Morning Rounds with Sassy - Walking and Gardening

This nation of gardeners, Creation gardeners,
led by Queen Elizabeth herself.

Sassy has made it clear that she wants to walk early in the morning, and the threat of sunny, warm days helps her cause. Today I put on my Tilley hat, shoes, and hoodie. Sassy quietly ran to the front door and out we went. I inspect other lawns and gardens to see what is happening there, and she explores the scents left by wild and domestic animals.

Mr. Gardener gets his newspaper tossed on his doorstep, where it belongs. Sassy likes the lawns on the cul-de-sac, so I look over the front yard roses and the sunny garden while she frolics. The straw bales continue to decompose; the potatoes grow and flower.

Daily walks, especially in the morning, make it clear how varied the flowering cycle is. If we build variety into the flowers, fruits, and vegetables, the pollen and and nectar dependent insects get fed generously.

Our helper advised me to prune away the seeds on top the crepe myrtle bush, and he was correct. The bush flowers on its new growth, just like roses, so pruning is essential. I pruned off all the old growth on that bush while waiting for the mail one day. Now the top is full of sprouts and the promise of flowers. The cuttings went into the mulch and disappeared.

The north side of the house is sunny and used to feed a healthy batch of plantain weeds and dandelions. We mulched it last fall and now it hosts the thornless blackberry canes. Like raspberries and roses, blackberries need a hole in the ground and mulch.

Thornless blackberries do not require
a blood sacrifice to pick them.

Backyard Fun, Also Known as Chores
Sassy usually goes inside at this point, so I work in the backyard. I look at the vines I planted and water any new plant that is lagging. The barrels are full of rainwater, so that means giving doubtful starts a gallon of nitrogen rich rain, even if it might rain later in the day. I consult two weather websites, the sky, my barometer, and my arthritis.

I am looking over roses all the time. Some have dead canes that need trimming, so I lop those off at once. That promotes new growth.

If rose buds are damaged by aphids, something I see with white roses especially, I cut them off. There is no reason to let them use up energy for bad flowers. But aphids are food for flower flies' babies, so expect to see small bee-like insects flying around poison-free roses. They will lay their eggs so the larvae hatch and feast on aphids.

Or - kill all the aphids, spiders, flower flies, and ladybugs at once with a special insecticide spray for roses. The aphids will return but the beneficials will take a long time to recover. Worse, the lack of insects will discourage the birds, which feast on the tenderloin and porterhouse of the garden - grasshoppers, rain beetles, and spiders.

Flower Flies Flourish

Flower flies (syrphids) need aphids as their Gerber's Baby Food,
so aphids attract and feed beneficial insects.

Flower flies flourish with eggs dropped in or around leaf litter, and I have lots of leaves as mulch.

Wikipedia Hover Flies or Flower Flies - Syrphids:

Hoverflies, sometimes called flower flies or syrphid flies, make up the insect family Syrphidae. As their common name suggests, they are often seen hovering or nectaring at flowers; the adults of many species feed mainly on nectarand pollen, while the larvae (maggots) eat a wide range of foods. In some species, the larvae are saprotrophs, eating decaying plant and animal matter in the soil or in ponds and streams. In other species, the larvae are insectivores and prey on aphids, thrips, and other plant-sucking insects.

Aphids alone cause tens of millions of dollars of damage to crops worldwide every year; because of this, aphidophagous hoverflies are being recognized as important natural enemies of pests, and potential agents for use in biological control. Some adult syrphid flies are important pollinators.

I find the first round of roses will have some aphids - not many - and the next round will be almost flawless.

All my vines are new, so I pay special attention to them. If you want one vine to boost your gardening self-esteem, plant honeysuckle. That vine grew fast and flowered early. Now it is climbing the dead tree, where I have gentle elastic ribbon to help support it.

Trumpet vines will climb a tree on their own, and mine have sprouted, though seemingly dry and dead upon arrival. I soaked them two hours in rainwater before planting and hovered over them in the first weeks, gentle as a nurse, a flask of rainwater in my hand.

The Passion Flower vines are still green but not growing yet. They probably need more sun and warmth.

Splendid Weeds and Cover Crops

Queen Ann's Lace is so clever that it grows
a section looking like a bug, a decoy to
attract pollinating insects.

Our helper resisted the temptation to mow down the Queen Ann's Lace. I have several growing like a boss and starting to flower. They are tall, delicate, and loved by butterflies and bees.

Red Root Pigweed is growing here and there. I use  that as mulch to provide shade and nitrogen at the same time, when I pull it or cut it down.

My best natural weed is Cow Vetch. This fragile looking climber is good for the soil and beneficial insects. Its flowers are cascading along the back fence, purple jewels. I have some in the front rose garden, so I am going to let them go to seed and scatter the results in the back. Seed production - prolific.

Buckwheat is praised as a fast-growing, good bug loving cover crop, so I sowed that in the wild area.

The dead branch, which followed me home, stretches across the grass, the last part of the natural border for the wild area. Birds will be suspicious at first, then rest on the branches. They love to have a place to perch that gives them a good view and fast access to worms and bugs. They do not want to be too close to the ground, because of predators. They can watch from a tree, but the distance to the food is much greater.

Feeding the Birds

Our platform feeder will have a baby squirrel in it at times, big squirrels swinging it,
and multiple birds waiting to have their turns.

And squirrels. Those tree rats have a bad reputation, but they take their turn with the food if there are many feeding places. I cut an orange for the birds, and the squirrels ate them instead.

I put out watermelon rind, after we enjoyed the red part. The birds pecked the rest down to the hard shell.

