Secular and church politics are so much alike, that one informs the other. The government politicians do not need to be a dishonest, ruthless, and underhanded as those in the visible church, but they find it hard to ignore the example set by clergy critters.
One example is the cover story. When a scandal is brewing, based on the facts, another version is trotted out, so the loyalists can say, "I heard that..." Every step in the Saxon migration has been changed to fit the Walther mythology:
- Walther led them over and became the founder of the LCMS, when Stephan used Walther as his toady and enforcer.
- Stephan's marital difficulties were his wife's fault, even though she was patient with his flagrant adultery with many young women.
- The Saxons left for America for religious freedom, although Stephan's house arrest and lack of a career was the motivation to leave.
- Walther and his brother kidnapped their niece and nephew from their father's parsonage, but that was not a problem. They wanted to go.
- Walther did not sign the document making Stephan bishop-for-life. He did.
- A sermon made one adultress confess her affair with Stephan! But she came over in her own cabin, near Stephan's, on his ship.
- Adultery rather than a syphilis outbreak created the crisis that Walther manipulated for his benefit. Stephan was already treated for syphilis in Europe, and he infected wife and children (except one) with the horrid disease.
- Stephan was given three options when the Walther-led mob descended upon him in Perryville. A pointed gun means - one option. He was threatened, robbed of everything, and kidnapped at gunpoint, left on the Illinois side to die. His mistress followed him.
"That never happened," or "I don't know about that." A leader does not need to address something he knows nothing about. As lawyer's realize, denial works when no one has proof. But offer proof and see the feathers fly. Wow.
Change the subject. If someone touches on a tender spot, changing the subject serves well to avoid discussion. Someone warned me about a Circuit Pastor's speed in pivoting away from an issue. Indeed, he showed Harlem Globetrotter-like skill in that maneuver.
Attack the source. I have provided so many proofs of WELS-LCMS-ELS misdeeds that any mention of a serious problem elicits this retort, "Where did you get that?" SP Gurgle even phoned Steve Spencer to find out if Steve was the source of my graph showing WELS shrinking while staff numbers zoomed. Spencer said, "The numbers are in the statistics book each year." And everyone wanted to know who Legion was. I never hint at sources because anonymous information leads to a paranoid search for the leaker. Notice the implied guilt by association detailed below.
Here is a fun list of fallacies, but if you know a DP, you have heard most of them already.
The beloved personal attack - ad hominem, combined with guilt by association. WELS is still circulating the charge that I was kicked out for teaching false doctrine. They published my Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure and still sell Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant. In fact, I resigned because of their Church Growth adulterers, their lies, and their Fuller dogma. If someone mentions me, which one person does for pure entertainment, a ten-minute rant follows. According to WELS, I do not know Greek, but the college they killed (Northwestern) employed Little Ichabod to tutor their students in Greek. And where did LI get his foundation in Greek? Answer - From kind of tutoring I now do online (free to anyone). The idea is to probe the individual for his source, fly into a rage when hearing the word "Ichabod", and use reading Ichabod as a cardinal sin. So the topic becomes the sin of reading Ichabod.
WELS and Missouri are adept at changing the subject. If the false doctrine of anyone is mentioned, said problem person is guilty of violating the Eighth Commandment, Matthew 18, and the Paris Accords.
Transfer the bloke - often, the drunk. For decades the synods have practiced the art of transferring clergy and teacher felons to another location. That is so convenient. The leaders, who claim to know everything about everyone, including things that they make up to destroy someone - suddenly know nothing about the new person. One pastor left his wife and five children for his mistress and later appeared in a sister synod with his new wife and and a call. Someone with some scruples asked and was told, "That is none of your business." One pastor erased his earlier call from his employment history. So did the synod entities and that parish. But, some facts remained on Ichabod and Google.
Never neglect the shun button. When a sect has declared someone an evildoer for telling the truth or even just for asking questions "with evil intent," the efficacious shun button is activated. Emails stop arriving. The phone does not ring. Long-time friends, to stretch the term a wee bit, walk by and only glance at the shunee. Relatives are encouraged to shun and if not, they are also shunned. Guilt by association!
 |
| In WELS, the bunny pets you. |
