Update On Luther Days Fake WELS/ELS Conference Twitter List - Following. A Reader Asked If Kegler Was Still Being Followed. Here Is the Current Line Up. Great Confessional Statement - WELS/ELS

 Lesbian activist, ELCA Pastor Emma Kegler is no longer being followed,
as far as I could see -
but guess who is?

Megan Rohrer - "The first trans pastor ordained in the Lutheran church. Also, a disabled writer + award winning filmaker (sic) and historian."
And -

Bishop Guy Erwin is the first openly gay bishop
in ELCA, with his partner Rob Flynn.

Luther Days is following:

• Lots of ELCA congregations, districts, and entities.
• ELCA's HIV/AIDS.
• NoCrapTheology (guess what the graphic is) - Roman Catholic.
• Several accounts that feature f-bombing - so literate, so classy.
• UniversityLuther - "University Lutheran Church intends to provide a safe and welcoming environment for all of God's people, regardless of race, situation, family status, sexuality,"
• NorthPoint - the Andy Stanley twitter account. NP is a favorite place for WELS training. Ask Ski.
• Zig Ziglar and another by his son.
• Reformed quotes.
• Reformed Pastor.
• Alice in luxury - click for billions - softcore close-up.
• Craig Groeschel - another Appleton and WELS favorite.
• Facts not fake. Easy money and softcore photos.
• Massages.
• Pastor Rick Johnson WELS Leonard Sweet fan.
• Various WELS Church and Changers.
• Rob Guenther - WELS CP and Love Letter Pastor Protector.
• Follow Back. Super Follow Back. Follow Back 500k, etc, etc. - Seems to be a way of inflating the list.
• Buddy Jesus.
• ReconcilingWrks - "ReconcilingWorks works for the full inclusion of Lutherans of all sexual orientations and gender identities in all aspects of the life of their Church."
• Old Paths Calvinist.
• ELCA Advocacy "Be a part of the ELCA advocacy effort by signing up for our network at..."
• MMrohrer - "The first trans pastor ordained in the Lutheran church. Also, a disabled writer + award winning filmaker (sic) and historian."
  
• Bishop Erwin - is the first openly gay bishop in ELCA, ordained in a hurry with no parish experience. 
• Holey Bible - "funny" new versions of Biblical verses.
• Sundans - links to porn.
• Edwards... - same old porn link from before. F bombs. Yuk photos.
• Pastor Ski - which means he allowed Natalie Pratt to follow him.
• Bill Limmer - Church and Changer.

This dancer was featured at at ELCA district meeting.
Luther Days is following most if not all ELCA districts and entities,
including "advocacy" and HIV/AIDS.

Reviewing the June 6, 2016 Issue of Christian News Reading CN So You Don't Have To. The Kholas of Your Mind

The Chief Article of Christianity, according to Herman Otten, is text criticism.

Many have heard the term Higher Criticism, which involves deciding whether Jesus ever said what the New Testament claims. The short answer is - No!

Needless to say, Higher Criticism, Form Criticism, and the Historical-Critical Method are devious ways to deny the authenticity of the Bible, and these tricks have been effective.

Lower Criticism is deciding on the text of the Bible. Not much is said about the Old Testament, because the rabbinic tradition was so careful and precise, counting the words and the letters in a copy. The Dead Sea Scrolls show that variation in 800 years was almost zero - from the Qumran period to the next oldest example of Isaiah, about 800 AD.

Lower Criticism of the New Testament was giving a great boost by Count Tischendorf, a fabulist of great imagination. He kept the monks from burning up the greatest NT find ever, dubbed Codex Sinaiticus. A codex is more like a book. He found the other great manuscript at the Vatican Library: Codex Vaticanus. Both of his finds have more mystery in them than biography, like the  Shroud of Turin. Boop - there it is.

There is nothing like a good story, so an antiquarian who makes his reputation by finding something and declaring it priceless is a rare talent. They crop up every few years, but most people see through the scam and move it to the fraud and curiosity websites.

Kloha
I began to read about Kloha and found an article by LMMS Pastor Martin Noland. Kloha's lecture was "published without his permission." Nice deflection. If he lectured, it was already public.

I noticed from this issue that Kloha is already being touchy about his opinions.

When Kloha wrote that the Nestle-Aland is "The Church's text," I thought - "Oh brother."

Here is the quotation - Is my Nestle text authoritative? Yes it is, because it is the church’s text, Christ her Lord is preached in that text, and the church recognizes that the Lord works through that text as the Lord of creation unfolds history. . . .

Noland, who seems to be Kloha's bulldog - 

These are the same positions about Scripture and its texts that I heard over thirty years ago from my own professors—the biblically-conservative and doctrinally-orthodox faculty at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne when Dr. Robert Preus was the president there. If Dr. Kloha is in error in these statements, then they were wrong too.
That is the logical fallacy called the Appeal to Authority. Besides that, it is hearsay. He claims that was their position. Maybe it was.

