Freedom - We Do Not Have What We Fail To Use

 Walther kidnapped Bishop Stephan at gunpoint
so he could become the pope of the cult.

I have always been puzzled by my peers acting as if they are locked into place, as if in a prison, in their pathetic, failing synods. The clergy are the worst, of course, because they feel tied down by the golden chains of salary, benefits, housing, and health insurance. Yes, the synods are more powerful than God, because those poor souls will starve and huddle naked outdoors in the snow and sleet if their anti-Luther sects desert them.

These prisoners are the worst kind of chess players, because they play the players, not the board. That means everything will go their way if the others perform as they hope. The rest of them are the same, so the ones who become district presidents and professors are the same who made the right guesses for the moment.

The chessboard, my analogy du jour, is the Word of God. One does not trump the Word of God by schemes, clever strategies, and a thousand deceits. The result of trying to defeat the Word is a bunch of timid clowns hoping they can get by with their plans.

I know this from talking to the worst of them. When they are caught in their lies, they are terrified and look for help or cover. If their little foam castles are threatened, they respond with angry tirades.

The Gospel means freedom, so clergy and laity are not bound to those gilded chains - they only appear golden. The family objects? Jesus asked "Who is my mother, my brother, my sisters?"

Matthew 12:46 While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.

47 Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.

48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?

49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!

50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

If people want me to stick with an abusive anti-Gospel sect, they are themselves abusive and anti-Gospel. They may not see this until later. There is certainly evidence that Jesus' mother was in company of the Apostles (Acts) and that His brother was also an early leader (James). 

Some clergy leave one system of dictatorial abuse and join another one, comfortable in being told how to think, dress, and vote. Perhaps they dream of being that dictator one day, as Walther did. Every Ft. Wayne seminarian seems to have a bishop's hat in his briefcase: McCain, Webber, Cascione, Heiser, and the Preussian Union. They are all self-appointed bishops.

No other era has been so free for believers and so full of potential for those who want to enjoy that freedom. Clergy can start a congregation without a mission board, a million bucks in debt, and all the strings attached thereto. Laity can gather and call a pastor, without begging and waiting years for Holy Mother Church to respond. No one has to bend the knee to Thrivent, Jeske, and the Wolf of Wall Street.

Fun with Pollinators in the Creation Garden

Sassy wants her morning walk by 7 AM, and I finish a mug of pour-over coffee by that time. She interprets certain signals favorably, such as donning socks and speaking certain words, such as go, walk, and morning crunchies.

We inspect the rose garden at the same time, for different reasons. I look for the latest blooms. She noses about, looking for signs of wild life.

On Friday I wonder about what will be blooming Sunday morning. In hot weather the new rose blooms appear rapidly. If I want more roses,

1. I prune mature rose flowers, 
2. look for death stars (blooms with no petals, ready to develop hips), and 
3. cut away dead wood. 

All three suppress new blooms, so I follow John 15 and cleanse the fruitful to make them more fruitful. But Sassy is a busy executive, with people to meet and places to explore. She hurries me along with some happy barks. Pruning waits for her permission, later.

I am watching the plants I obtained for pollinators. At Almost Eden, that word came up often - pollinators. That includes bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The gardening sites all work very hard at exploiting those categories, especially butterflies and hummingbirds.

Hummingbirds love three plants I am promoting in the rose garden:

• Hostas - for their trumpet flowers;
• Bee Balm - for their trumpet flowers;
• Trumpet Vine - for their trumpet flowers.

The common factor seems to be...Bueller, Bueller, anyone? anyone? Worth mentioning is the hummingbirds' need for tiny insects. Hummingbird feeders offer sugar water, but flowers offer nectar and tiny insects.

Hummingbird flowers will also be popular with bees, and I like having a constant cycle of blooming, which start with early spring weeds, mints, and dandelions.

Butterflies seem to need a specific plant for each kind:

1. Milkweed for the Monarch eggs and caterpillers, 
2. Parsley for the Black Swallowtails.

I am working on Butterfly Weed (related to Milkweed) now and Milkweed for next year.

Teeny-Tiny Insects
Joe Pye and Mountain Mint draw groups of tiny insects and butterflies. I wondered why they sold a small version of Joe Pye called Little Joe. Now I know why. My mature Joe Pye is ready to bloom and almost 6 feet tall.