If there is one feeder with sunflower seeds, the squirrels will try to empty it. When there are many sources of food, birds get their chance. Some birds love finch food, which squirrels do not favor.

Suet is good year- around, if you like bug eating birds like woodpeckers, starlings, and grackles. The pileated woodpecker tend to show up where suet is available, as it did for us in Bella Vista. This rare bird is often heard but seldom seen.

Moving Up the Book Schedule

Ornithologists - the birds will love this.
Groundskeepers - who is going to keep this monster trimmed?
University of Chicago, Boston ivy, aka wild grape, aka Japanese ivy.

I had three book projects planned, but I decided to drop the apologetics novel, for various reasons. A keyboard does not make someone a novelist, and I lost interest in the plot. Book ideas need a grand concept behind them, like a whale attacking a ship, and I only had a whim.

I am cutting back on minor distractions to focus on what I enjoy best.

Number one priority - I am sponsoring a group project answering the bizarre, incompetent UOJ essay by Jay Webber. It is a good chance to compare the Biblical truths with the rationalistic Pietism dogma of universal absolution. The job is like shooting cows with a bazooka, but needs to be done nevertheless. The ceaseless ingratitude of the overpaid and underworked seminary professors is good motivation. I hope to have the parts together (various helpers) by the end of June.

Next in line - Creation Gardening book, with photos from the Jackson Rose Gardens. This will combine the doctrine of Creation by the Word - Six Day Creation - with the latest scientific knowledge about gardening. Previously I focused on earthworms, but now there is much more reason to appreciate the infinite dependencies of Creation at work.

So that will be my apologetics book. Evolution says this - but the garden says that. The doctrine of Creation is foundational in the Scriptures, in the Christian Faith, in Lutheran doctrine. Creation by the Word relates to everything in the Bible and the Book of Concord, yet Creation is ignored if not openly denied.

Systemic Poisons - Based on Nicotine Chemistry

Didn't know about this....

Marc Opperman

I took this photo of a plant at Home Depot. These tags should start appearing in their plants as part of a voluntary effort to alert buyers at Home Depot to the presence of neonicotinoids. However, the positive spin on neonicotinoids – systemic toxins that kill or weaken any insect that feeds on the plant in any way, including beneficial polinators – has managed to obliterate the true message here:

“This plant is toxic to pollinators: bees, butterflies, moths, lady beetles, and other beneficial insects because of Neonicotinoids.”

All major growers (Proven Winners, Monrovia, etc.) use neonicotinoids in their plants at some stage of growth. The plants are available at Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot, and many garden retailers. Plants may or may not be labeled. Before you buy, ask questions. If they can't answer, go to someone who can. Buy locally-grown (preferably native) plants where the seller knows the source and can answer questions.

(Edited to clarify where the labeling effort is coming from. It is not an EPA requirement at this level.)

---

Wikipedia:

Neonicotinoids are a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically similar to nicotine. In the 1980s Shell and in the 1990s Bayer started work on their development.^[1] The neonicotinoid family 

includes acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, nithiazine, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam. Imidacloprid is the most widely used insecticide in the world.^[2] Compared to organophosphate and carbamate insecticides neonicotinoids cause less toxicity in birds and mammals than insects. Some breakdown products are toxic.^[3]

In 2008 neonicotinoids came under increasing scrutiny over their environmental impacts starting in Germany. Neonicotinoid use was linked in a range of studies to adverse ecological effects, including honey-bee colony collapse disorder (CCD) and loss of birds due to a reduction in insect populations. In 2013, the European Union and a few non EU countries restricted the use of certain neonicotinoids.^[4][5][6]

***

GJ - I just ordered another Walliser book - Good Bugs, Bad Bugs. She wrote the beneficial insect book I use as my guide.

Syrphid flies lay their eggs to hatch and have their babies eat such pests as aphids.
I saw them hovering over my rose bushes.

---

Life History:
A female will generally lay a single egg near a food source, such as where there is an aphid infestation and the larvae will emerge in about three days. The larvae have no legs or eyes, but are very efficient at finding prey. As they mature over the next two to three weeks they will consume large amounts of food. Once they are mature though they fall off the leaves and form into a pupa. They will be in the pupal stage for about 2 weeks after which time they emerge as adults, unless they are to overwinter in the leaf litter in the pupal stage. Once they emerge as adults they will mate and lay eggs. The adults feed on pollen and nectar as well as honeydew, a sugar substance made by insects like aphids and left on leaves.

Syrphid flies are among the many beneficials that benefit from the presence of common yarrow.

Walliser, Jessica (2014-02-26). Attracting Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden: A Natural Approach to Pest Control (Kindle Locations 1789-1790). Timber Press. Kindle Edition. 

***

GJ - Systemic poisons have been around for decades. The idea is to kill any insect that lands on the plant and tries to have a meal - or obtain pollen.

Seize the Trash - This Branch Followed Me Home. Building the Creation Garden from Trash

When I walked Sassy, the veteran's brother stopped me to ask about her. We talked about the weather and the downed branches. I saw a very large one and asked to have it. Once Sassy and I were done walking, I casually grabbed it and dragged it home.

Earlier this spring, I wheelbarrowed leaves home from the same house on the corner. I wanted to drag the branch anonymously, which is difficult on a cul-de-sac. My friendly neighbors drove by, stopped, waved, and laughed, probably thinking, "Crazy gringo." I thought, "But I have the roses and you have grass."