Ft. Wayne was very mixed in those days, actively supporting Church Growth - voting as a faculty for "Church Growth Principles" and being absolutely ridiculous about UOJ. Some of those students have never recovered from that - a combination of UOJ and Church Growth and Rome plus ecumenical delights. Their support of UOJ and Church Growth in those years made them anti-Christian and anti-Lutheran.

This bowl of hash is straight out of Pietism, learned by Stephan at Halle University,
regurgitated by Walther and all his unfortunate followers.
They call themselves Lutheran but rage against justification by faith.

The Church's text is the Byzantine. The Christian Church became established in the East and grew westward. The Byzantine Empire existed from about 300 AD to 1453 AD, when the Muslims overwhelmed Constantinople.

Let us just assume that a Christian, Greek-speaking empire preserved the New Testament text quite well. This Lower Criticism has invented an industry for itself which is full of professors, editions, books, and journals.

All these fine fellows have their publications, their degrees, their academic honors and awards, but they do not agree with the Scriptures. They are no different than the rabble of Romanists who argued with Luther while storing up kindling for a nice roast. They cannot claim to be Lutheran when they hate Luther's doctrine.

One baby Ichabod reader is JBFA. The other is UOJ.

ELCA and Quotas

About the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America:
The ELCA is one of the largest Christian denominations in the United States, with more than 3.7 million members in more than 9,300 congregations across the 50 states and in the Caribbean region. Known as the church of "God's work. Our hands," the ELCA emphasizes the saving grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ, unity among Christians and service in the world. The ELCA's roots are in the writings of the German church reformer, Martin Luther.

The lavender description of ELCA, above, is from the standard ELCA news release. The ELCA began with 10,000 congregations and 5.3 million members. They have lost the equivalent of The ALC.

The former denominational executives probably realize now that they were better off separate, but Crumley and David Preus both sought to glue themselves together with the Seminex faction guiding the agenda. Both of them have been quoted as regretting the merger.

The pivotal issue driving the radicalism of ELCA is the quota system, which continues to drive the group into the ground.

"Brett, don't pay attention to this post.
The facts are grossly exaggerated.
I wanted to lose to Liz Eaton, really."

Quotas based on race and sexual orientation mean that qualified people are bypassed in favor of the quota pick. The quota winners know one another all too well and make sure they have greater numbers and more power.  Mark Hanson got gay ordination and gay marriage passed in 2009, and he was pushed out by Elizabeth Eaton.

Straight white males have no quota power. A woman has one quota brownie point. A lesbian has two points. A Black lesbian has three points. That is why so many women now occupy top executive positions in ELCA. Each woman is a two-fer if not a three-fer.

Men are introduced in the ELCA news releases with information about their wives, children, and grandchildren. The latest bishop elections had 3 (three) men elected. But when women are appointed to positions - like President of Luther Seminary, President of Wartburg Seminary - nothing is said about a spouse or any personal relationship.

The Episcopal Bishop was elected with almost no pastoral
or oversight experience. No matter - she was at least a two-fer
and almost destroyed her denomination.

Selective Diversity
Diversity today is always quite selective. What Mark Hanson thought and did  and accomplished for The Cause was meaningless compared to a candidate like Eaton who was a two-fer (married with a child) and favoring three-fers. In the olden days, which are not very old in ELCA, a leader going for re-election was normally re-elected. That was definitely true in the ALC-LCA.

Diversity never means including more conservatives. Nor does it mean making the gay quota 2% since that would match the numbers in America, 2% of the population. Watch TV news talking heads discuss policy. It is easy to see the quota at work.

Since Elizabeth Eaton has been ELCA bishop, several colleges and two seminaries have been given to women. I guess Berkeley had a woman president, but that tiny seminary was on its way to merging with a college. Luther Seminary was a big win for militant feminists.

Wartburg's new female president laid off three staffers once she was installed, but she added them to her prayers, which must have been a terrific boost. I think Wartburg is another Berkeley, headed for a merger of some type.

ELCA-Episcopal heads in the US and Canada
lined up for this shot.

The Grass-Free Yard: Accumulating Benefits

Purple Splash rose.

What Is So Rare As a Day in June?

James Russell Lowell

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays;
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;
The flush of life may well be seen
Thrilling back over hills and valleys;
The cowslip startles in meadows green,
The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,
And there's never a leaf nor a blade too mean
To be some happy creature's palace;
The little bird sits at his door in the sun,
Atilt like a blossom among the leaves,
And lets his illumined being o'errun
With the deluge of summer it receives;
His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,
And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,
In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?

