David Virtue Hands It to the Episcopal Church, In Fellowship with ELCA, Which Is in Fellowship with LCMS-WELS

Episcopal Church Attempts to Reimagine Itself

An open letter to The Episcopal Church's Task Force on reimagining the Church for the 21st Century

By David W. Virtue 
www.virtueonline.org 
February 8, 2014

NEWS BRIEF: In 2012, the General Convention created a taskforce to reimagine The Episcopal Church for the future. The members of the Taskforce want to hear the memories, hopes and dreams that people have for The Church. We are trying to reach as many people as we can over the next few months. We will use what we hear to help us shape recommendations for The Church's structure, administration and governance. 

Dear Task Force Reimaginers, 

I want to take this moment to thank you for this wonderful opportunity to re-imagine (or is that reinvent) The Episcopal Church for the coming centuries. I would like to offer you my thoughts on this momentous occasion of reimagining, and, hopefully, inspire generations to come with churches that have not been sold to evangelical start-ups, Sharia driven Mullahs, saloon keepers (Mrs. Jeffferts Schori's favorite) or furniture outlets. (A free pew will be offered for every bed sold if Raymour and Flanagan buys a cathedral or two, I am told.) They could start with the closed cathedral in the Diocese of Delaware.

It's been some time since I re-imagined anything really. I am too busy living in the real world of Episcopal saints (very few) and Episcopal sinners (very many) to give a whole lot of thought as to what The Episcopal Church will look like 50 years hence. It's a daunting task so the best I can do is offer you some oh so humble reflections on The Episcopal Church of the Future. You will forgive me if I pour a double scotch and grab the hem of what's-his-name's garment to pray and plead for wisdom.

First of all, I want to admire you for your tremendous insights into suing for properties that you technically never built nor paid for. Due to the Dennis Canon, you have been able to grab a hold of and keep them. No matter that even when you get them, they are pretty well empty so you are forced to sell them off. What makes this so stunningly brilliant is that you had to spend nearly $70 million (it could be more before this "imagining" process idea is over) to recoup properties that you turn around and have to sell.

I can't imagine what $70 million plus would have done to plant new churches, hire evangelists, and get the word out that "Jesus is Inclusive"...come as you are...you don't even need to be baptized...we are a church for everybody. After all, it's not like you are screaming "Jesus Saves." God forbid. That is far too narrow an understanding of Him who stands over the universe and accepts you just the way you are with no questions about change at all.

I am trying to imagine a church where anything goes but nobody shows. I mean, what's wrong with people? Here we are offering up the Church of What's Happening Now, no hindrance to openly practicing gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, queers, Intersexuals (whatever they are) and anyone else who might wander through the red doors. In the meantime, 6800 Episcopal parishes are slowly shriveling and dying. It beats me. Americans are simply not grateful for all the freebies The Episcopal Church is offering.

I mean, look how effectively you have gotten rid of all those horrid evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics, (in truth fundamentalists) in the church, and filled Episcopal pulpits with sodomites and trannies, the most inclusive people on earth but people are still not showing up. What the hell is the matter with people? Clearly, the word is not getting out so my first suggestion is that you consecrate even more gay and lesbian bishops, pay them $150,000 a year plus all the church's benefits, and get them to hit the media trail to get the word out. Clearly, Gene Robinson has not been as successful as he should have been and might need a smack on his bottom for failing. I'm sure you can find someone to administer that and it should be recorded on video for posterity (if you'll pardon the pun.)

A second thing you should do is to simply toss out the 1979 Prayer Book (it is sooooooo passé) and replace it with Bishop Jack Spong's 12 Theses. He is so with it that young people will eat it up, if they can only recite those theses each Sunday. What a gift to the church. I am sure Beyonce could bounce her bottom to some lyrics and I am doubly sure that top rapper and hip hop music artists like Boyz N Da Hood could really go to town on those Theses. Just give them a chance. It may require a little more "imagining" than you thought, but it is clear you are desperate. Desperate times demand desperate measures.

Then you need to take Charles Bennison, the former Bishop of Pennsylvania's brilliant suggestion, that men wrote the Bible, therefore they can rewrite it. I am surprised this has not been picked up by the powers that be, especially as they seem to be doing a pretty good job reimagining most of the texts in the Bible on sexuality to make them fit the times we live in.

The Episcopal Church could invoke the memory of that well known and much beloved President Thomas Jefferson who cut out all the bits in the New Testament about transcendence and the miracles of Jesus to make it more palatable to Americans.

My final suggestion is that you sell the church's national headquarters in New York City for $60 million and give all the money to the poor as the final act of "reimagining." I can't think of a more generous act by the Church culminating in all the years the church has pled and bled for the poor and fought against unknown racists and homophobes. For such an act of generosity I believe it only appropriate that the Presiding Bishop be awarded an honorary doctorate from the prestigious Oxford University.

My prayers are with you.

END

National Anthem - Goosebumps and Wavering Monitor Effect

Published on Feb 7, 2013

Every night of the All State Choir conference at about 11pm, everyone comes out to the balconies of the 18 story Hyatt hotel to sing the National Anthem :

Louisville, Kentucky

One Professor of Theology

There is one Professor of Theology we should and must pay close attention to. He is far beyond any other and judges all others. But still, He brings us great comfort, so much that we long to hear even more. He gives us a better witness about the Father and Son than we could ever find from other professors. 