The veteran's brother agreed that dead branches are good for gardening. I am fashioning a wild area, using logs and heavy branches to provide a rustic border plus food and shelter for the creatures. We are going to have fun with leaves this fall. I am now keeping cardboard boxes, opening them up, and using them for the newspaper layer in Jackson Mulch.

I noticed some people were throwing away old wood they had used to border their garden. So far I have resisted the temptation to grab it. The wood is a few blocks away, so I would have to explain a bit.

Once I began gathering wood and making rough borders, the wild area took on a new look. The bushes each have logs around them. Now another set of logs and branches stretch across the area to serve as a low border, for toads, slugs, earthworms, spiders, arthropods, and birds. I sowed buckwheat just before a rain and now have that cover crop, bee friendly plant, growing in the back where only weeds and sparse grass grew before.

Queen Ann's Lace always has a spot of blood on it,
or a bug to draw more bugs.

When the seeds are maturing, a bird's nest seems to form.

Queen Ann's Lace is already blooming, so I have another bee and butterfly plant in the back. I found that at Lowe's, free, in a patch solid with the stuff. I gathered and sneezed at the same time. The flower is nicknamed Bird's Nest because the umbrella-like seedhead looks like a bird's nest as it matures.

We had mulch but not enough newspapers for the front rose garden touch-up, where some grass erupted through the mulch. That happens with a new row of plants, because the grass is even more vigorous and stages a breakout before composting. When the Friday paper came, my first thought was not the news but the mulch. "Saturday's paper will do it." The Sunday paper goes to the fours sisters for their mother's coupon collection.

Once a good use for trash is discovered, a shortage arises. In cleaning up one area we found an enameled pan, just right for a bird bath. That began my search for more shallow pans and bowls.

I knew I had toads from last year's surprises under the spigot bowls, which I used to capture extra water for Sassy and various creatures. Invariably dumping the bowl for clean water meant uncovering a toad.

When I moved an enormous log in the wild area, a large toad sat there royally. Looking at our minor insect damage, I wanted more toads and bought inexpensive clay pots to crack and deploy around the yard, front and back.

Currently - 
The potatoes are flowering and producing seed, something missed by many. They are in the straw bale garden, the sunniest part of the yard.

Cinco de Mayo floribunda rose.

The bargain roses bloomed before the fancy hybrid teas, perhaps because they were older bare root roses. They are worth far more than the $5 each I paid. One reader corrected me when I said Cinco de Mayo was not an attractive rose. "All God's roses are beautiful." Now in full bloom, Cinco is one of the best of all the roses in bloom.

Veteran's Honor is a vibrant red and fragrant.

Peace roses are blooming - vintage and Pink Peace. I am waiting for Chicago Peace to bloom. Veteran's Honor may be the best red rose ever, but Mr. Lincoln has many great qualities, fragrance, and turns purple as it ages when cut.

Falling in Love, hybrid tea, fragrant.

Forever in Love, which I thought died during winter, bloomed in its new location.

The vines are growing, from Honeysuckle (rapid) to Trumpet (leafing out) to Passion Flower (green and struggling).

Lessons Learned So Far 
The heat loving plants should be started after Memorial Day. Early planting means either poor germination or no growth for months.

• Tomatoes.
• Potatoes.
• Corn.
• Pumpkins.
• Sweet potatoes.

Cold loving plants do well in the cool, damp, rainy days:"

1. Roses.
2. Strawberries.
3. Sunflowers.
4. Peas.
5. Asparagus.
6. Vines.
7. Spinach.

 Let the weeds grow. They have many surprises and good things to offer. Exception - poison ivy, full of surprises with nothing good to offer.

Martin Stephan, Founder of the Missouri Synod, Took His Son and Mistress aboard the Ship Olbers. But He Left His Sick Wife and Children in Dresden. "We Didn't Know He Was an Adulterer!" Walther's Brother and the Two Lawyers on Board the Same Ship

Walther conceded that Stephan was a bit of a Pietist,
and blamed Stephan's marital problems on Stephan's long-suffering wife.
Jim Bob Walther is worshiped by Missourians today.

Bremen, Germany to New Orleans
21 January 1839

DISTRICT OF MISSISSIPPI - PORT OF NEW ORLEANS

I, H. W. Exter master of the Ship Olbers do solemnly sincerely & truly swear that the within list signed by me & now delivered to the Collector of this district contains the names of all the Passengers taken on board of the Said Ship at the Port of Bremen or at any time since and that all matters therein set forth are according to the best of my Knowledge & Belief just & true & I do further swear that Two of the Said Passengers died on the voyage.

Sworn before me this 21st Jany 1839 ~~ [signed] J. W. Exter-Master

List of Passengers on board of the bremer Ship Olbers H. W. Exter My bound from Bremen to New Orleans

Columns represent: Passenger number, Name, Relationship to the head of the family, Last dwelling place, Occupation, Age, Died on the voyage.

Cabin

  1  Martin Stephan                          Dresden         Preacher         61
  2  Martin Stephan                his son   Dresden                          16
  3  Theodore Julius Brohm                   Dresden         Candidate        30
  4  H. S. Fischer                           Dresden         Merchant         40
  5  Julie Fischer                 his wife  Dresden                          32
  6* Louise Gunther                          Dresden                          32

  7  Gustav Jaeckel                          Dresden         Cashier          32
  8  Francis Adolph Marbach                  Dresden         Attornay (sic)   40
  9  Louise Marbach                his wife  Dresden                          34
 10  Gustav Marbach                his child Dresden                          11
 11  Clara Marbach                 his child Dresden                           6
 12  Victor Marbach                his child Dresden                           5
 13* Martin Marbach                his child Dresden                           2
 14  Eduard Vehse                            Dresden         Recorder         35
 15* Mathilde Vehse                his child Dresden                           9
 16  Hermann Walther                         Dresden         Preacher         29
 17  M. Emil Julius Moritz Wege              Dresden         Candidate        38
 18  Sophie Schneiderin                      Dresden                          40
 19* Fred Loeschner                          *Konigsbruck    Painter          44







CFW Walther kidnapped his niece and nephew, but let his future mother-in-law go to jail for the crime. She was released later and helped in organizing the riot that deposed Bishop Stephan. The Stephanite sex cult brought other minor children over, and bragged about it. Theydid their best to break up marriages where one partner did not want to go to America.