Happy June 1st. 
People write or message me and often comment on the gardening articles. Michigander says he looks for them twice a day. A layman in WELS looks for new posts three times a day. Since he suggested the gardening idea, I try to start with horticulture in the morning and repeat the topic later in the day.

We began eliminating the grass in our yard before I learned it was a trend. Those who appreciate Creation or organic gardening can see why grass is losing its appeal. The Creation gardeners enjoy the beneficial creatures in the yard.

Chemical-centered turf and bush landscaping is not very friendly to the variety of animals, large and small, that can inhabit the yard. Grass and bushes alone do not support a variety of creatures. Pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizer suppress life, sometimes on a massive scale.

Speaking of yards, the yard sale provided me a load of fresh cardboard. I did not expect to eliminate more grass so early in the summer. Converting my neighbors to using cardboard mulching made me fear I would not get the extra cardboard leftovers from the sale.

Helianthus is a polite version of the sunflower.

Initial Gardening Frustrations - Not Waiting
Most new gardeners believe the books and start rototilling the soil violently and adding organic matter in large volume.

Those who appreciate the soil food web concept, where fungi establish connections in the soil - if allowed - realize what happens. When soil is converted from grass to gardening, one way or another, a gigantic chemical revolution takes place, involving many different creatures.

Whether someone osterizes the soil with his 10 horsepower rototiller or covers the lawn with cardboard and mulch, the earth must digest the changes and grow the new animals to make fertility happen. In addition, permanent plants need to establish their roots and set up their own Vanity Fair, where they exchange their carbon for the nutrition and water provided by soil fungi. All the soil creatures, from bacteria to earthworms, aid this transformation.

Roses are like asparagus in reaching good production a year or two after being planted, improving after that. The fun of roses is seeing those bare root plants leaf out, bud, and flower so soon. But that is nothing compared to mature roses given a chance to establish their royalty in the soil and produce dozens of perfect blooms.

Strike It Rich rose.

You Didn't Build That
Echoing the Great Prophet Obama, I can say to the roses, "You didn't build that display of blossoms by yourself. Fungi, bacterial, protozoa, and nematodes in the soil worked with earthworms to fix the chemicals you need in the soil and send them to your roots. Meanwhile, Flower Flies and Ichneumon Wasps came in to destroy the aphids and earwigs that initially made your blooms hideous and your leaves holey. Birds supplemented that work by eating bugs that might harm your growth, and spiders set up webs to intercept pests."

Chaste Tree is loved by bees.

Second and Third Year with Plants
The TV roses and KnockOuts are enjoying their third year of growth, so they began producing blooms immediately, before most people in this area were gardening. The weather was cold and rainy, but roses tolerate a great deal of cold. Many hybrid tea roses were planted last year, so they were also blooming early.

Almost Eden began selling plants last year, so I added some I never heard of before or never planted or failed on my first try. Some of these came from clearance shelves at Lowe's and Walmart.

• Chaste Tree
• Blackberries
• Blueberries (failed before, in Michigan)
• Beautyberries
• Spirea
• Bee Balm (failed before, in Phoenix).
• Trumpet vine (failed before, in Phoenix).

They were establishing roots last year, a difficult one for most plants.

Beautyberry grows berries for birds -
not for human consumption.

Transformation - Turn Lawns into Self-Generating Delights

I like to garden because I get a chance to create something appealing that sustains itself and grows in value and beauty.

Roses are a great value, because they are everyone's favorite flower, easy to grow, and productive. Moreover, they get stronger and more productive year after year, even though some bushes die out or do not do well.

But today I feel obliged to deal with other plants that establish themselves and spread or re-seed on their own.

Asparagus.
Everyone's excuse is - it takes years to grow. Decades later, they are still saying that. Once again, asparagus is easy to grow. Dig a hole, put the two-year roots in, fill the hole. Rich soil and mulch are good ways to have a great plant. Digging tons of soil is not needed and really counter-productive. The first year stalks are thin. They are better the next year. After that, cut the stalks that are as thick as a man's thumb.

Blackberries
I bought Triple Crown Blackberries, which are thornless. Last year they were getting settled. This year they are packed with flowers, forming berries, and spreading through their roots.

Blueberries
Like blackberries, they thrive in the wild and are easy to grow.

Raspberries
For flavor one can hardly beat Heritage. They spread through their roots and only need to be thinned out.

Bee Balm
Horse Mint is a plant loved by hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies. I bought a number of them, including ones on clearance. There they sat, absorbing rain-barrel water and not seeming to do well. I did find one or two blooming and attracting a hummingbird. This year all of them have spread through clumping and looking great.

Pokeweed
Do not laugh too hard. Birds plant this wherever they perch, so it is a question of which ones I allow to grow nine feet tall. They will feed the birds their bright red berries in the Wild Garden area, where the stalks already look robust.

