ICHABOD, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED - explores the Age of Apostasy, predicted in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, to attack Objective Faithless Justification, Church Growth Clowns, and their ringmasters. The antidote to these poisons is trusting the efficacious Word in the Means of Grace. John 16:8. Isaiah 55:8ff. Romans 10. Most readers are WELS, LCMS, ELS, or ELCA. This blog also covers the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and the Left-wing, National Council of Churches denominations.
Years ago, LSTC dedicated their new compost tumbler at a chapel service. United Lutheran Seminary would love to have such golden moments of peace, harmony, and humus.
"“We are aware that many of you will applaud our choices, while many others will be bitterly disappointed,” the board wrote after that meeting. “We ask that you recognize on good faith that we did our best to take all into full account as we endeavored to find the best answer for ULS.”
Mark and Avoid Jeske will bring all factions together in a summer of love.
Jeske loves the Luthrun factions, All the flavors of Thrivent. Lefty, righty, outta-sight, they are precious in his sight. Jeske loves the little factions of the church.
How about that, boys and girls? Mark and Avoid Jeske does not need those pesky and time-consuming doctrinal commissions. He just waves some speaker stipends in the air and LCMS-WELS-ELCA comes running.
The Donkey - a poem by G.K. Chesterton WHEN fishes flew and forests walked And figs grew upon thorn, Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born. With monstrous head and sickening cry And ears like errant wings, The devil's walking parody On all four-footed things. The tattered outlaw of the earth, Of ancient crooked will, Starve, scourge, deride me I am dumb, I keep my secret still. Fools, for I also had my hour, One far fierce hour and sweet, There was a shout about my ears And palms before my feet.
The new president of Luther Seminary, Robin Steinke.
The new president of Wartburg Seminary, Louise Johnson.
The new ex-president of United Lutheran Seminary, Rev. Theresa Latini.
When I took journalism in junior high, we interviewed faculty and wrote them up. In all such cases, even in the adult world, facts about education and family are pertinent. We noted when someone was married, but our crusty old maid teacher said, "Don't she - she has no children. We don't want people to think they are not trying." She doubled over, laughing at her joke.
But the new orthodoxy in ELCA must be saying, "Their relationships are none of your beeswax." I recall an old story that indicated Latini had a daughter. Everything else is unstated. Watch that trend continue.
These seminary presidents? NOYB.
ELCA Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber is married, but where does a pastor buy clerics designed to show off one's deltoids and tatts? She is not a seminary president...yet.
The battle at United Lutheran Seminary has appeared in every periodical except the Ferrier's Journal.
As I wrote before, I went through an HEW interview at the Philadelphia Seminary around 1981. They had their new hired already. The extra interviews were to prove to HEW that they were not discriminating against anyone.
New links to various magazines, journals, and shopers' gudes reminded me of a non-incident when I was there. The Lutheran magazine (LCA) - now The Living Lutheran (ELCA) - just ran an article by a Philadelphia professor outlining the traditional view of marriage. When we were lining up for lunch, one professor passed by the author, who was in line, and said, "Good article."
Looking back, there must have been a battle brewing. I know the liberals of the LCA were glad to see the magazine's conservative editor retire. Soon every issue was geared for the quotas, as if the entire LCA were a gay, Black abortion lobby. The formation of the ELCA followed the same quota pattern, so the new organization was designed to be a self-perpetuating far Left enclave.
Needless to say, the new orthodoxy not only demands the current Hollywood standards, but a lifetime of the same counter-cultural attitudes. Those students previously disqualified for the ministry are the new dictators, denouncing the new thought-sins (even if ancient thought-sins) with all the energy of youthful Maoists. They have a new group, which I refuse to name or link - whatever the American population is doing, we have a right to do the same.
Dirty deeds are done dirt cheap - by all the parasites in Lutherdom.
Needless to say, ELCA is falling apart as rapidly as the LCMS, WELS, and ELS. The so-called conservative side went through the same revolution decades ago. Timid Tim almost cried when I told him WELS was working with the LCA/ALC through Lutheran World Relief, etc. He grew up in WELS and did not know. (No points awarded for Ninja awareness.)
The so-called conservatives decided to work with the LCA/ALC and really coveted the relative size and wealth of their larger counterparts. I recall Mordor students saying with glowing eyes, "Look at all the money they have for advertising!" Clearly, one of their designated hero-leaders planted that thought in their minds. Paul Kelm? Let's graph how that has worked out for everyone.
The son of the homiletics professor spoke excitedly in class about all the post-seminary educational options for the senior class - Fuller! Trinity Divinity! and more. How did those names fall so trippingly off his tongue?
Of course, the slow erosion caused by UOJ permeated WELS from the start, with so many trained at St. Louis, including most of their faculty - except Hoenecke. The ELS was founded on UOJ, as history proves, so that remains their nursing mother, their crack cocaine.
