here is the
difference with anything said in this paragraph to what happened with Ski:
where is the repentance in the first place?
If it happened between him and the Lord, fantastic. However why would a repentant soul take
people to court? Why wouldn’t he take
his lumps and deal with the consequences of his actions? Has repentance even happened? Regardless of the court issue, which a judge
threw out in any case, aren’t the list of offences enough to hinder any effective
future public ministry? Certainly. Solution: just move him to another
state. Outrageous.
And one should ask oneself why. One should ask, “Who benefits?” Why go to such lengths for this guy? This was someone whose antics resulted in the
synod president himself to make an appearance.
Why would that be? I just shake
my head. I hope other heads are shaking
as well. Because this is unacceptable
behavior from a pastor, from a district, from a synod.
Church discipline is only
- For those that rock the boat apparently.
- For those that question the authority of those in the church hierarchy.
- For those that don’t plagiarize.
- For those that don’t show offensive pictures to members of their congregation.
- For those that don’t drink to excess.
- For those that don’t take their members to court.
Will those offending pastors get disciplined by the
church? No, apparently not. They get a call to Texas and start with an
unearned clean slate. Will they get
disciplined by the Lord? Only He knows
for sure. But I certainly place more
faith in the Lord than in any earthly church body. Especially when that church body shows
initiative in covering up the sordid details of their shenanigans. Whenever this happens, the well is poisoned
and does more harm than good. Members
start wondering if the called workers in their congregations and schools might
have dirty laundry that the church covered up at one point.
The integrity of the office is fractured
across the board when erring ministers are not called to account for their
sinful actions. This is something that
would be eliminated throughout congregations if the church would just correct
and discipline the called workers that fall from grace. Instead it just festers and good will falls
away. Why should I believe anything that
comes from official synod channels on any topic from now on? Instead they protected their good old boys
club and at the rock bottom price of only their integrity.
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