Queen Ann's Lace
Call it a weed or call it wild carrot. I like it, and so do beneficial insects. There are more elegant carrot family plants but none so hardy and blue collar as this one - dubbed the "truck parking lot" weed.

Wild Strawberries.
I never had luck with strawberries, but wild strawberries are all over the back yard. Why? See the pokeweed entry above. Once the earthworms spread through the yard and I watered in dry spells, the strawberries filled in the shady garden, bloomed, and fruited. They are also around the trees and in the lawn where the clover has not taken over yet. The backyard is almost all cover where I once had grass, and I am happy about that.

Herbs
Herbs are almost always beneficial insect friendly and often self-seeding. Some examples I have planted or soon will -

• Borage
• Comfrey
• Tansy
• Dill
• Feverfew

Intrepid Lutherans: Time to Spill the Beans

Intrepid Lutherans: Time to Spill the Beans:

I stumbled across the following, rather old, exposé this morning while visiting the blog Polluted WELS. The author of that blog, a current WELS pastor who, understandably,finds it necessary to remain anonymous, included a link to it in his post, Conformity over Confession. While the details are dated, as a WELS pastor, he indicates that “all of the basics are absolutely accurate,” and that he “can personally verify that it’s true.” I’m sure that he can, as I’ve been told similar types of stories myself (though, hardly as detailed).

With these sorts of “bonding rituals,” rather than a common Confession and mutual commitment to Scripture and the Confessions, functioning as the seal of unity among WELS clergy, it is no wonder that all of the vigorous discussion over Lutheran confessionalism – the maintenance of orthodox teaching, the retention of distinctive Lutheran catholicity in practice – whether such discussion is engaged in private, or in public, leads to naught. Not only does such discussion “go nowhere,” worse, it’s as if it has never taken place, as if very well-founded concerns don’t exist, as if there isn’t an anxious expectation that these issues be dealt with openly and immediately. But all ears are deaf, just as all voices are mute.

I characterized this observation in a comment on Intrepid Lutherans last October:

I no longer find it odd that such a thing [i.e., thoughtful, open and respectful disputation on matters of genuine disagreement, such that they would lead to resolution and genuine unity] does not, and will probably never, happen in WELS – on this or any other consequential matter of doctrine or practice – and have entirely ceased looking for or expecting that any such thing will ever happen among them. There is a continuing strident refusal to openly discuss important matters. Rather than find it odd, I recognize it for what it is – as a foreboding cultic tendency. People who get sucked into cults lose their self-identity – their concept of self becomes indistinguishable from the group, and apart from the group’s leadership they feel as if they have no guidance and no hope. Positional authority is a psychological weapon among such leaders, and they use it to retain the dedication of their followers and to urge them toward greater productivity in the interest of the group. I’m beginning to see now, what I denied existed when my friends and family first warned us about this sort of thing when we joined WELS over a decade ago.

Indeed, we have in the past featured on this blog one of the famous lectures of Dr. Walter Martin – renowned expert on Cults and the Occult – on the Cult of Liberalism, highlighting and exploring several sections from it in application to what is occurring now, before our very eyes: waning regard for the authority and perspicuity of the Scriptures as it continues to slouch toward greater uncertainty, the incremental shifts that seem to be occurring in ecclesiastical terminology, the theological language games that are suffered in response to serious questioning, and the apparent voicelessness of the laity. I encourage the reader to revisit this lecture: The Average Layman is Defenseless!

So who can a layman trust? That was the question asked by Mr. Vernon Kneprath on Monday. And he is right: our trust derives from the very Word of God; every pastor and every congregation is to be tested according to it. But the laity need pastors. Which ones can laymen trust to tell them the truth, given that the “Organization” they have been initiated into is corrupt? I’ll submit that a good place to start is with the ones who are willing to demonstrably exercise their confessional convictions in defiance of corruption, ultimately in open defiance of an “Organization” that perpetuates it. Whether or not such individuals are orthodox or truthful, at least one can be assured that they are not acting as puppets of the “Organization,” or speaking as its parrots. How else would a person know? A closed, unresponsive, impenetrable organization that wields, or at least arrogates to itself, power over individuals, whether physical, spiritual, psychological or financial, ought never be trusted.

I “Kelm'ed” the following from the link shared by “Matthias Flach,” on his post Conformity over Confession, adding images with corresponding commentary where I felt it appropriate. The original article can be found here. I see that it has been reposted, today, by the original author, here.

---

MARTIN CHEMNITZ PRESS Pastor Gregory L. JacksonBethany Lutheran Church - current address 1104 Letha Drive Springdale, Arkansas bethanylutheranworship@gmail.com

INITIATION ABUSE IN THE WISCONSIN EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN SYNOD
Earlier I sent around a review of two books about abusive churches. I thought the books would benefit people who had suffered from abusive clergy.