The long trip on the ship with Stephan, his two lawyers, the older Walther, and the Stephan mistress makes it difficult to imagine that "no one knew" until the confession was blurted out after a choice law sermon by a CFW pal. Yes, even the Walther circle agreed that was not the case. The syphilis break-out among the young girls proved to be the precipitating opportunity to upend Bishop Stephan, steal 120 acres from him, take away a large bounty of gold, and grab  his large library of theology books.

The Walther circle manufactured a story
about suddenly realizing Stephan was an adulterer.
Walther organized a mob instead of speaking to his bishop.
See Walther's Pastoral Theology for advice on such matters.

The Stephanites were not searching for religious freedom, but following an extremely abusive guru, a 

Pietist who put his stamp on the Missouri Synod and the future Synodical Conference.

Stephan's rationalistic Pietism taught Walther the Halle dogma of Easter absolution, quoted below. According to their imagination, the entire unbelieving world was absolved from all sin the moment Christ rose from the dead.

From an abusive, poorly educated bishop and his adoring disciples came an abusive synod and synodical conference.

Universal absolution was Stephan's dogma, which Walther adopted
and F. Pieper canonized.
Universal absolution is liberal, mainline theology,
not Biblical, Lutheran, Reformation theology.

Restrain These Immoderate Rains

As the Chief Chaplain of the Third Army throughout the five campaigns on the Staff of General Patton, I should have some knowledge of the event because at the direction of General Patton I composed the now world famous Prayer, and wrote Training Letter No. 5, which constitutes an integral, but untold part, of the prayer story. These Incidents, narrated in sequence, should serve to enhance the memory of the man himself, and cause him to be enshrined by generations to come as one of the greatest of our soldiers. He had all the traits of military leadership, fortified by genuine trust in God, intense love of country, and high faith In the American soldier.

Msgr. James H. O'Neill

The Story of the Patton Rain Prayer

Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.

***

GJ - We had five inches of rain after the big rain, and now the rains have returned.  Sassy and I dropped off the Ichaboat (Town Car) for a minor repair, and walked home a few blocks, watching the gathering clouds.

Although parts of Arkansas will flood, no one here is experiencing the massive flooding and the new rains in Texas. 

We have been in many floods, starting with the

1. Mississippi Flood of 1965, 
2. Midland Michigan in 1986, 
3. St. Louis in 1993, and 
4. New Ulm, Minnesota, 1997.

I doubt whether those floods are close to the horrors of Texas, as flash floods crashed into homes and swept them away, the residences as dangerous to occupy as the vehicles on the road.

Poison Ivy Graphic. Save and Study This.

Community Pool Attracts Grackles - Starlings Working the Grass. Roses Blooming and Sharing

 When I was growing up, this was simply The Pool,

enormous in size, with a building donated by the Deere family.

Moline classmates still talk about The Pool, where we could walk or bike and spend the day. We had a Y downtown, but this was the favorite place.

The Pool has been re-established in the backyard, and grackles are happy. I knew they would be suspicious of a large, blue plastic circle of water. Yesterday, the grackles were perched on and around the pool, perhaps sizing it up for a disposable diaper drop. Soon all the birds will frolic in the shallow, clean water.

Part of the fun is watching a bird chase its kin out of a bath, so it lands in another or decides to eat for a time. They are constantly moving, communicating, feeding, drinking, and bathing.

Mourning doves have been enjoying the Jackson EZ Bird Swing, but yesterday one sat there and looked into the bedroom at me, perhaps wondering why I was trapped in such a large cage. Birds are used to our movement, so they hardly notice us watching them close up.

To prove they were not lazy freeloaders, like the squirrels, the starlings patrolled the lawn, looking for bugs and worms as they slowly walked through the grass.

I hauled the suet out of the fridge - to reward the bug-eaters - and put about six pounds into two giant metal baskets made to hold the stuff. Rain or shine, the starlings and grackles hang on the baskets and eat suet. Woodpeckers also enjoy the baskets.

Pests like aphids attract pest-eaters, like ladybugs.

Ants, Aphids, and Natural Controls
First I saw ants all over the white roses. Ants are proof the aphids are snacking on the buds and blooms, excreting sweetness for the savvy ants. Some white blooms were ruined and cut off. Now I see no more ants, so the aphid eaters have arrived.

Last year I had two white KnockOut roses (still do) and saw them hit hard with aphids, but that only happened for the first bloom.

I wanted to order preying mantis egg cases, but I was too late. None are available, period. Instead, I will plant garlic near the white John Paul II roses.

The first bloom of the KnockOut roses is over, so I used pruning shears and large shears to hack away at all eight KnockOut bushes (four red, two white, two pink). Given the steady rain, the roses will respond to the pruning by having another growth spurt and blooming rapidly. I leave the trimmings for mulch. The exception is in the next paragraph.