The ELCA Philadelphia seminary was formed to combat the unionism and anti-Confessionalism of the General Synod. Muhlenberg Monument: he came from Halle, just like Walther's mentor, Bishop Martin Stephan. By Concord - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3879159
Timothy Wengert is the Philadelphia Seminary professor who established the "bound conscience" excuse behind the 2009 ELCA change in marriage and ordination. That turned ELCA into pure Hollywood politics, especially with the election of Liz Eaton as Presiding Bishop. The very liberal ELCA of 2008 looked like Paradise compared to the wreckage caused by Hanson and Eaton.
"Prior to the meeting on March 14h, four board members resigned, and four additional board members resigned after the meeting. The letter communicated the need for new leadership and a commitment to be transparent as possible as a search for a new interim president and new board members begin. The board named Bishop James Dunlop as acting president.
“These issues are complicated and multi-faceted and, as such, there can be ‘no one right or true answer,’” the letter said. “We affirm that all points of view are valid and meaningful, and we ask that you recognize on good faith that we did our best to take all into full account as we endeavored to find the best answer for ULS.
The Local reached out to the Rev. Annemarie H. Cook, president of the Alumni Association of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, now the United Lutheran Seminary, about the current controversy surrounding the firing of the Latini and alumni’s reaction.
In an email, Cook wrote that as president of the alumni association of the seminary, she was “part of a community of graduates who are serving the church all over the world in many and various way.”
“We have seen changes to our seminary over the years that have brought both joy and pain,” she said in an email. “We celebrate the Urban Theological Institute, our place in the Mt. Airy neighborhood, and our status as a Reconciling in Christ seminary that publicly welcomes and affirms lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
“What I have learned in my listening is that the alumni of LTSP are not of one mind about the current situation at United Lutheran Seminary surrounding the firing of Dr. Theresa Latini and multiple resignations of the Board of Trustees. Those who have been following this have expressed disappointment, anger, forgiveness, sadness, and even hope in the midst of a situation that has captured their attention for more than a month. There are still others who are either not aware of the situation or who choose to remain out of the conversations that relate to it.”
The Rev. Jay C. Mitchell, pastor at Christ Ascension Lutheran Church, 8300 Germantown Ave. in Chestnut Hill, said that as “a Reconciling in Christ congregation with historic and loving ties to the seminary community in Mt Airy, Christ Ascension continues to pray for the students, staff, faculty, board, and alumni of United Lutheran Seminary.”
“Christ Ascension takes great pride in being such close neighbors with ULS, as well as its predecessor body, the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia,” Mitchell said, adding that “the congregation is praying for healing, wholeness, and vision as the seminary seeks guidance for a way forward that is open, honest, and loving.”
“We are particularly aware of LGBTQ+ students and students of color who have borne the brunt of this current situation as well as continued oversight by the institution,” said Mitchell, an alumnus of LTSP. “We are proud of our status as a Reconciling in Christ congregation with an open welcome to all who seek community among God’s beloved and pray especially for the communities most vulnerable and hardest hit by the current situation.”
He added that his “heart breaks” for the seminary and its community."
"We are not done yet. There is a lot more damage left to do."
Apostasy Reigns Supreme
The 3-26-2018 issue of Christian News is another debacle of doctrinal apostasy. There must be a contest to see which group is the most hypocritical.
Notice the graphic above. The first step was taken many decades ago. The Lutherans foolishly went along with Nida's dynamic equivalence and the paraphrased modernistic Bible translations. The RSV was the first big production. That epitome of Calvinism comes in two flavors now - the NIV and the ESV, both available for the new WELS catechism. Save. Me. A. Copy.
The promotion of crypto-Universalism began with Walther, a college graduate weak in Biblical languages but strong in sex abuse enabling. Since this entire faction placed the Waltherian UOJ theses above the Bible, they rejected the infallibility, clarity, and efficacy of the Word.
What dominates ELCA and all the supposedly conservative, "confessional," and "orthodox" sects today? Universal Objective Justification. What are the results?
Published 2000. So who thought it was best to get into bed with ELCA?
The conservatives abhor what ELCA has done since 2009, but they have their own gay Book of Concord now. Kolb-Wengert honors the seminary professor who established the 2009 change in ELCA's position on marriage and ordination - Timothy Wengert.
Satan's upside-down star and emblem on a rainbow - that is the result of four years at WELS' Martin Luther College.
The LCMS seminary professors do not want to be associated with them there backwoods hicks that still believe in Creation, so they are now patiently explaining what the "scholars" say about the Bible. Oh, do go on. Their problem is - the Bible is still efficacious and clear, so their philosophizing to please ELCA and the intellectualoids at State U. is a waste of time. We still believe.
Through UOJ they have rejected the Gospel and want instead to promote their mainline apostasy as the heart and soul of the Reformation. Too bad they could not hide their disgust with Luther and their ignorance of Melanchthon.
The best WELS and Missouri could do with the Reformation's 500th - to offer a few crass trinkets that would embarrass a confessing atheist, who might exclaim, "You say you like Luther and Melanchthon? I do not want to be your friend, at that rate."
Mr. and Mrs. Prospect, have you considered our bar ministry?
