Bi-Lingual Bad Spelling - WELS Education

Polluted WELS Blog Comments

 Joel Lillo said...

Please note that the only reason that I have a deleted post between these two posts is that I accidently posted the same thing twice and deleted the identical post.

Das tuit (sic) mir leid!

July 16, 2014 at 11:39 AM

 Jeffery Clark said...

I'm not sure I would say this blog is "bashing" the WELS.

I recently defined "bashing" on a Facebook group I am an admin of as:

Bashing is a harsh, gratuitous, prejudicial statement with no intent to constructively contribute to a discussion on the merits and faults of something or someone in an intelligible (or articulate) way.

If your statement is not meant to constructively contribute to the discussion, it probably is bashing. For sarcasm and other kinds of remarks, the test has to be "would a common person, with no knowledge of the situation, come to the conclusion that it is sarcasm?"

July 16, 2014 at 12:12 PM

 Gregory Jackson said...

Joel Lillo, you can't even spell in German.

July 16, 2014 at 12:16 PM

 

 Joel Lillo said...

Das tut mir leid, Greggy boy!

July 16, 2014 at 12:28 PM

 Joel Lillo said...

Here's one for you, Greggy Jackson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc

July 16, 2014 at 12:30 PM

 Randall Schultz said...

Joel,
Since you asked, I will do my best to respond in a civil manner. Those of us who are not ashamed of being Confessional Lutherans usually have a dog in this fight. I do not believe that disputing us will accomplish much. At the risk of beating a dead horse, CoWo is lame at best and usually destructive at worst. This why so many of us oppose it.

There is a reason why Confessional Lutherans will appear here and other places where their voice will be heard. I was informed by Greg Jackson that Ichabod is getting 3000 page views per day. In spite of synod leaders efforts, we will not go away.

Being a life long WELS member, I can remember when there was a time that there was a whole lot more accountability in the leadership. In 1961, our pastor was caught committing adultery with one of the members. He was permanently out of the public ministry. He was well liked by his members, but there was a lot at stake there.
Demographics aside, there are several reasons why WELS membership has declined from a peak of about 420,000 members. The problem here is that the leadership simply will not fess up to it. To do so would mean that they have been wrong about pushing CGM so much.

The real casualty manifests itself in the manner in which dissenters are often treated. Just look at what happened to Pastor Paul Rydecki or Pastor Kevin Hastings of old historic St. John's, to name a few. I have witnessed elders getting brow beat over nothing at meetings. While it is true that this is not happening everywhere, the selective nature of it is truly frightening. Some members will figure this out. If you have the right name or are in the proper circle, you can be given a free pass. Others are not so fortunate.

Then there is the "8 and 18 switch". One member once told me "Matthew Chapter 18 is the most popular part of the Bible in the WELS". Likewise, speaking the truth in love is often met with a law whacking from the 8th commandment. It reminds me of that line from Luther, "false teachers flay their disciples to the bone".
So this is a small sample of why I said that you could give up on us. I have managed to avoid a personal attack and I am really not interested in flaming on a blog. My comment about being outed has to do with your posts that sort of stick out like a sore thumb from the rest of them.

Also, this is my real name and I will use it. I am employed in a secular environment, so I am not concerned about loss of income. Others may post anonymously because they they fear the type of backlash that I have mentioned in this post. I respect their choice. 

Finally, I will not write letters to the DP, synod HQ, the members of my congregation, my pastor, the circuit pastor, etc. Most of them know of the shenanigans with the exception of the laity who are out of the loop. That is not their fault if they have not been informed. I will not pursue the "proper channels" because I have neither the time or the patience to be jacked around or ignored.
In Christ,
Randall Schultz

July 16, 2014 at 5:48 PM

 Anonymous said...