One rose went all black spot, a bad fungus that resides in the soil. Those canes were lopped off and put in the trash. No black spotted leaf will get better, so each one has to go, along with the cane. If the rose continues to misbehave, it will be replaced.

Extinguish That Burn Barrel. Beneficials for the Garden

Some people maintain a burn barrel in this area, because we have plenty of trees always dropping branches, twigs, sticks, and dead lumps of wood on the lawn. Green sticks are tough to break up and irregular branches make it even more difficult. After the latest storms I found lumps of old, dead wood from the maple in the front yard.

Extinguish That Burn Barrel
For some, the word beneficial applies to insects, and it often does. But a good balance in the yard promotes many more of God's creatures than insects. Beneficials also include:

• Earthworms
• All soil creatures, even moles.
• Spiders.
• Birds. 
• Soil microbes and fungus.
• Toads.
• Weeds and wildfloweers that host favorite creatures, like bees and butterflies.

Therefore, wood is a host, shelter, and food source for many beneficials. Lumps of wood and logs are great to place on the soil for their slow decay into the lawn. Larger ones can be condos for burrowing creatures, and their placement on soil guarantees a nifty place for toads, insects, and various arthropods. Anything that moves will attract birds, and birds will keep down pests.

Irregular sticks go on a pile as part of the Jackson Bird Spa. Sticks become a shelter for insects and a place for birds to rest. I placed a large log behind the spa area, so birds can perch on the upper part, and they do - all day long. They get a good, safe view of the entire feeding and bathing area.

My classmates remember the Moline Community Pool as
a great place for fun and friendship.
Why not build one for the creatures?

The Community Pool

We now have  several areas for the birds

• The Jackson Bird Spa features food and 10 shallow bird baths.
• The Creature Convention Center has a large feeding area plus two baths.
• The bedroom window has a birdfeeder for finches and chickadees, the Jackson EZ Bird Swing, and a hanging food platform.

This K-Mart rigid pool was small enough for the Ichaboat
and easily trimmed down for shallow water and easy access.

I carved half of the pool side away, to make the depth less intimidating. That gave me an enormous blue plastic ring, utterly useless. I left the second one whole and put it in the wild area in the back, so shy creatures could use it.

We get constant traffic now, using suet and some seed. Many sunflowers are growing up to feed birds and butterflies.

Abusive Behavior in the WELS/ELS Sect

This graphic illustrates typical LCMS-WELS-ELS deception.
Stephan was under house arrest for adultery and financial questions
when he was allowed to leave with his sex cult.
Stephan was always a Pietist and so were the members of the Walther circle.
Walther's mob robbed Stephan and kidnapped him, leaving him to die in Illinois.

WELS controls the ELS, so one might as well consider the two dying sects together. The Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic) is simply another, more corrupt, more immoral, more incestuous version of WELS. The LCMS follows to some extent, the worst abusers running the show while sub-groups try to exist on their own.

Clergy and laity driven out by the ELS, WELS, or CLC (sic) should consider themselves blessed, like the early Christians who escaped Jerusalem before the Roman armies surrounded the Holy City.

Those who go back to the abusers, hoping for approval, make a big mistake. They like to have their so-called Prodigals come back, as long as they are broken, subdued, and eager to worship Holy Mother Sect. The harshest critics make the best fuel for roasting the next set of dissenters.

If someone stays away, the long reach of the abusers never remains quiet. Relatives? Friends? Employers? New church body? They need to punish the escapees, just as the Mormons murdered those who tried to back.

ELS clergy call Mequon The Sausage Factory
for its identical products,
according to Jay Webber.

Secrecy and Spying
In an abusive sect, everything is a secret. I used to get so many secret letters in WELS that I had a rubber stamp made that said Burn This Letter! in red. No one wanted to be known for having a negative thought about WELS. Bill Gothard used the same tactic in his cult. Dealing with the facts is negativity, and negativity is from Satan.

Spying goes well with secrecy. Everything is everyone's business, so false friends make a practice of being buddies to keep track of someone who may stray from the plantation. They often encourage dissent and back away to let their target take the blame, the heat, and the Left Foot of Fellowship. Richard Jungkuntz did that to his fellow "martyr" Gehrke, and John Seifert practiced the technique on many pastors.

One layman told me how he was coaxed to bring his problems about Martin Luther College's feminist policies to various leaders. At two different meetings he was sandbagged by the person who urged him to come forward and complain. At the second one, he told the minister, "Are you going to stick with me and support me? Promise. I cannot take another experience like the last one." The second pastor promised all the way to the meeting, then turned on the fellow with savage, personal criticism.
Laity who have done to same to pastors.

If you want a friend in WELS, get a dog.

The people who do this think they are very clever, and they smirk because synod officials are behind them. However, they are really cowardly, wicked deceivers who eventually pay the price for their betrayal of the Word. Still, they leave a lot of broken, wounded victims behind.

"Do not tell on the brothers,
or they will beat you like a rented mule."

The Law and Anti-Law
The dominant UOJ dogma in WELS includes a heavy dose of Antinomianism and legalism. The Antinomianism is easy - "Everyone is forgiven all past, present, and future sins - without faith." Q.E.D. - the Ten Commandments are tossed out the window.

If a pastor is an adulterer, or homosexual, or alcoholic, that is fine, because he knows he is a sinner and knows he is already forgiven. The WELS clergy and their clones have a sheaf of excuses for false doctrine, including a "Luther quote" that justifies doing nothing about it.