Likewise, Mountain Mint is so tall that people ask what it is. Do not laugh, but I have made three attempts to divide and replant some. I missed the one day of spring for that, and the roots are welded to the clay soil for now. Laugh all day - I have Mountain Mint and most people do not know how valuable it is.

 Cletha - aka Summersweet aka Sweet Pepperbush, etc.
Poke a bloom and see a tiny insect cloud.

But I also like the tiny insects that do so much to attack insect pests. Their small size contributes to overlooking their value. If I wiggle the right plants, a tiny cloud of them will take flight and settle down again - quite a sight.

About Clethra - From Gardening in Tune with Nature

If I had space in a small garden for only one woody plant, I would grow summersweet.  I’ve always grown it and frequently written about the heady perfume of its summer flowers and its unique brassy yellow autumn leaves, but its status as a “must have” plant for the garden insectary was secured last August as I stood among a colony of the cultivar ‘Hokie Pink’ flowering in Marjorie’s Garden.  I recalled the summer day ten years earlier when we knocked each of the five small plants out of its one-gallon pot and planted them around the bole of the old white pine growing off the porch steps.  A decade later, as I twisted my way into head-high branches crowded with racemes of soft pink flowers, it was impossible to say where one plant stopped and another took over.  Even a chipmunk has a hard time weaving through the interlaced stems to reach the base of the pine.

Carefully moving branches aside, I positioned my legs and those of my tripod in the middle of the summersweet colony and waited for the wake of my disturbance to settle.  Soon the spikes of flowers, only a few inches from my nose, were crawling with bees, wasps, hoverflies, beetles, and several insects whose images remain on my computer desktop, waiting to be identified.  Bumblebees of all sizes and colored markings outnumbered all other insects.  A lonely honeybee joined the symphony of buzzing, along with several small native bees, some metallic green, others gray or black.  Two distinctly different hoverflies tormented me with their inability to settle down long enough for a photograph, but a tachinid fly obliged, stopping in its frenetic foraging for nectar long enough for me to get a decent shot.  (Both hoverflies and tachinid flies are predators of herbivores such as aphids and various leaf-munching caterpillars.  Hoverflies feed on nectar and pollen as adults, but their larvae feed on other insects.  Tachinid fly females lay their eggs on other insect adults or larvae.  When these eggs hatch, the tachinid larvae bore into the host’s body and slowly consume it.)

In terms of diversity of insects attracted to a single plant in bloom, nothing in my experience compares to what I witnessed on that August afternoon.  Through the tangle of summersweet branches I could see the vegetable garden a hundred feet away, the bright orange squash flowers beckoning.  When a bumblebee in my viewfinder took wing and disappeared, I knew where it was heading.

More about Clethra from another writer. I have two mature Clethras.

Where Yah Going on Vacation?

I am there.

J Post - Nothing Is Lost Or Erased in the Digital Age

One hilarious theme in the last few years concerned Hillary wiping her server ("like with a cloth?") and we heard - "using BleachBit" to erase it forever. Not only that, many good cell phones were pounded to bits "to erase all information."

The NSA pulls everything out of the air and off digital devices, storing the data. The emails were never lost. The cell phone material still exists. The NSA always had it.

I tell people "I just phone 1-800-NSA-HELP to retrieve my forgotten passwords."

However, another part of prosecution is introducing information according to legal standards. One enormous help is the legal standing of Weiner's laptop. When the emails and videos from the Insurance folder are introduced into evidence, many more connections will be made.

Backups of servers are made all the time, as a matter of policy. Some are copied at other locations.

The NSA can pull digital photos off smartphones. I could go on. It is a new age. If honest people pursue the truth, America can be restored, but not without God's help.

Beating the Heat in a Drought - Islands of Flowers

Double Delight

Some roses have spectacular blooms but are not as vigorous in their growth. I can think of various small plants with large blooms - Veterans Honor, Double Delight, Fragrant Cloud.

Also, when plants are getting started, the watering they get may give the weeds a better start than the plant. I am using the following to create zones where a plant can do well, rise above weeds, and hold more water in the soil.

Pulling grassy weeds will often not work well, because they want to pull the new plant up with them. Gabe Brown has taught me not to fear the weeds but use their root growth to some extent.

