Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Posted with Permission from a WELS Pastor - Alcoholism Rampant.
From 2011




Hey Pastor:

About excessive drinking in WELS - 

"I was taken aback in 2003 attending the WELS biennial convention respresenting the district  at the beer tent right on campus in Watertown. I wondered how that could be, with so many WELS pastors and teachers having gross alcohol problems - plus the rampant societal problems abuse of alcohol has caused this nation.   I was one of them 30 years ago as a WELS teacher. Why would the leadership would suppport tap beer at a spiritual event? Can they  really see how those with less tolerance to such questionable exercises in liberty might be completely turned off?  I don't know if this situation has changed since I last attended but I've felt that the WELS simply is too lenient in attitude after all the carnage that this abuse has caused."

By the by, while we were still a mission congregation here  the WELS pastor assigned to us brought his drinking problem here. Before he left (or was asked to leave?) he absconded with some of our offering money also! Needless to say his exploratory work was unsuccessful.
I had Al Just as a teacher at MLA and knew the unforgettable Tabor brothers there also.  Al Just:  Was my  teacher and coach.  It was really weird talking with him at DMLC while I was taking certification courses and he was out on bail for murdering his wife.   Remorse, what remorse?

I taught at one WELS school for several  years, quit the WELS for a while, but have been involved for the last 20 years here in this state. 


May God bless you!


***

GJ - The leaders are cruel in allowing alcoholic ministers to wreck congregations without helping the men recover. Alcohol addiction is so common in WELS that no one sees the problem until it blows up on them. I heard one statement from a pastor I just met and knew he was an addict. He volunteered that Valium helped kick up the impact of an alcoholic drink. He left messes everywhere, but he was connected.

The problem begins with the amount of alcoholism in the leadership. One pastor pointed out a Love Shacker and said, "Now that guy is a drunk's drunk."


"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son - 
unless you have a big grant from Daddy Warbucks."