If you admit it, He is the one who first brought you to faith. He is the Holy Spirit at work in the Word of God. He is so good that we never tire of His teaching and long to grow in our understanding of the Gospel of Christ.

Source: fifty years of studying Luther and the Scriptures.

Help Finance the Murder of Millions of Unborn Babies - "Concerned." Dare to Criticize WELS, ELS, or LCMS - Banned for Life.

The Olde Synodical Conference is waking up, slowly, but still in denial.
How many ads has Thrivent bought for the ELS?
Will the WELS-ELS-ELCA-LCMS combine continue?

http://www.evangelicallutheransynod.org/thrivent-financial-neutrality-policy-concerns/

Thrivent Financial Neutrality Policy Concerns

On February 6, 2014, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans announced a “Financial Neutrality Policy” regarding funding of charitable organizations. Thrivent now categorizes abortion and homosexuality as merely “social issues,” while we continue to regard them as moral/doctrinal issues at odds with the Word of God. We remain "deeply concerned" with these new developments and urge Thrivent members to contact the company with their questions and concerns.

Thrivent, a non-profit fraternal benefit society, has no "official" connection with the Evangelical Lutheran Synod. You may read the new policy here:https://service.thrivent.com/forms/thriventchoice/neutrality.html

#Thrivent

Read about WELS Dealing with the Murder of a Pastor's Wife

Someone wanted documentation about the murdered pastor's wife (WELS). I have a link to the news story. Read it if you want to be sick to your stomach.

Bizarre Story Unfolds in Murder Case, Milwaukee Journal, September 2, 1978.

How is this different from the Roman Catholic bishop, who was praised by the prelates for always protecting the known criminals, keeping them from ever being punished.

The story has Pastor James Schaefer, Mischke's best pal from seminary, editor of the Northwestern Lutheran, Director of Public Relations, doing the same for WELS.

WELS took Tabor in as a pastor - with his parish, knowing he was a serial adulterer. When the police asked for files on Tabor, Schaefer explained to me and Mrs. I during lunch, "The folder was empty!" I found out from being in Cape Girardeau that Tabor fathered a child there, too, and Roger Zehms baptized her (as Roger claimed himself). William Bischoff knew all about the case, and he knows people wrote letters opposing Tabor being taken into WELS. They did, but the folder was empty, as Schaefer admitted  - or bragged.

Destruction of evidence in  a murder case is a felony.

Al Just
When Al Just murdered his wife, WELS organized a busload of idiots to support Just in his hour of need. The daddy of the current First VP of WELS testified for Al Just's good character at the trial. The last time I wrote about Just, who was found guilty, I was warned not to do so. This may be a motive - Just married his children's babysitter once his wife was out of the way.

Joel Hochmuth
SP Mark the Bookkeeper told the synod they had no idea what Hochmuth was doing, but the police record shows they did. Hochmuth had been caught before by his wife, and went into counseling. SP Schroeder would not answer if the WELS agency provided the ineffective counseling.

SOP
In the LCMS, destroying evidence in molestation cases is standard operating procedure. The facts could cost them millions of dollars.

Will the Timid Lutherans Follow the SynCons Down the Drainpipe?

The haughtiness of the SynCons is matched only by their dishonesty. Although the ELS, LCMS, and WELS loathe e one another, they mutually protect their Pietistic myth--whenever it is threatened.

Thus WELS and Missouri really dislike like Christian News, but they are always on the phone to get Otten to spin their bad news - and he obliges. I have been at his office when faxes from such people as ex Concordia president John F. Johnson were rolling in, when phone calls were coming from various officials.

When I wrote that the SynCons have as much of a problem with abusive, homosexual clergy as the papists, Otten went to the front page to express their outrage and post his abject apology for publishing my review of the Randy Engels Rite of Sodomy book, an article where I pointed out some of the facts about LCMS-WELS cover-ups. WELS seemed especially upset.

Shortly after that, the FBI raided WELS headquarters and found hundreds of man-boy rape graphics in the desk of Joel Hochmuth, the Public Relations Director of the sect. Hochmuth admitted to swapping child porn files with other felons. Moreover, Hochmuth and SP Schroeder had jointly published a letter denouncing ELCA for their support of gay rights.

But I am the bad guy. SP Harrison, aka Matt the Fat, ordered his lobbying group, Steadfast Lutherans to wipe out the thread on the convicted sex felon that Missouri put into a parish to rape again.  Matt commanded, and they erased - so Steadfast they make my head spin. All the copied material is still on this blog.

Timid Lutherans still support:

• Mark the Bookkeeper, who is little more than Jeske's executive officer; 
• Matt the Fat, who props up Paul McCain at CPH
• Pope John the Malefactor, distinguished sect destroyer (his own).

No matter how bad these apostate leaders are, their betrayed constituents still support them. The "conservative" members are told that the brave leaders are fighting hard against the liberal elements, so they must not criticize or say anything that might offend Holy Mother Sect.

After decades of being warned against Thrivent (and predecessors) and ELCA (and predecessors), the LCMS-WELS-ELS combine is still happily spliced to both. For pity's sake - even the sainted Richard Neuhaus had problems with AAL/LB. The WELS answer was to kick out pastors for questioning AAL's relationship with the money-grubbing leaders.

Now all three are stuck with Mark Jeske and the Planned Parenthood/Thrivent scandal. But the Timid Lutherans will find a way to excuse this too, and life will go on. The idea is to find a scandal that Lutherans have no power to address and cluck tongues over tat.