1. Anything growing can be used against itself, so I snip grassy visitors and leafy weeds with scissors  - or rose shears - sometimes with small battery operated clippers. The cut greens make a layer of mulch, high nitrogen fertilizer.
2. I place newspaper or cardboard on top of the plant material mulch. Newspaper can be torn to pieces to add to the shading effect, which discourages weed growth. Some small cardboard boxes (crackers, etc) open up perfectly to create an opaque area around the plant, giving it room to grow. This cardboard or newspaper layer blocks sun to hold down weed growth and keep moisture in the soil. Plants do not like hot feet any more than we like walking barefoot on the sidewalk to the mailbox. 
3. Newspaper and cardboard can be weighed down by wood mulch. I use cyprus rather than dyed wood. Wood mulch does not need dye. I am generous with wood mulch because it does not cost much and looks attractive. Wood slowly decomposes into the soil and boosts the hard-working soil fungi.
4. My first choice for extra watering is stored rainwater, the second being stored tapwater. Today I took stored rainwater and boosted nine young Crepe Myrtle bushes. Yes, in the not noonday sun. Why? Because if I felt miserable, they felt just as bad. I used the sprinklers on some areas that seemed burning in the heat and relatively dry.

If a plant is well established and healthy, a cool shower on a hot day is be good for it. Water droplets do not burn - they cool. 

 Whimpy Crepe Myrtle - when we moved to the cul-de-sac.

I am likely to give extra compost and mulch to those established plants, because their growth demands more food. Eventually their soil foundation is rich in organic matter, abounding in fungi and soil creatures, trapping nutrition and moisture for the best and healthiest growth.

 The same CM, a few years later.
Wait til this year's blooms are all out.

As I mentioned before, I took the whimpy Crepe Myrtle and doted on it, knowing the plant would bloom in the dry season without my help. I wanted more than ordinary blooms. I wanted the Fourth of July. Every time I had some extra mushroom compost, grass clippings, or wood mulch, the Crepe Myrtle got it.

Pruning is another way to boost growth, so I pruned it all the time, shaping and improving its look.

The Crepe Myrtle became the centerpiece for the cul-de-sac, an explosion of pink blooms that never seemed to quit, pruned away and blooming again.

Each autumn, I pile all the leaves (especially the wet slimy ones from the street) under the CM. The leaves are slowly decomposed during the winter, speeding up by spring, when I add a thin layer of wood mulch so the Calladiums can come through. Now we have them putting up their bright red and green leaves under the CM, a colorful counterpoint.

These ideas all stem from Creation principles, which are already at work, whether we observe them or not. I start with the foundation, the soil and what makes it fertile. Secondly, I avoid man-made toxins which hinder rather than helping the garden. Finally, I try to do extra tasks for plants, insects, birds, and toads, to get the team working faster, better, and more productively. That is roughly .00001% of the garden. God does the rest.

Mark 4:26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

Sassy Sue Sits for a Formal Portrait at J. C. Penney's. Her Staff Gets Bonus Photos

Sassy Sue is half German Shepherd, half Cattle Dog - intelligent, gentle. loving, and an expert in managing her staff.

Sassy has always been a bit shy around the camera, but we wanted a special portrait of her. Penney's did a great job last year, so we took her to the same studio. As always, awkward poses led to good results, and the photographer was very good.

Sassy was in a goofy mood and wanted tummy rubs to go along with her poses. She barked going in and barked even more while waiting for the selection of poses. She was clearly done with her job for the morning. Everyone loved her as they walked by the tiny office, and some wanted to pet her before and after. Sassy promotes a lot of affection. Ranger Bob insisted on a formal photo and wanted a print. He loves the photos, which were downloaded about an hour after we were done.

One studio posed Chris with plastic flowers, so I brought fresh roses from our garden.

The photographer had us sitting on the floor with Sassy, on our stomachs with her, and trying to make her a lap dog. We had a great time and got some extra photos. Our 49th anniversary is in November.

J Post on Current Developments

 MI - Ministerial Intelligence.

Today should be filled with news about the Inspector General's redacted report. People should call their political representatives and ask that the complete un-redacted report be released. Phone calls are tabulated - they count. So so emails, tweets, and letters.

House of Representatives

The Senate


Many current issues relate to the same set of problems. When we listen to Fox News, I marvel at how they ignore what is happening. However, when we turn to CNN, those newsies remind me of the WELS Appleton Gang - a collection of the inept, always outraged about the truth.

