Lutheran Seminary Fires President - Latini Responds

 Yes, I was there, interviewed at the Philly Seminary
around 1981. Someone was already hired, so others were interviewed to meet the demands of HEW. Hence, it was called an HEW interview - a free trip to Philly.

Lutheran Seminary Fires President:



"Latini said via email that she was being scapegoated, and that United Lutheran was facing challenges from its recent creation from merging two Lutheran seminaries. "I had been eager to help this newly-combined organization to flourish," she said. "However, given the longstanding, historic divisions between the predecessor schools and what I believe to have been a politically based whisper campaign against me and other members of the board, it became clear that certain parts of the organization were not going to stand behind me and that I could not be effective as president. I have been scapegoated by an historically divided institution resistant to unification, and have been given little chance to respond to the accusations against me.""

'via Blog this'

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GJ - Gettysburg was the original seminary - the General Synod. When that group became too anti-Lutheran, about half split off to form the General Council and establish its own seminary in Philadelphia.

Ironically, the General Synod came from the Pietism of Halle and that ideology led to the split. WELS also came from Pietism and returned to it via Fuller Seminary.

Bergandoff was an icon of the Augustana Synod, Augustana College, and higher education. He wanted the Midwestern seminaries merged at the U. of Chicago campus, which did take place but failed slowly in the decades following.

Conrad Bergendoff wanted the two seminaries united, and plans were made to do that in the LCA merger of 1962. However, that plan collapsed even though land was already purchased for the merger.

That division was always mentioned with some bitterness, even into the 1980s, so it is no surprise that it is still felt decades after that. I was told, "It is offensive to suggest that a Pennsylvania pastor is from the other seminary, so it is better to start by saying - where did you graduate?"

The reactions to Theresa Latini were so hysterical that some began wondering about Union and Harvard taking "tainted" students from United to finish their seminary degrees at those even-more-Left-wing institutions. The idea is to get Lutheran prerequisites done at an ELCA seminary (Do you hate Luther? Yes? Good. We can ordain you.) to be buffed and polished at Harvard or Union. (Are you an atheist? Yes? Good, you can graduate from our hallowed halls.)

Lutheran seminary education is truly pathetic these days, and I am including the anti-Lutheran ones in the ELS, WELS, and LCMS. The micro-mini ones are jokes not worth mentioning.

Lutheran seminary president ousted in controversy over past 'conversion therapy' work | PennLive.com

 "Nothing to see here. Move on."

Lutheran seminary president ousted in controversy over past 'conversion therapy' work | PennLive.com:



"A prominent Lutheran seminary with two campuses in Pennsylvania is having a stormy moment of reckoning over the early-career, "conversion therapy" work by its first-year president.

That moment reached a climax at the United Lutheran Seminary Wednesday, with the school's board of trustees voting to end the Rev. Theresa F. Latini's tenure as president.

Latini, who answered some questions from PennLive via email Wednesday night, called the board's action unfair.

"I have been scapegoated by an historically divided institution resistant to unification," she wrote, "and have been given little chance to respond to the accusations against me."

United Lutheran Seminary is the modern-day result of a merger between longstanding seminaries in Gettysburg and Philadelphia. The jointure was approved in January 2016, and took effect this fall.

The controversy stemmed from Latini's work in the 1990s, according to this report on Philly.com, as director of One By One, a Pittsford, N.Y.-based organization that believed and taught that sexual orientation change is possible.

That information, the news site reported Wednesday, was made known to the seminary's board chairman during a presidential search process last year.

But the chairman, the Rev. J. Elise Brown, did not share that information with the rest of the board's selection committee, which subsequently hired Latini last summer.

As word of Latini's past leaked out in recent weeks, students, alumni, faculty and staff have pushed back against the presidential search process, the lack of transparency surrounding it, and related issues.

The pushback continued through a board "listening session" in Philadelphia last week, and culminated in Wednesday's actions."



'via Blog this'

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This just in, as a letter to people in the Lower Susquehanna Synod:


March 14, 2018

Wednesday of the 4th Week in Lent

Dear partners in Christ:

The United Lutheran Seminary (ULS) Board of Trustees held a formal Board meeting on Wednesday, March 14, to address Seminary and Board leadership issues. As you may know, Bishop Dunlop is a member of the seminary board of directors and served as chair of the transition committee leading to the creation of the United Lutheran Seminary.

During today’s meeting, the Board voted to end Dr. Theresa F. Latini’s position as President of the United Lutheran Seminary. This decision was made based on the Board’s concern that the ongoing controversy surrounding her naming as President make it extremely difficult to overcome the issues related to trust as the president of this institution. With the understanding that there is much work to be done in healing, the Board recognized that her ongoing tenure would present a significant obstacle to moving forward. The primary obligation of the Board is to our Seminary and the perpetuation of its critical mission in training leaders for the church.

Also during today’s meeting, the board of directors of the United Lutheran Seminary elected Bishop James S. Dunlop as acting president of the seminary until an interim president is elected by the board of directors. Because of his rich history with the seminary, he feels a deep calling to serve the seminary in this important position at this critical time in the seminary’s short history. Offering full support, Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton encouraged Bishop Dunlop to accept this acting position, saying that he is the person best suited to fulfill this role at this time. A search for an interim president will begin in earnest. (For more information regarding the outcomes of the meeting, read today's Board of Trustees' statement here.)