David Johnson and Jeff VanVonderen, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1991. 235 pages. Roland Enroth, Churches That Abuse, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992. 231 pages.

Many congregations are abusive as well, led as they are by adulterers, thieves, and various types of criminals. I have served several congregations where a significant number of people had police records, extensive experience in the courts, or secret girlfriends. It is always strange to see such people act shocked over some imagined offense (pancakes, for instance) when they have been arrested, tried, and convicted of serious offenses, hiding the facts in some way.

It is also strange to see church officials working with and encouraging such characters to cause trouble in the congregation, then acting shocked that there is trouble. One church official, for instance, gave three divine calls to a family member who was a sex offender, a man who liked to sneak into bathrooms and watch young women take showers. When he got into trouble in his second call, the sex offender got a third call. I have the arrest record and the admission from this “conservative” Lutheran pastor that he had been in the girls’ dormitory and in their bathrooms on previous occasions. The synod president reported, after the arrest, that no one else was involved in the sex crime. However, I think that the young woman who was being leered at while she was taking a shower was involved as a victim of this pastor, his powerful relative, and his abusive synod.

WELS Initiation Rites
WELS has initiation rites at each level of schooling, although I do not know about teachers at Martin Luther College. This is what happens or has happened to boys who want to become WELS pastors:

Prep School Level
The WELS prep schools are residential high schools aimed at promoting church vocations, so that more students become parochial school teachers or pastors. The LCMS had a similar system and took it apart. WELS has eliminated two of its four prep schools in recent history.

Freshman prep students go through two kinds of initiation. One involves such things as dressing the boys as girls and making them wear makeup. The other is called sechsing, after a nickname for freshmen. If an upper classman yells “Sechs,” a freshman has to run errands and do various subservient things. It is a great situation for bullies, who push the freshmen to the limits and then scorn anyone who complains.

At one prep school, any boy who discussed problems with bullying was picked off the floor by his nipples. No one is allowed to “tell.” At the same time, the dean of men urged parents to have their children tell him who was being abusive. Boys either shut up to avoid the torture or they dropped out of school. The dean knew this. One board member’s wife heard about this and said she would never send her children to such a school. Her husband, a WELS pastor, said, “That’s how the system works.”

Physical abuse and bullying are common in such a situation, because no one can deal with the facts. If a boy is disciplined, he finds out the source of the information. He and his friends retaliate. The school’s staff members came through the same system, so they know how it works.

The Late Northwestern College
WELS merged Northwestern College in Watertown into Martin Luther College in New Ulm, Minnesota. That was only a few years ago, so most WELS pastors have gone through college and seminary initiation.

Northwestern College was an all male school. A woman could attend, but few did, because the curriculum was aimed at preparing men for the WELS seminary. Period. The courses were long on languages and short on math and science.

Freshman initiation could be fun, but bullies often took over and got their chance to get even with younger students. One student ran through a gauntlet of pillows. Each older student got to hit him with a pillow. A bit dusty, but harmless. One older student loaded the pillowcase with books and knocked the freshman out cold. That is assault.

Male Students of Martin Luther College (WELS): Practicing for GA ...or just practicing?

Homosexuality seems to be the “in-thing” these days among Christians having an ardent desire to present themselves to the world as “Real, Relational and Relevant.” Back in the 1970’s, the “in-thing” seemed to be young women having children out of wedlock. Now that neither of these appear “abnormal” to the world anymore (nor are they to “worldly Christians”), I wonder how GA rituals will be enhanced to replace these rather normative worldly-Christian behaviours? How will GA change when women are eventually admitted by WELS into the Office of the Holy Ministry? Sado-Masochism generally follows from boredom with “mere homosexuality” in a person's descent from a “narrow heterosexuality,” does it not? Is that going to be the new abnormality, i.e., the new mark of Christian “Real-ness, Relational-ness and Relevance?”

One freshman got his bare buttocks whipped with a wire coat-hanger. He is a subservient church leader today. Obviously, some of the initiation activities were not only sadistic but homosexual in nature. It was a custom to force the entire freshmen class to simulate anal intercourse with the famous “Runner on His Mark” statue at the college. The dean of men stopped statue sodomy only when a formal complaint was lodged.

Most parents were kept in the dark, because a student complaint would only bring wrath down on the freshman. The prep school graduates warned the non-preps what would happen if they talked. No one wanted to be accused of being a “sissy” who talked. All the students are told, “Only the tough survive here.”