When I gave the last chapter of Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure at a WELS pastors' conference, three men had raging tantrums - Kovaciny, Oelhafen, and Adrian. That was when I decided the paper was the final chapter. NPH published it and and the Shrinkers did their best to get rid of me. The point here is - people rage against the truth, so CNN's behavior has a lot more behind it than Korea or some other topics. Their paradise is threatened and is coming down. We should help that happen.

One topic is world-wide and not recommended for reading. But it has come up repeatedly and unites many of the worst characters involved. Google - Keith Raniere (trafficking cult), Allison Mack (TV star and participant in Raniere cult Nxium), Catherine Oxenberg and her daughter India, same cult. Seagram's Whiskey was once controlled by the Bronfman family, which works with the Rothschilds. The Bronfman sisters spent $150 million supporting Raniere and Nxium. This one topic alone connects England (Jimmy Saville and the royal family), Pope Francis and Argentina/Chile. Additional names to search - or avoid searching - on this topic are Hillary Clinton, Haiti, and Laura Silsby.

The more we are informed, the more difficult it is to fool us.

Dr. J Solves the Creation over Billions of Years Problem

In the 19th century, the Evangelicals and Lutherans faced the issue of Creation versus Evolution with boldness. The LCMS faculty at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, has caught up with them - only a century or two later.

This scientific age creates a problem for churches - we cannot expect people to go along with Creation in six 24-hour days. Thus a solution developed in the 19th century - one so good that it is still being used today. A day could be any length of time, so God could have created over a vast space of time. When the going gets tough, reconsider and compromise.

Demi-Semi-Hemi-Creation Works out This Way

1. "Let us create the earthworm to mix, fertilize, and aerate soil." 
2. Millions of years later, "Let us create bacteria to digest the food in the earthworm gut."
3. The earthworms are all dead, because they were able to swallow soil and leafy material, but they could not digest their own food by themselves.
4. The created bacteria are dead, because they had no place to do their work and multiply.

I could go on with many more examples. No, this does not prove Creation, because Creation is revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Word. Like the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation of Christ, Creation is a mystery revealed, not a debating point.

However, the field-workers who raise roses, hostas, berries, and Joe Pye realize something. Creation by the Word explains why multiple layers of plant and animal life work and thrive together in many ways at once.

They were created and engineered together, with far more complexity than we can imagine. The "simple" plant cell is more like a complex miniature factory, with many different engines working to move water, obtain food, grow, differentiate, and reproduce. 

If that were not enough, the timing of the natural world is exquisitely precise. 

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion;

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Earl of Oxford, As You Like it.

Our Crepe Myrtle mother ship leafed out late this spring, so the cardinals did not build their love nest in it. Instead, robins came, built, and raised their young, which were on the ground testing their wings the other day.

Now I am wondering if the Japanese beetles aka June bugs are making their appearance at night.

We have enough problems staging a play or passing a bill in the legislature. A wedding is a series of panic attacks, but God's Creation is managed around us, with few thinking about how endless complexities and dependencies are all organized together.

1. If a thoughtless gardener makes a mistake, and plants or animals are harmed,
2. If he gets a 10 horsepower tiller for Father's Day and uses it to wreck the soil,
3. If by chance, a finger gets in the way of the rose shears, and blood drips onto the garden,
4. Creation will eventually heal the damage.

If so much can take place without our anxious thoughts, how much more does the Creator mend, heal, and guide us.

Pruning Roses, Weeds, and My Finger

I got my Hidden Lily roots for a song, after the season last year. Now they are coming up in bloom.

Everything is growing in abundance: flowers and grass and weeds. Today, I enjoyed the chance to work on individual plants, pruning away the grassy weeds and dead wood, building up the mulch.

 Joe Pye is hardy, colorful, and the ultimate butterfly plant.

 Cat Mint

The rose collars make it simple to weed-eat some areas, then throw down newspapers and wood mulch. Joe Pye and Shasta Daisies are so vigorous, they almost make their own mulch by growing fast and dominating the space. Roses and hostas need the grassy weeds suppressed close to the plant, especially since squirrels love to plant nut trees with each rose.

I pruned into my left index finger, which did not hurt at all, but started to fertilize the rose plant. Finding a bandage inside elicited suggestions about being more careful.

 I am olde school - I grow my Hummingbird feeders:
Trumpet Vine and Hostas.