To successfully carry out this role, Bishop Dunlop will be taking a temporary leave of absence from serving as our bishop. His responsibilities as our bishop will be adjusted and shared with staff. Bishop Dunlop said that he could agree to accepting this position because he has complete faith in our staff. He is confident our staff will be able to continue to perform their ministry tasks and to continue to carry out the mission of our synod.

Vice President Lucinda L. Bringman has called for a special meeting of the Synod Council on Thursday, March 22, 2018, at 6:30 p.m. The purpose of this meeting is in accord with *S8.58. of our synod constitution: “If the bishop is to be temporarily absent from the synod for an extended period, the bishop, with the consent of Synod Council, may appoint as acting bishop for such period an ordained minister of this church.” Until an acting bishop is appointed and confirmed by Synod Council, the staff will continue to function as it has whenever the bishop is away from this synod.

With the help of God and with requests for prayers, Bishop Dunlop has accepted this temporary position. We are a people whose story is centered in the death and resurrection. We are prayerful that out of these recent painful and difficult events will come new life. We invite your prayers for God’s light and guidance for healing, trust, wisdom, and compassion.

Yours in Christ,
Bishop James S. Dunlop
Vice President Lucinda L. Bringman
Secretary Thomas E. McKee

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ALPB Forum Notes a Large Number of Resignations from the "United" Lutheran Seminary Board

"In 2018, we have received resignations from several Board members. Robert King and Nancy Dering Mock stepped down earlier this year due to personal reasons. Lisa Leber, Audrey Moody, Phillip Harrington and Elise Brown tendered their resignations in advance of today’s board meeting. Cheryl Meinschein, Charles Miller, Emma Porter and Janet Montelaro resigned immediately following the meeting."

This is mid-March; the "In 2018..." resignations of two Board members may seem to some to imply "oh, so long ago".  That 4 members resigned in advance of the reported Board meeting and 4 immediately after it, bringing the total "In 2018" to 10 Board Member resignations, is extraordinary and cautionary.  All linked to the Presidential issue?  What was the allegiance to prior institutions of these resignees before it became so "United"?  Were they asked to resign?  This appears on the surface to be a personnel matter, thus "closed session", yet a ton of backroom/backyard conversations and actions had to lead to this.

The search for a new President will be extremely difficult, not just because of the unforgiven transgression of the immediate past-President, but in the main because of the boiling cauldron of discontent that the stakeholders may perceive from the Board resignations.  The laundry must be cleaned now.  But, first and always, prayers for all involved, including those who never forgive.

Another Disgraceful Issue of Herman Otten's Christian News

WELS was slow in removing all their Hochmuth videos and graphics, but their speed and thoroughness have both increased. Save everything early or it will be gone in hours.

The March 19, 2018 issue of Christian News is another  long sales-pitch for Roman Catholic book sales. Randy Engel wants to sell us the news that many Catholic prelates are homosexuals, but Luther observed the people worshiped as gods those cardinals who were satisfied with a woman - 500 years ago.

The real news is WELS-LCMS going along with the ELCA-RC stampede out of the closets.

Wisconsin Lutheran College invited Weakland to give a public lecture there - and WELS lied about it, calling it "a private luncheon" as if that mattered. WLC invited the whole community and included lectures by Weakland's favorite priests, who doubtless were also gayer than lavender hose.

“Rembert Weakland quickly became one of the darlings of the liberal hierarchy of the United States” (823). 

“A r c h b i s h o p Weakland was one of the first supporters of the forays of the Homosexual Collective into the Catholic Church in America. In Rueda’s The Homosexual Network published in 1982, Weakland’s role in assisting the Collective to advance its agenda in Am-Church is well documented. 

“As reported by Rueda, Weakland’s pro-homosexual position including active support for pro-homosexual legislation is a matter of public record and his contribution to the Homosexual Movement has been acknowledged by all major national homosexual groups including the National Gay Task Force, Dignity and New Ways Ministry. 

“Weakland’s notorious homosexual apologia, Herald of Hope. The Archbishop Shares: Who is Our Neighbor? which appeared in the Catholic Herald Citizen, the diocesan weekly for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on July 19, 1980 is filled with vintage pro-homosexual Newspeak. Weakland employs pro-homosexualist Linguistics throughout the text and defends every tenet of the Homosexual Collective from ‘homosexuality is inborn and irreversible’ to ‘gay is good.’ The Archbishop consistently uses the term ‘gay people’ when referring to homosexuals. His essay undermines the Bible’s condemnation of sodomy and debunks the idea that homosexuals prey on young boys. The pro-homosexual article appeared the same year that Archbishop Weakland himself engaged in a homosexual affair with a layman” (824). 

“According to writer-researcher Robert A. Sungenis, ‘Out of 36 priests who were named as child molesters in the archdiocese, 21 of them are still in the Milwaukee area and 6 of those have active assignments. Not one of the 36 has ever been so much as questioned, and no parishioners, except the victims, knew the names of these priests. 

“While the Archdiocesan public relations department touted Weakland’s model program for handling clerical sex offenders, the Archbishop was shuffling offenders from parish to parish” (825).
Christian News, 3-19-2018, p. 5

 WELS SP Schroeder said, "We didn't know!" but the arrest document for Hochmuth said Joel was caught before. Christian News buried the story of government agents raiding WELS headquarters and finding lots of child porn there, courtesy of Joel Hochmuth. The communications director got an easy plea, then re-offended. UOJ means never having to say you're sorry.

WELS Martin Luther College graduate's FB graphic.