If you register any kind of protest against any of this behavior, no matter how politely and deferentially it was offered up, with meek and contrite words, the response will be:

1. Silence. The letter or email is not even acknowledged.
2. Verbal abuse - "You did not sit down and exercise Matthew 18, explaining my sins to me."
3. False defense - "You have slandered me, violating the Eighth Commandment."
4. Personal attacks - "You never did fit in. You hated GA." (The secretive hazing ritual at Mequon features all kinds of deception, emotional and physical abuse, which helps to mold them into identical sausages, products of the Sausage Factory.)
5. Letter barrage - Various officials send nasty letters that quote some horrible thing expressed by mail and uses that to launch into tirades, clear threats, or implied punishments.
6. Whispering campaign - It soon becomes apparent that some people have spread anonymous ill reports among friends and church members. This escalates into slow, steady shunning and final ejection.
7. Absolution via family or Fuller. Certain families can do anything they want. Lacking the lucky DNA, someone can enjoy the same benefits by going to Fuller Seminary and loving it.
8. Let Herman do it - Although the sects hate Herman Otten and Christian News, both are handy for carrying out the work of shunning, which he is happy to advance.

The imaginary and unwritten laws are far more important than the Ten Commandments. This approach is incredibly useful in handling people. The moment toes are stepped on, the shrieking begins. For instance, I asked about women teaching men, women leading cell groups at St. Paul's, German Village. I was told (and this always comes from a friend, who is ordered to do so) that I violated a sacred principle. I identified the parish! I thought, "What a crock."

One college student got off the bus at Mequon and was sexually assaulted by one of the seminarians, who grabbed him...details to be assumed. I have the verbatim account and also verified it with the family. When he complained to seminary officials, he was told. "You are too sensitive." Although he went to seminary, they made sure he never finished. Likewise, the father of one homosexual made sure a pastor was driven out of the ministry for preaching against it - and you think ELCA is bad?

WELS Pastor Dave Wendt offered to gang rape a blogger,
because she is a liberal. Did he ever face charges for the threat?

Mark Jeske offered a lame, sanitized version of the threat
for his gullible readers.

Abusive Cults Have Their Own Language
Bill Gothard used "defrauding" and other mysterious terms to link the Bible to his special mindset. He manipulated people by making his desires innocent and wholesome while condemning them for objecting. Thirty-two women lodged complaints against him at the end and he was forced out - "Nobody knew," as Mark Schroeder is fond of saying.

Special words make people feel elite and above the crowd. Only some know the true meaning of GA (now called HB - get the joke? - no more GA). The in-crowd can reference GA and let that pass over the heads of laity.

The clergy, whose warped behavior often starts in prep school, have plenty of special terms, such as the physical abuse they hand out for anyone who "tells." The truth cannot be tolerated, so they gang up on anyone who tells the truth. If word of their abuse reaches the officials, the abuse is doubled. The school officials know and approve, because their job is to produce unthinking slaves to row the ship so they can enjoy the Captain's Quarters and the Officers' Mess.

Did anyone vote for Church and Change to take over WELS?
Here is one C and C founder installing another one.
Co-inky-dink?
When I posted this, one WELS official wanted to know, "Who told?"

WELS-ELS-CLC (sic)-LCMS: Cults Switch Dogma
Once upon a time, the Lutheran groups had the liturgy, creeds, sermons, hymns, and an interest in Luther's doctrine. They liked the KJV and used it at all services.

Now all of that has flipped, but no one has confessed how they changed it and turned vice into virtue. A few vintage WELS members recall the Gausewitz catechism (justification by faith) and the KJV being good. After all, the KJV is a revision of the Tyndale, and Tyndale modeled his translation after Luther's. Tyndale took the trouble of studying with Luther and Melanchthon.

Vintage Lutherans are left isolated, bewildered, scorned, and abused.

We met one cult member in the hospital. He was friends with Erin Joy. He said to me, "Erin has to learn she is not the center of the world." I said, "You tell her," and she grinned at me.

This cult member bragged to me that whenever they changed doctrine, which was fairly often, teachers were sent out to re-train the members.

Does that sound familiar? WELS has been trained in the New NIV for years now. Only one DP objected to the New NIV at the previous convention. The one following saw no objections at all. To avoid a ban on the NNIV, the convention blessed all translations. Mequon got its way and Mark Schroeder crumbled again. Or perhaps he was only pretending to object. That is good GA style. Play one side, the switch. Seifert and Buchholz are good at that.

Sorry, Baby Blue Eyes, he can and he will.

The Duggar Family, Abuse, and the Foundation of Abuse. Mutual History - Bill Gothard, ATI, Abuse. Stephan and the Great Walther Myth

Josh Duggar's sexual abuse of his sisters can be traced to his family's involvement with Bill and Steve Gothard, both serial abusers of young women. They were also very close to Doug Phillips and his wife Beale, whose story is below the Gothard scandal. Both scandals broke at about the same time, but represent years of abuse.




Bill Gothard earned a bachelor's and master's degree at Wheaton College. His also has a fake PhD. His brother Steve.

Here is an account of Bill and Steve's abuse - Biblical Search Reports.

The method of selected young women for work at the headquarters - and grooming them - is described here.

Josh and Anna Duggar met at a Gothard conference,
the Duggar family was extremely loyal to Gothard's training.
Josh was sent for "treatment" to a Gothard location in Little Rock.

I was vaguely aware of the Duggar connection to Gothard, and Gothard's scandals, but I am not bewitched by the Evangelicals and their Pietim.

The alarm bell went off when I read how Josh and Anna Duggar met, although they were careful to omit the Gothard name or even the full name of the group.