The big bloomers of the week are:

• Hidden Lily Wild Ginger
• The Mother of All Crepe Myrtles
• Bergamot
• Trumpet Vines, front and back yards (Hummingbird delight)
• Easy Does It roses
• Pokeweed
• Butterfly Weed (front and back)
• Elderberries and Blackberries

 Horse Mint is best marketed as Bee Balm,
and it is great for bees and Hummingbirds.

One can easily determine the popular plants by the ones already sold out at The Growers Exchange:

1. Common Milkweed
2. Bee Balm (Bergamot, above)
3. Borage (Bee Bread)
4. Cat Mint
5. Garlic Chives
6. Fox Glove
7. Fever Few
8. Mountain Mint
9. Mullein - a roadside weed in Michigan
10. Tansy
11. Valerian

 Mountain Mint

Greek Lesson - Romans 4:1-11

 The Faith of Jesus

Parsing Link

Romans Lenski - Download and save public domain PDF.

ΠΡΟΣ ΡΩΜΑΙΟΥΣ 4 1550 Stephanus New Testament (TR1550)

4 τι ουν ερουμεν αβρααμ τον πατερα ημων ευρηκεναι κατα σαρκα

ουν therefore connects this chapter to the previous argument. Read Ro 3 over again, especially the last 3 verses. κατα is used, like the Gospel κατα John.

2 ει γαρ αβρααμ εξ εργων εδικαιωθη εχει καυχημα αλλ ου προς τον θεον

θη - passive signal. Note how close this is to John 8 - children of Abraham by flesh (blood) or by faith. No contradictions in the Bible. προς - toward not κατα

3 τι γαρ η γραφη λεγει - επιστευσεν δε αβρααμ τω θεω, και ελογισθη αυτω εις δικαιοσυνην

Paul's argument in 3:22 rests upon righteousness (justification) by faith of Jesus Christ - δικαιοσυνη δε θεου δια πιστεως ιησου χριστου - righteousness of God through (agency) faith of Jesus Christ, Jesus-Christ-faith. Anarthrous, without the article glues words together, use hyphen or show this unity. We drop articles too - The governor of Arkansas, or Governor of Arkansas Huckabee.

και ελογισθη - passive, is counted, is reckoned, is imputed.

4 τω δε εργαζομενω ο μισθος ου λογιζεται κατα χαριν - αλλα κατα το οφειλημα

Dative - to the one working. κατα but κατα... Law Gospel contrast with working and payment for the work

5 τω δε μη εργαζομενω, πιστευοντι δε επι τον δικαιουντα τον ασεβη, λογιζεται η πιστις αυτου εις δικαιοσυνην

δε - connecting words are post-positive, the second word each time while we favor making them the first. Read as Greek, not as American.

πιστευοντι - clearly believing is righteousness. No room here for unbelieving counted as righteousness, the dogma of Universalists and mainline liberal apostates.

6 καθαπερ και δαβιδ λεγει - τον μακαρισμον του ανθρωπου [ω ο θεος λογιζεται δικαιοσυνην χωρις εργων]

An argument requires proof, authority, evidence, sometimes called a warrant. 

[ω ο θεος λογιζεται δικαιοσυνην χωρις εργων] - relative pronoun clause

7 μακαριοι ων αφεθησαν αι ανομιαι και ων επεκαλυφθησαν αι αμαρτιαι

apo-kalypto (uncover, revelation) epi-kalypto (put the cover one, favorite of Luther, covering neighbor's sins, because God covers ours: anti-gossip)

8 μακαριος ανηρ ω ου μη λογισηται κυριος αμαρτιαν

Beatitudes about forgiveness, righteousness, counting - based upon believing. Believing is Makarios. No one has translated the word better than blessed. Happy? - oh please. Schuller called them the Be-Happy-Attitudes. Ouch.

9 ο μακαρισμος ουν ουτος επι την περιτομην η και επι την ακροβυστιαν? λεγομεν γαρ οτι ελογισθη τω αβρααμ η πιστις εις δικαιοσυνην

We see how important Father Abraham is - he was counted righteous for believing in the coming Savior - before circumcision. γαρ - major break post-positive, explains what is before that, or concludes the argument.

10 πως ουν ελογισθη εν περιτομη οντι η εν ακροβυστια? ουκ εν περιτομη αλλ εν ακροβυστια

Notice how simple the argument is, easy grammar and vocabulary.

