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| Galactic Headquarters, ELDONA. Crowds are forming to get inside. |
Some may think the previous post on apostasy was a bit strong, but more likely it was not strong enough.
Ordained in 1973, I had no idea that the Lutheran leaders were turning everything inside-out. As people can see from the list above, an open discussion about WELS falling apart under Mark Schroeder has totaled roughly 2,300 views. In essence, Schroeder made a lot of noise, then did nothing about the damage done by Gurgle and Mark Jeske.
That is really too mild. Schroeder enabled the Jeske Crime Family, giving up any claims of leadership. That was especially apparent with the triumph of the New NIV, which Schroeder allegedly loathed. The Mordor faculty was all for the NIV, so anyone can predict what the future MDivs will be like for the next 20 years, until it gets even worse.
The Lutherans all gave up on the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace many decades ago. The difference is the LCA/ALC side was more Leftwing in politics. However, once WELS-LCMS gave up on the social issues, becoming advocates on women's ordination etc, the umbrella of ELCA apostasy became completely obvious.
That is still shocking to those who grew up thinking Luther, Lutheran hymns, the liturgy, creeds, and sermons were good. I joined an Augustana Synod congregation where all that was true, and our Luther League jammed into the basement for large meetings. We used the hymnal and learned the Matins and Vespers.
The statistics people got everyone alarmed about the future, so they ran off to Fuller for answers, whether they were LCA/ALC, WELS, or LCMS. ELS leaders went as well. If they had known their Biblical doctrine, they would have laughed Pete Wagner and his con artists out of the building. But no, they were hypnotized, enchanted, energized with the magic formulae sold to them for very high prices. "Don't worry, kid. The synod is paying for this." That was true - the synods paid dearly for the exercise in a massive repudiation of faith, the Scriptures, and worship.
Schroeder and his Melanchthon, Buchholz, pretended to be against the crafts and assaults of Jeske, Kelm, and Olson. But blood is thicker than doctrine, and money is even thicker than blood. The money was on gimmicks, popcorn, soda, and praise bands. Of course there would be a struggle and a few enemy corpses on the ground. But once the fog of battle cleared, WELS-LCMS would surge ahead with clear goals and strategies for achieving them.
The infallible Lutheran leaders are in a terrible state. They can see that nothing is working at all. On the ELCA side, the victories of Lady Archbishop Liz Eaton are eatin' up the money and members. She may rejoice, but they are trying to maintain an old elephant on kitty treats. Every seminary is failing and no gifts will change that. Would normal people consider four years of extreme Leftwing, atheistic propaganda, with a ton of money borrowed and income sacrificed? My friend from Moline was given a huge, formerly rich ELCA church as her call. She soon resigned because of all the conflicts from the 2009 vote.
On the LCMS-WELS side, the so-called conservatives have fashioned a bad copy of Evangelical trends from years ago. They remind me of the smelly, sticky copies we used to purchase at Yale and Notre Dame. In went the nickels - out came the toxic waste copies, blurry and faded. I never kept the copies, because they melted together over time and faded.
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When the money tree showered millions on WELS-LCMS, they spent it on jobs for friends and buildings for glory. The Boomers who went to school for almost nothing - at synod expense - no longer thought students should be subsidized. No, the synodocrats needed to be subsidized with huge salaries and benefits. And they dined sumptuously every day while the Lazarus-students lay at the gates, the dogs licking their wounds.
The Word alone would prosper these derelict "conservative" synods, but the leaders will not use what they no longer trust.