Bone Cruncher
WELS even had pre-initiation initiation. I attended the Bone Cruncher, which is aimed at college seniors on their way to seminary at Mequon. Each senior is given some form of bone. The athletes get a large bone, to signify approval of the Mequon students. The studious types get bone ground up in water in a glass. Those who have escaped WELS realize that public humiliation is part of “the system.”

I attended the basketball game and dinner of Bone Cruncher but did not see some of the worst behavior others have described. It is difficult to worm out of men what they hated, because it is both embarrassing to admit it and dangerous to talk. Several facts came out about other events. One is that men are told to wear their best clothes, but they are forced to sit down on food, get on the floor, and in general wreck their clothes. They are told later to submit cleaning bills if they want to, but it is understood that only a sissy would do that. The seniors are given “new names” at the dinner. Many times these names are obscene renditions of their given names. (Is this a parody of baptism?) I pressed one man for examples. He said, “For instance, a man named Knollmueller will be renamed Hole-Filler.” All of these men are future pastors.

Another aspect of public humiliation is having wives and girlfriends at the Bonecruncher. Do men really want to sit down in food, act like fools, and get obscene names in front of their wives and girlfriends? There is also a “speech” of some type, full of inside jokes and mean remarks. It is supposed to be funny but it is often aimed at certain seniors.

Long before someone steps onto the Mequon campus, the message is clear, “We have a certain way of doing things. If you do not like it, go away. If you speak up about it, we will make your life Hell on earth.” When I spoke to the Northwestern College president about initiation, his criticism of one pastor was, “He didn’t go along with initiation when he was here.” This was many years later. A senior leader of WELS indicted a pastor for not liking initiation! Therefore, the pastor’s criticisms could not be taken seriously.

This same college president tried to fight against the merger of Northwestern College and Martin Luther College. I understand that he was not allowed to speak to the issue on the floor of the convention. He said it was the lowest point in his ministry. I saw it as the last bitter fruit of initiation rites. He did not conform to the synod vision-thing, so he was silenced.

GA at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, Mequon
One must consider the vast amount of conformity imposed on WELS men before they step onto the Mequon campus. It used to be that students who qualified by going to Bethany had their own independent judgment and tended to be fairly Lutheran. Those students, who missed the thrill of Northwestern College, are called (their entire ministry) Bethany Bombers. It is not a compliment. WELS pastors routinely run down the Evangelical Lutheran Synod and make fun of “Bombers.” WELS pastors also distrust MLC graduates and figure all teachers are “trouble-makers.”

We were singing a hymn in chapel at Mequon. One seminary senior said, “See that guy’s name? His daughter is the bitch who started the Protest’ant crisis. That’s why pastors don’t trust teachers.” The crisis took place in the 1920s.

GA (for gemutliches Abend; friendly evening) began in the 1920s as a way to unify the seminary student body after a divisive split. The big-shots actually fired the seminary president and kicked him out. In a tiny synod where everyone is related, that can cause some friction and hard feelings.

A Church of the Lutheran Confession pastor told me that GA was stopped twice because “they went too far.” But it was started again each time. I do not believe it will ever stop until a lawsuit costs the seminary too much money. Many older CLC pastors have been through GA, because they were WELS. The toxic influence is easy to see.

Every single WELS pastor has been through GA. They are sworn to absolute secrecy. They are not allowed to tell anyone, including their wives, about GA. It is a tribute to the intimidation of WELS that many sons of WELS pastors go into GA without knowing the script. If students have found out the secrets of GA and let on, the upper classmen give them Hell.

The GA Experience
Round One is the great debate about whether to have GA. Recently a former lawyer gave the “speech.” Some students really believed he was against having GA, because he listed so many good reasons to not having initiation. The same kind of lying speech is arranged each year. The WELS pastors call it “mind games.” The phony debate is so serious that first year students phone home and say, “Dad, they aren’t going to have GA this year. They are really serious about canceling it.” That is when the father, a pastor, smiles. He knows they are doing a good job of mixing up the students.

The ideal GA victim has looked forward to it for many years. He has heard hints about it, but no one will say what it is. The ordained pastors will make cryptic remarks and laugh, adding to the mystery. One WELS leader, Vic Prange said, “It is our Masonic Lodge.”

After the great debate, a vote is taken and GA goes ahead as scheduled. (One WELS exile has GA minutes, but I could not pry them out of him. He and someone else complained about GA in advance. To whom? Remember the dean at the prep school, mentioned early? They went to him and were told to “give GA a chance.” The dean of men at the seminary (new job) told them, “The good outweighs the bad in GA.” Both men failed to graduate from the WELS seminary. One went elsewhere. The other dropped out at some point. I am not claiming that it was only because of GA. But it was a tactical error to complain in advance.