11 και σημειον ελαβεν περιτομης σφραγιδα της δικαιοσυνης της πιστεως της εν τη ακροβυστια [εις το ειναι αυτον πατερα παντων των πιστευοντων] δι ακροβυστιας εις το λογισθηναι και αυτοις την δικαιοσυνην

εις το ειναι αυτον πατερα παντων των πιστευοντων. Articular infinitive can be translated many ways, the article plus the infinitive using the genitive. Two articular infinitives in one verse - emphasis, connection, easy memory. Emphais not on circumcision but on believing.

Next Week

12 και πατερα περιτομης τοις ουκ εκ περιτομης μονον αλλα και τοις στοιχουσιν τοις ιχνεσιν της εν τη ακροβυστια πιστεως του πατρος ημων αβρααμ

13 ου γαρ δια νομου η επαγγελια τω αβρααμ η τω σπερματι αυτου το κληρονομον αυτον ειναι του κοσμου αλλα δια δικαιοσυνης πιστεως

14 ει γαρ οι εκ νομου κληρονομοι κεκενωται η πιστις και κατηργηται η επαγγελια

15 ο γαρ νομος οργην κατεργαζεται ου γαρ ουκ εστιν νομος ουδε παραβασις

16 δια τουτο εκ πιστεως ινα κατα χαριν εις το ειναι βεβαιαν την επαγγελιαν παντι τω σπερματι ου τω εκ του νομου μονον αλλα και τω εκ πιστεως αβρααμ ος εστιν πατηρ παντων ημων

17 καθως γεγραπται οτι πατερα πολλων εθνων τεθεικα σε κατεναντι ου επιστευσεν θεου του ζωοποιουντος τους νεκρους και καλουντος τα μη οντα ως οντα

18 ος παρ ελπιδα επ ελπιδι επιστευσεν εις το γενεσθαι αυτον πατερα πολλων εθνων κατα το ειρημενον ουτως εσται το σπερμα σου

19 και μη ασθενησας τη πιστει ου κατενοησεν το εαυτου σωμα ηδη νενεκρωμενον εκατονταετης που υπαρχων και την νεκρωσιν της μητρας σαρρας

20 εις δε την επαγγελιαν του θεου ου διεκριθη τη απιστια αλλ ενεδυναμωθη τη πιστει δους δοξαν τω θεω

21 και πληροφορηθεις οτι ο επηγγελται δυνατος εστιν και ποιησαι

22 διο και ελογισθη αυτω εις δικαιοσυνην

23 ουκ εγραφη δε δι αυτον μονον οτι ελογισθη αυτω

24 αλλα και δι ημας οις μελλει λογιζεσθαι τοις πιστευουσιν επι τον εγειραντα ιησουν τον κυριον ημων εκ νεκρων

25 ος παρεδοθη δια τα παραπτωματα ημων και ηγερθη δια την δικαιωσιν ημων

WELS Abuse Will Not Be Solved Until the Sect Has Vanished - According to a Former Circuit Pastor

 The long-term influence of JP Meyer doomed a lazy and self-satisfied WELS to build and deploy a culture of ruthless bullying. They are legalistic to a fault, but also Antinomian, imaging there is no law - at least not for the right people. All this depends on their utter rejection of Justification by Faith, promotion of UOJ, and intellectural torpor.

A Circuit Pastor in WELS said, "The only cure for WELS is to tear it apart." He has done his best by enabling the worst offenders at key points, where he might have shown a little courage, a little faith in God.

The problem starts with the culture of bullying and hazing in their schools, which they brag about, regardless of the evidence about academics. Grades are given according to family ties. The children of officials get top grades no matter what. The merit system is based on the family name, which makes many of them incredibly lazy and unaware of their illiterate state. One top scientist could not get over how WELS pastors would lecture him on science because they had one course in science.

 Churches That Abuse

But it goes far beyond that. Each class likes to haze and bully the class below it. That gives the class an artificial feeling of unity. Nothing is too violent, too gross, or too foolish to foist upon the younger students. If they complain, they are never forgiven. If they tell their parents or school officials, Hell will be visited upon them.

Most important, there is only WELS. No other group is even worth being mentioned. LCMS? - curl your mouth into a snarl. ELS? - they "cherish their fellowship with the ELS" but loathe the shrimpy version of WELS. The ELS president is expected to obey his masters in WELS - and he does.

