 |
| The board room for the Pan-Lutheran Association of Nonbelievers (PLAN) is filled with moss, due to declining revenue. Notice the image of a fading cross on the windows to the right. |
Synod's Planned Giving Counselors - or whatever they are called now - have to pass the insurance test for their heavenly duties. They are insurance salesmen, because the Irrevocable Charity Annuities are insurance products backed by tax law. That means the "counselor" talks elderly people into giving up fat chunks of equity for the promise of getting a big return on them.
Annuities can be cool or cruel. I was the annuities expert and CLU at a Northwestern Mutual Insurance agency. The government considers most of the income to be a return of the original amount and not taxable. There are variations on this, but that is basic.
The cruel part is that irrevocable means almost impossible to change once Grannie signs the contract. The "Planned Insurance Salesman" gets a commission. Later, Grannie's estate goes to the synod.
Thrivent was once AAL and Lutheran Brotherhood, but they merged to consolidate their sales and control their patsies. Thrivent loves having all the synods under their thumb. Thrivent makes the synods work together under ELCA rules - anything goes! - and no complaints come from the others. If you wonder why America has gone downhill so rapidly, just consider the way the so-called conservative synods have enjoyed being bedfellows with ELCA.
Thrivent is hotter than Georgia asphalt for Church Growth, because it meshes so well with their money-making plans. The synodical executives are just as tuned in to "What's in it for me?" The synods control the slush funds for their own benefit. They drink work hard and deserve the rewards!
 |
Salaries are hard or expensive to find: GuideStar earlier listed his part-time salary as $120,000 plus benefits. In return, Jeske invites WELS-ELS-LCMS pastors to be taught by ELCA women pastors, and the "conservatives" come like sheep to the peaceful waters of apostasy. Seibert Foundation adds to this delightful PLAN plan.
|
Psalm 1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