Hards and Softs (Pietists)
GA is not ordinary initiation. For a week, the freshmen are befriended by upperclassmen called “Softs” or “Pietists.” During the same time they are persecuted by “Hards.” Those who hated GA as freshmen are often put in the role of “Hards.” They think themselves very clever in having men do role reversals. It is a way of being accepted.

When people complain about being deceived by WELS pastors, I remind them that GA trains them to play these roles and take pride in them.

The Pope
Someone is elected pope of GA. This is an honor. James Tiefel was GA pope, a sign of future greatness. Tiefel is a professor at the seminary now. The pope issues orders to the freshmen. The pope I saw was one of the few Black WELS pastors. He clowned around, acted gay, and wore a costume.

The upperclassmen force the freshmen to do certain things, such as push a wagon up a hill or do pushups on the ground when ordered. I saw men pouring beer on freshmen as they did pushups.

At one point there is a meal in the darkened cafeteria. There is more “naming” of students. I saw some cryptic remarks on a chalkboard going into the cafeteria. I did not see this meal. Others told me that the seniors knocked cigar ashes into the chili and ordered the freshmen to drink it. Others were told to drink pond-water (which was thought to be tainted with human sewage).

Baptized into the...“Organization” ...while diving for bowling balls.

The behavior toward the new students is quite menacing, and the freshmen get caught up in the mood of GA. The Hards are out to get them and the Softs are helpful. They don’t know these are assigned roles.

I saw one annual event of GA. The students were told to put on old clothes. The pope ordered them to look for his bowling ball in the pond. It is not exactly fun in the fall in Wisconsin. One seminary faculty member was watching when this happened. He was smiling and enjoying GA. Most faculty members disappear completely during GA. The students had to immerse themselves to look for the imaginary ball lost in the tainted pond. When they returned to the dorm, soaking wet, they were told to strip outside. So there, in the courtyard, the entire freshman class stripped naked before going to their rooms to change. One pastor, now a circuit pastor, said, laughing, “The cafeteria ladies always clean vegetables near the windows of the kitchen when it’s time for the clothes to come off.”

I have been told that the students keep their clothes on now.

The sexual and sadistic overtones of Mequon initiation are fairly obvious. I know of one man whose tooth was knocked out. I have heard other stories, but the facts are quite vague. The brainwashing is so complete that one WELS pastor told me that all synods have initiation. I said, “I know about that than you do, and I can tell you they do not. No other synod has initiation for seminary students. I have joined several synods and I never had to take my clothes off to do so.”

Have a Drink on Me!

Defrocked/Refrocked WELS Pastor, Rev. James Skorzewski (center-top) ...and comrades.

GA Climax
The terror builds up during GA week. The final event takes place with the Softs guiding freshmen on a final escape. The freshmen are brought individually to a lounge which is described as the only possible way to get out. The upperclassmen are on the other side making a ton of noise. The freshman barrels into the room, terrified. The older students catch him, tell him it’s all over, and offer him a beer. Each student is brought to the closer door in the same way.

One pastor made an acute statement about GA, “Whether one hates GA or loves it, the moment he accepts the beer, his feet are set in concrete. He will always be one of them. A false sense of unity is created quickly by tricks rather than letting the Gospel unify men slowly.”

GA Syndrome
I have noticed a number of symptoms of GA, exceeding what can be found in most synods.

1. Classmates can do no wrong. One WELS pastor was denouncing me to my face for writing in Christian News. I said, “Parcher does too.” He immediately began defending Parcher. Later I noticed from the wall of photos that he was a classmate of Parcher.
2. Always obey the pope. The WELS pastors and the ELS leaders (trained at Northwestern College) will do whatever they are told to do. Once the Church Growth unionists got themselves into power, no one could stop them. To question is an admission of disloyalty to the synod and to classmates. One GA proponent, now a district president, spoke again unionism and declared WELS opposition to any form of unionism. Later, he urged all the pastors in his district to attend the WELS pan-denominational worship conference at Carthage College.
3. Opponents must be publicly humiliated until they leave or give in. This makes WELS pastors and laity especially servile. When they were told to break with the LCMS because the LCMS tolerate the liberal Martin Marty, they broke with Missouri. Years later, when they were told to listen to Martin Marty (now in ELCA) in Florida at a Church Growth event with Missouri and ELCA, they listened to Martin Marty.
4. WELS is considered co-terminous with the Kingdom of God, so dissenters are shunned. Their fear of being excluded keeps them obedient. As many pastors have said, erroneously, “If WELS is gone, there is nothing left.”
5. Titles of WELS books are unintentionally funny: WELS and Other Lutherans, even though WELS is at best 5% of American Lutheranism; Biblical Interpretation, The Only Right Way, in spite of the fact that it was written by a man who endorses Pietistic cell groups.
6. False teachers can casually endorse Calvinistic or liberal doctrine without fear of retribution. There are no retractions or corrections. Theodore Hartwig, Paul Kelm, David Valleskey, James Huebner, Larry Olson, Michael Albrecht, Iver Johnson, are some of the better known examples. One congregation was “kicked out” of WELS but is just as much a part of WELS as Herman Otten is part of the Missouri Synod.
7. The WELS leaders were able to take all their world mission and American mission leaders through Fuller Seminary (or one of subsidiaries), adopt Church Growth doctrine and methods, and then deny they went to Fuller and had any CG at all in the synod.