WELS pastors love to deceive people - it is a real sport for them. They lie and laugh about how they fooled everyone. They "study so hard in seminary" and the laity feel sorry for them. When I was at Mequon, the library only saw John Brug and me there, plus the underworked staff. The real training for deception is their beloved GA or HB secret initiation and hazing rite.

The idea is to fool the new students into being scared to death at the end, which is based on days of lying to them. They are told to wade in raw sewage (the pond), which SP Mark Schroeder remembers so fondly. They take off all their sewery clothes outside, in view of the female kitchen staff, but that is OK. It is GA/HB. They laugh about the violence, like breaking someone's leg or knocking a tooth out.

They finish GA/HB with a drinking party. WELS college and sem training means a lot of drinking. Many are alcoholics at graduation, and yes, they know they have a problem. Imagine alcoholic leaders clamping down on alcoholism. I can name a few of them. If someone drives his car up a utility pole, and he is married into the right family, he gets a call as a missionary. That family is mentioned with hushed tones, so it means pre-absolution.

So many WELS clergy and teachers get away with unScriptural behavior that they assume they can treat people like dogs. Many laity have told me their stories, and they remain afraid of the clergy bullies and their own families.

The object of their cold disdain finds out that this invisible sign has been built to follow everywhere.

Oh, that works so well. The WELS family networks make sure that - once the shun sign is published - the black sheep is ousted more thoroughly than a Hutterite, Orthodox Jew, or Vikings fan in Green Bay.

If a WELS pastor is a bully (prep-college-GA training) or lecherous or a drunk, pity the woman or female staffer who objects to a supervisor. WELS has a beautiful system that works to enhace false doctrine, obnoxious and immoral behavior -

1. "Eighth Commandment! - You have slandered this innocent lamb of God."
2. "Matthew 18! - You did not sit down with this person, hold his hand, and gently tell him his sins".
3. "Write a letter!" This can be a deposition worthy of St. Paul or Seneca the Elder, but some phrase will be picked up and repeated constantly that shows the writer deserves the depths of Hell.

 Open a can of Eighth Commandment on the dissenter.
That one looks a bit worn, don't it?

All sincere efforts to address vocational failure or false doctrine are met with same phalanx response we see in Roman Catholicism. A woman is always at fault - just keep that in mind. Speak only to a lawyer and bring a carefully written account to that meeting with the attorney. The WELS Gestapo will act against the woman and make her life miserable. They will pit husband against wife, too, and say, "See they could not get along, so they blamed Holy Mother WELS."

But there is a necklace for the victims who are women. Yes, it is invisible, but everyone can see it, and the wearer can feel it. Rejoice and leave the buggers behind.

The District Presidents use their lackeys (the Circuit Pastors) and the Mission Board members to meddle in congregations. Like the ELS or LCMS, if they want to get rid of someone to make way for a buddy, they disturb the congregation and blame the pastor. And this is the bonus - they can use the same power to rescue their buddy from the law, the media, and discipline. DP Engelbrecht and SP Mark Schroeder interceded for Ski in Appleton, and DP Patterson and future DP Zank got Ski an illegal insta-call. Did Mark Jeske's Church and Change millionaires have anything to do with this miraculous rescue? My lips are sealed.

I have told anyone shunned or kicked out of WELS, "Be glad. They did you a favor. Look at the ones they keep in and reward. You do not want to be associated with them."

If you have a WELS pastor as a friend, you do not need any enemies. That account is full and overflowing. They will gladly betray a layman while pretending to help. They are a sad, sick bunch with no character. There are a few exceptions to my blanket condemnation, but I will not even hint at their names.

Just to show how the WELS Gestapo works - I gather information and perspective from a lot of people. I wished someone a happy birthday on FB because he had been kind to me, many years ago. Other than that, we have no contact and no conversations. But a pastor from WELS got on that page and said, "Are you leaking to Jackson?"

When Jon-Boy Buchholz was pretending to be friendly with me, he got on a WELS pastor's FB page and said, "Why are you friends with Jackson?" as if it were a felony. I only mention it to show how a DP can be outwardly friendly while being a hostile, vindictive, petty snake-in-the-grass (apologies to reptiles everywhere).

I need a punchline. Here is it - Mark Schroeder and Jon-Boy Buchholz were elected as Reformers. Get it? Reformers?