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| Keep hiring these destroyers: Matt the Fatt, Mirthless Mark, and Pope John the Malefactor. Replacements will be just the same. Ask the Otten political machine. In fact, the new ones tend to be even worse. |
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| Do the "conservatives" have a problem with this ELCA seminarian, certified for ordination, lip-syncing at Luther seminary? No, WELS is a leader in hosting drag events, from prep to the parish. |
Someone named a concept I was thinking about for a long time. The name is Creative Destruction. People fear the loss of institutions, but those institutions are either outmoded - like Netscape - or they have destroyed themselves by betraying their constituents. The good part of the destruction is a new form that suits the individuals who abandoned the old one.
"Conservative" Lutheran leaders in sects - like LCMS, WELS, ELS, etc - gloried in the bounty coming when ELCA formed in 1987. I recall a Schaller column suggesting they would get 600,000 ELCA members disenchanted with the takeover of the radical Left. But the LCMS-WELS-ELS followed ELCA down the same path - closing parishes, shrinking seminaries, disastrous numbers, working with their ELCA colleagues at Fuller and Willow Creek, via Thrivent.
Mrs. Ichabod asks me about secular political villains - "Why do they keep doing crooked things when they are already in trouble and the NSA has the evidence?" My response is, "That is what got them there, and it is all they know - just like the synod leaders."
Creative Destruction
The synods are destroying themselves by rejoicing in Objective Justification, feeding the Church Growth parasite they invited to stay, getting even with everyone who dared to question them. (Ask Paul the Plagiarist and his pal Herman Otten for advice, tips, and strategies.)
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| Children understand this too, but synod leaders do not. |
This is all anyone can do, but it is a good start.
The pastors and teachers can make their families and their local institutions an island where the Gospel Word is taught and practiced.
Parents have an endless supply of opportunities to teach their children from the earliest age. No other audience is so eager to learn and so able to take it all in. They can advance in their reading skills if they hear stories from the beginning, read early, and absorb a passion for learning, reading, researching. The first area is the Bible, with so much to learn, but the only book that energizes the reader to learn even more, with many blessings accompanying the practice.
What better way to combine efforts than to teach a new language - Latin, Greek, German, French, Spanish - while reading the Gospel of John? We did that in Latin and Greek, with no words written in, a German parsing guide, and Lenski for emergency help.
One IT expert was boasting to Little Ichabod about his knowledge of Hebrew and Greek. LI began conjugating a Hebrew verb. The expert said, "OK! OK!" But there are many other applications, such as being a father, teaching his children, and helping at his independent congregation.
One of the best lessons is time spent with the children. Parents who love spending time with their children - in only two decades - have children doing the same with theirs. Too many let their children become synod-orphans or parish-orphans. Mom and Dad may get many honors and positions that way, but titles and plaques are pretty hollow when people have nothing else.