Shoot Me
Some WELS pastors will be very upset that I have spilled the beans about GA so extensively. I think it is the only unforgivable sin in WELS. Nevertheless, I believe the truth will eventually come out in a lawsuit and close down the outward manifestation of abuse. It would take the proper preaching of the Law and Gospel to make the inward corrections necessary to stop the emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of initiation. Hardened hearts would have to experience godly contrition rather than world contrition. That can only come from God’s Word, not a lawsuit.

I would like to add that I consider many WELS pastors and members good friends. In fact, I hear from pastors in all synods, including ELCA. However, the insiders in all the conservative synods go out of their way to be unpleasant. There have been many efforts to keep my articles from being published at all. If I were wrong, they would welcome the publication of those articles, so they could refute them in public.

The response to what I write is strictly personal, not doctrinal. According to WELS leaders, I opposed the Church Growth Movement and unionism with ELCA because I was crazy, due to the death of our daughter Erin Joy. I have heard of pastors who do not know me who insist that this is true. Apparently, this has been the universal response of WELS to my articles. I suppose that having a WELS district president (Ed Werner) in prison for molesting little girls would make synodical leaders think that opposing clergy adultery is insane. After all, the district pastors knew about Werner for years, not letting their wives and daughters near him, but they kept electing him president until he was put away in the state prison.

WELS leaders also insisted that my wife was not sick, even though Social Security (a tough sell) judged her permanently disabled. Three insurance companies agreed with Social Security. WELS leaders insisted that our son Martin had left Northwestern College. My friends and his friends insisted it was so, to our faces, in spite of the obvious – he was still in class and graduated with honors. Imagine what it is like to be a WELS pastor, to visit your son at Northwestern College, and then see a nearby WELS pastor who says, “Your son dropped out of college!” Typical GA stuff. Even those who are deceived believe the deceivers.

I could go over a lot more things, but I think this is enough to show the toxic effects of WELS initiation. Many pastors get over it and try to avoid being absorbed by the pandemic doctrinal and moral corruption of WELS. Some have made valiant effort to change the synod, facing down evil and dishonest leaders. Some pastors finally left Lutheranism for good when their doctrinal errors were confronted. The errors were promoted by WELS leaders, who let their slavish acolytes take the hit.

The majority of members want to be served by orthodox pastors, but they have as much control over events as Roman Catholics do over who becomes their priest. The imposition of the NIV and Christian Worship are two examples of forcing bad decisions on the entire synod in the name of “loyalty.”

I have been struck at the Evangelical Lutheran Synod pastors who act more WELS than WELS pastors. One public example was Erling Teigen denouncing my review of the ELS hymnal, claiming that the WELS hymnal was never a joint project with the ELS. The back page calls the hymnal commission “The Joint Commission.” Are we to assume that it was a marijuana commission or an ELS-WELS commission? Many people verified what Teigen denied, that Christian Worship was designed to be a WELS-ELS hymnal from the beginning. The ELS got mad at WELS for being pushed around and backed out. Everyone knew that but it had to be denied by the one person, Erling Teigen, who complains so much about being pushed around by WELS.

One GA trick is to deny to obvious and provable, such as Church Growth in WELS. I asked ELS pastors why they took in Roger Kovaciny when he defended Church Growth, defended and covered up for the CG adulterer in Columbus, and published false doctrine. One pastor said, “Kovaciny isn’t ELS.” I said, “Why was he voted in at the ELS convention?” Later, several ELS pastors told me that Thoughts of Faith was not ELS. So I said, “Why did I observe the Thoughts of Faith people being installed by ELS President George Orvick at the ELS convention?” No answer.

The ELS covered up for a synod leader’s son, who was caught in a scandal. He was allowed to quit the college “voluntarily.” The college put out a false story about his abrupt departure. Later the same student, at a state school, fired a shotgun at his friend for waking him up abruptly at the dorm. The friend was wounded. The newspaper story ended, “He is expected to play on the football team this fall.” Why be tough on a guy who merely aimed a deadly weapon at a friend and fired at him?

I hope this helps a few people with some perspective. I know laity who have not recovered from the abuse they received in WELS. I believe some knowledge helps, but just as “Time heals all wounds,” so also “Time wounds all heels.” God is not mocked; what a man sows, he will reap.

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