A somewhat similar situation occurred in a metropolitan area (no, not in the state of Wisconsin) in which there were 4 area WELS congregations. One of the pastors who led a small, somewhat struggling congregation was an old college/seminary friend with a pastor in one of the other 4 congregations in the area (which was the large, growing "star" congregation of the area). Although no one in the small congregation wanted it,
both pastors become strong proponents of merging the 2 churches into one, with 2 pastors (yep, the two old college buddies) serving the newly merged congregation. The argument was "why are 4 WELS churches needed, when one could serve the area?". So not only was there a strong attempt to close the smaller church, but conceivably an attempt to close the other 2 congregations in the area also.

Although there was no support in the smaller church (and debatable support in the larger), this topic monopolized the smaller church for years as an attempt was made to close it and merge with the larger church. Twice, the smaller church voted by a super majority not to merge. The smaller congregation, what was left of it, was in a traumatized state.

Ironically, both pastors no longer serve in the WELS ministry (or any other ministry). It was actually somewhat of a sad ending on so many levels. I had heard of such political dealings in WELS before, but had never experienced such events first hand.

July 16, 2014 at 7:08 PM

Roses for an Anniversary - "Here Are Some of the Newspapers I Borrowed."

Our rose garden began with 8 hybrid teas that we bought from TV for $70, shipping included. They were from a good nursery and 1/3 the normal price for bare root roses.

Since we were digging into the front lawn, we needed to mulch the grass into compost, on the spot. My gardening neighbor gave me stacks of newspapers, which we covered with black dyed wood mulch.

Our neighbor's wife loves the rose garden, so I cut all the yellow roses and put them in a vase for her. They were mildly aromatic, too.

They said, "It's our 53rd wedding anniversary. Thank you!"

I said, "I wanted to return some of the newspapers you gave me." I did not know about the anniversary.

No exaggeration about the newspapers. Earthworms love newsprint, turning it into useful soil - earthworm casts. We would have been in bad shape without the stacks of newspapers under the mulch.

I borrow my rose photos from the Net,
because the camera fund went into gardening.

Natural versus Inorganic - Suggests Something about the Christian Faith

J. I. Rodale looked like the brooding prophet of organic gardening.

In my previous gardening post, I called inorganic fertilizers the high fructose corn syrup of growth.

When I began studying gardening at the Midland Library, I had the opportunity to read all the best books, a combination of traditional gardening books and a large share of the Rodale organic gardening publications. J. I. Rodale made himself famous through his never-broadcast interview on the Dick Cavett show. He declared he would live to be 100 and died while another guest was being interviewed.

The Rodale material fascinated me because the books advocated using what was already in the yard or near it, from leafy food scraps to leaves and grass.

At the same time, the traditional books scoffed at manure and compost for having low NPK values (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium). Modern agriculture practiced using inorganic salts for getting better crops.

The difference? - organic methods build up the soil at the foundational level, but fertilizers boost the growth of plants while eventually harming the soil. Fresh fertilizer has organic salts in it (boo - buy the boxed stuff instead). But commercial fertilizers are inorganic salts.

Doubtless my chemistry is too weak to make a case among scientists, but carefully mixed organic substances will compost themselves by God's own design, through His well organized creatures. But - an overdose of fertilizer will burn your precious roses to death. The salts reverse the osmosis and pull moisture out of the plant until it shrivels up.

An overworked and overdosed farm field--with too many helpings of fertilizers and pesticides and herbicides--will die and blow away.

Means of Grace Comparison
Likewise, all the denominations and generic churches are in a panic to speed-grow their enterprises with the latest thientific methods. As one WELS leader said, "We cannot give up the data from all the Fuller Seminary research. We need their studies."

God has designated the invisible Word of teaching and preaching, the visible Word of the Sacraments, to be the instruments of His grace. That truth is clearly established in the Scriptures and clearly taught in the early centuries of the Church. When rationalists began their inroads during the Reformation, the Sacraments were tossed out, or faintly praised as ordinances.

Today we have everyone talking about God's grace without knowing how to obtain this grace. Untalented howlers of narcissistic songs claim they will bring the youth back to church, but the youth largely scoff at the pretentious mockery. And the songsters charge $3,000 just to show up. Means without grace.