Bill Gothard never married,
but used youth women  as unpaid, poorly paid
or paying staff, isolating and grooming them.

Josh and Anna Duggar Website
Josh: In early 2006, my Dad was campaigning for State Senate. We were a couple weeks from the Primary Election when my family took our annual trip to the ATI Conference. I was busy working with the A/V team, and had very little free time… but during one of the breaks I ended up talking through my lunch break with some new friends!…

Anna: …My siblings & I enjoyed meeting Joshua,
[a year later]
Anna: Our family made the trip from Florida to Texas again to attend our annual ATI Conference.

Advanced Training Institute is the final name for Gothard's non-profit behemoth for training Fundamentalist home-schoolers. Another name is Institute in Biblical Life Principles.

Bill's brother Steve resigned from the IBLP when Steve's many affairs with institute secretaries were revealed.  Bill resigned too - for three weeks - and came back.


ATI-IBLP

Founding

The Advanced Training Institute International was founded in 1984 by the Institute in Basic Life Principles through the vision of Bill Gothard. It began as the answer to the request of Basic Seminar alumni who desired to train their children in the Biblical principles that had transformed their lives.

One hundred and two families were selected from over 2,000 who applied to pilot the program. They met together with Bill in the north woods of Michigan for a week of planning and made commitments to turn life into a classroom and use Scripture as the main textbook for studying every academic subject.

[GJ - Brother Steve had his affairs with secretaries at the North Woods campus, and Bill sent them to him "to help with the curriculum."]

***

GJ - The Duggar family shows made me uneasy about their strange language and behavior. Josh explained, lamely, the concept of "defrauding," which rang hollow to me. The Gothard material shows how Bill Gothard used his special cult language and shaming to cultivate and manipulate the young women who appealed to him. Defrauding came up as one of his favorite terms, easily used in various ways.

If you find Jim Bob annoying, who covered up his son's abuse, you will see that his dogma comes directly from the Gothard cult. 

The Duggar clan was just getting noticed and have specials when Josh's abuse of his sisters came up, due to Oprah's program refusing to run their tape, after warned of the scandal. Oprah's referral to authorities led to an investigation, and the police report details are on the Net.

Book - A Matter of Basic Principles

Sometime around 1964, Gothard was invited to teach a course on youth ministry at Wheaton. Forty-five students attended, including pastors, youth workers, and educators. The materials he presented at the time became the foundation for his seminars. In 1966, Gothard presented a seminar to 1,000 people in the Chicago area. He repeated the performance in 1967 and held his first out-of-town seminar in Seattle for 42 in 1968. Gothard’s new organization, the IBYC, was born. The Ministry Takes Off From such small beginnings, it was difficult to see the great popularity he would enjoy down the road. His combined attendance for all his seminars in 1968 was actually around 2,000. But then things really took off! As Wilfred Bockelman later would report in his book, Gothard — The Man and His Ministry: An Evaluation, “In 1969 there were around 4,000; 1971, 12,000; 1972 over 128,000 including 13,000 in the Seattle Coliseum; in 1973 more than 200,000.”12 Before you could say, “post-Watergate social malaise,” Gothard’s public career had outlasted that of most major rock-and-roll stars, including the Beatles (as a group), and his live audiences were at least as huge as those at rock concerts. Churches in every city, town, and hamlet in America were taking their young people to his seminars by the busload. Little bands of three-ring-binder-toting Gothard disciples sprang up on college and university campuses across the country. Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Veinot, Don (2003-08-25). A Matter of Basic Principles (Kindle Locations 618-631). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. Kindle Edition. 

What was the nature of the “gross immorality” which shocked Samuel Schultz, former professor at Wheaton College and Institute board member since 1965, as well as the other board members? Bill’s brother, Steve Gothard, Institute employee and a vice-president, had been involved in sexual affairs with seven of the Institute secretaries. In fact, a total of 15 people were involved in sexual immorality — a very bad (and sad) situation in any Christian organization and particularly so for one whose primary emphasis is high moral character. The scandal that rocked the ministry in the early 1980s is not new news. It is a matter of record, having been reported in such Christian periodicals as Christianity Today and such secular media as the Los Angeles Times (some of which will be referenced in this chapter).

Veinot, Don (2003-08-25). A Matter of Basic Principles (Kindle Locations 719-725). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. Kindle Edition. 

By all accounts, however, Bill Gothard who is a bachelor, had known for over four years that Steve, who was a bachelor at the time, was having affairs with his secretaries, but he misused his power “at the top” to silence witnesses within the ministry. Instead of dealing with this crisis openly, with the hope of a resultant repentance and restoration, Gothard moved Steve and his “problem” to a remote location — and only when the secretaries publicly brought charges did Gothard remove them from their positions at the Institute. We realize the seriousness of this claim, but the documentation which follows will bear this out. This is the story as it unfolded:

Veinot, Don (2003-08-25). A Matter of Basic Principles (Kindle Locations 775-780). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. Kindle Edition. 

Dr. Ronald B. Allen, former professor of Hebrew Scripture at Western Baptist Seminary in Portland, Oregon (where he taught for 25 years), was very concerned about Bill’s erroneous teachings. He attended a seminar with his wife in 1973. He wrote: In this seminar I was regularly assaulted by the misuse of the Bible, particularly of the Old Testament, on a level that I have never experienced in a public ministry before that time (or since).2 His misgivings about Gothard’s teachings were so great that he spoke with the then president of Western Baptist Seminary, Dr. Earl Radmacher. Dr. Radmacher voiced similar concerns and proposed to set up a meeting with Bill Gothard in an attempt to address these concerns. Bill Gothard declined to meet with Dr. Allen. About this futile attempt at resolution, Allen recalls: Gothard said his instruction is from God and that he will not be instructed by one of Radmacher’s seminary faculty.3

Veinot, Don (2003-08-25). A Matter of Basic Principles (Kindle Locations 953-963). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. Kindle Edition. 