Offering treats and yummies on the about page of a church will certainly bring people in, and the congregation will see remarkable results in a short time, visible results, measurable results.

SP Schroeder Endorsed what DPs Engelbrecht and Patterson Did - So Your Whole Synod Stinks from the Top Down

WELS Sexpert Ski has had four calls in four districts,
so that shows overall WELS approval,
whether he is in court in Milwaukee
or suing his secretary's husband in Appleton's court.

Polluted WELS Blog Comments
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 Anonymous said...

I am a WELS member. I've heard about the things that have been going on in the Northern Wisconsin district, and I know things are pretty bad up there. But I just don't like how people use the examples from that district to talk about the WELS as a whole. None of the WELS churches that I've attended had anything like that going on there. Maybe I'm being oversensitive about all these things, but I just don't like all the WELS bashing that happens on blogs like this. I'm all for a discussion about what can be done to help things along, but I don't like when people come on blogs like this just to sling mud. I bet I'm probably going to get chewed out for this comment, but I don't care. And I know this comment will probably show up on Greg Jackson's blog, and I don't care about that either.

July 15, 2014 at 9:42 PM

 Matthias Flach said...

But Anonymous, what happens in one district affects the entire synod. If we are part of the synod, then we are in fellowship with those who are doing these things. If we give money to the synod, then we are funding these things.

My intent is not to bash the WELS, but to bash those who dare to pollute the WELS, and, by extension, to pollute us.

July 16, 2014 at 8:06 AM

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The Gardening Industry Does Not Care for Manure. They Like Inorganic Salts, the High Fructose Corn Syrup of Growth

A common theme from the gardening experts is a warning about plain old manure. More than once I heard or read, "There is too much salt, so it is not good for the soil."

I used it in abundance in Phoenix, thanks to some generous goats - raw. Whew. I used it around the citrus and also in a place where I grew some cactus. "You should not use it around citrus, because of the salt."

On the Net - "Using mushroom compost directly is not good because of the salt."

But on a rose forum, "My roses are not doing well. My neighbor, who uses only organic materials, has great roses. Maybe I should switch from the NPK fertilizer I am using."

The gardening industry likes dry fertilizer, because it is portable and sells for a lot of cash per ounce. The results can be instant, from fast growth to total fertilizer burn. My uncle destroyed his wife's roses by doubling the amount of powdered rose fertilizer. She was only too happy to tell everyone about it.

All those cans and bags are easily manufactured - for pennies - and sold for dollars.

Let us return to the noble earthworm, the hardest working gardener of all. He is described by one expert as a "cow grazing on bacteria." He does not like the fresh, hot stuff, a sauna for him, where he would melt. But that is the motherlode of bacteria, so he sanitizes it while growing fat and begetting thousands of descendants to carry on his work in case he is airlifted to a robin's nest for... I can't say it.

Mushroom compost is a nice, clean name for used manure and bedding scraps. The bags are cheap and easily transported. We used a bag of it to fill two holes that might have tripped up someone walking in the backyard. Digging and moving shovels of dirt would have been rather slow in dry weather. This was fast and will leave behind two areas of better soil.

I read on the Net- "Do not plant on mushroom compost - it is too salty." I did, because it was the quick solution to two grassy rows I did not want to dig up. A few bags filled in the area between the rows of mulch and newspaper.

I noticed that some plants are coming up already.

Today I will cut some hybrid tea roses and give them to our gardening neighbor's wife. She loves roses and covets our rose garden. Her husband says roses are too much trouble. They gave me the stash of newspapers to start the rose garden.

I dug holes in the lawn and planted the roses. Next I covered the area with newspapers, putting mulch on top to keep them down and to highlight the roses.

So I will give Mrs. NextDoor a bunch of roses and say, "Here are your newspapers back."

And it is true. The earthworms multiplied under the newspapers, dug and manured the soil, tunneling to help rain and tapwater down to the roots. The roses turns sunlight, water, and soil nutrition into beautiful blooms.

Without the newspaper hoard I would have had grass growing like bamboo up through the mulch and far less production from the roses.