Duggar Courtship Law Duplicates Gothard's Law

Nothing is quite so nauseating as Jim Bob's courtship rules, which come directly from Bill Gothard, serial sex offender, dedicated cover-up artist, bully. con-man, false-teaching murderer of souls.

Gothard, like all cult leaders, would declare something to be wrong, evil, and from Satan. Cotton Patch dolls were on that list.

Dating was the font of all evil, so he had people wrecking their families with absurd rules - our family favorite being the side-hug. What was Dear Leader Gothard doing in the rooms, alone, with young girls who were just going to bed and in their jammies or nightgowns?

The Duggars made a sacrament out of No Kissing Before Marriage, with several babies following soon after the ceremony (another sacrament, but not the chief one.). One must recognize in the Duggar-Gothard Church Luther's rule - "They turn Moses into the Savior, and Jesus into Moses."

The Law saves. The more laws, the better. And yet their legalism is accompanied by Antinomianism, just like WELS. Gothard even used the Galatians passage, twisted, "The Law was a tutor, leading us to Christ." No more Law (for Gothard and Duggar) but lots of laws.

As we all know, Josh's parents sent their errant boy to a Gothard facility to get straightened out, but that was a face-saving device. It hardly amounted to anything. Jim Bob also used a state policeman, a very close friend, to talk to Josh and start the clock ticking on the statute of limitations. The state trooper, now in the hoosegow for child porn (he re-offended, like Josh), never filed a report. 

One suspects the parents dealt with lawyers very early. Jim Bob would not let the police interview Josh, which was his right as a father. Jim Bob did not have a duty to report, but their church did, since the molestations happened on church property, a rented house. The state trooper did, but he failed to do so.

---

Another Duggar Pal - Abusing His Children's Nanny

WND EXCLUSIVE

CHRISTIAN GIANT SUED FOR 'USING NANNY AS SEX OBJECT'

Lawsuit claims religious leader promised to marry young woman after wife dies

Published: 04/15/2014 at 10:19 AM

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 CHELSEA SCHILLING About | Email | Archive

The nanny-abuser Doug Phillips gave Michelle Duggar
the Mother of the Year Award.

Nanny-abuser Doug Phillips posed with Bill Gothard,another expert at blaming very young girls for being abused.

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Former Vision Forum Ministries President Doug Phillips

(Warning: This story contains explicit descriptions of alleged sexual conduct described in a lawsuit and may be offensive to some readers.)

The former leader of a popular Christian ministry – who resigned from his position after confessing to an “inappropriate” relationship – is now the subject of a lawsuit that claims he “methodically groomed” and made unwanted sexual contact with a young woman after serving as an authority figure in her life for more than a decade.

Doug Phillips, a husband and father of eight children, had been a popular and controversial figure in the homeschooling movement and a leading advocate of “biblical patriarchy” before his resignation from Vision Forum Ministries and Boerne Christian Assembly, a Baptist church outside San Antonio, Texas, at which he had served as an elder and preached hundreds of sermons.

Phillips was also founder of the San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival and of the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches.

According to the teachings of the patriarchy movement, also known as the stay-at-home daughters or quiverfull movement, young women remain at home under the protection of their fathers. They’re generally expected not to work outside their home or go to college, and they’re taught to abide by strict gender roles in which men have authority over women.

‘A personal sex object’

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Lourdes Torres and Doug Phillips

In the complaint filed in Kendall County District Court in Texas Tuesday morning, Phillips is accused of using a woman named Lourdes Torres, now 29, as “a personal sex object” over a period of five years.

Asked if she ever believed she loved Phillips, Torres, who was over the age of 21 at the time of the sexual contact, told WND, “Oh, yes, definitely.”

Torres said she met Phillips and his wife, Beall, at a homeschooling conference in November 1999 when Torres was 15 years old. Torres spent many hours in the Phillips home, cared for their children and helped run the family farm. She was invited on trips with the family to Hawaii, Virginia, Mexico, Florida and other states.

By 2007, according to the complaint, Phillips began “to pay special attention” to Torres, complementing her beauty and devotion to his family, giving her money, touching her, asking her personal questions about her thoughts and life plans and telling her he would take care of her...

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/pastor-accused-of-using-nanny-as-sex-object-2/#bJcppgFYuUtEKp8B.99

***

The Synodical Conference Parallel

Various authors have documented Martin Stephan having the same kind of sex cult and robotic followers as Bill Gothard. Stephan made sure he was accompanied by young woman on late evening strolls through the woods.

Stephan contracted syphilis and gave it to his wife, children, and groupies. That was the real crisis that allowed CFW Walther to realize - with a shock - that his bishop was an adulterer.

WELS, LCMS, the ELS, and CLC (sic) still lie about Walther's role as a cult follower and self-appointed pope over the movement. All the evidence goes against the Great Walther myth, but it continues to burden the synods and justify victimizing the members.

Did WELS inform its members when DP Ed Werner went to prison for molesting girls in his own congregation, over a span of decades? No.

Did WELS report the theft of St. John in Milwaukee, its property and endowment? No.

The same things could be said about the others. I have some very pointed examples, but they inflict harm on the victims, so there is no need to repeat them. The clergy know many of the stories.

Gothard -  Stephan - Walther.