Promised Post on WELS Abuse

They hauled the Sprinter statue from Northwestern to MLC, they missed him so much.

The Wisconsin Sect statistically is 50% in Wisconsin, 25% in Michigan, 25% in Minnesota. It did not begin as an orthodox church body but as a Lutheran-Calvinist union, very German and very Pietistic. The trouble with German Pietists is they never banned alcohol.

WELS today is best described by two factors. 

• One is the culture of bullies and victims, thanks to its parochial and prep schools. 
• The other is the culture of lying all the time and smirking about those fooled by the lies.
• These characteristics taint WELS, even among those who did not attend their precious schools.

They start right away with forced crossed dressing for boys and zechsing, the overall bullying of young students by older students. When John Laurenz was head of Michigan Lutheran Seminary (just a private high school), a student was held out an upper storey window by his legs. The bullies let go and the boy broke a bone or two. Lawrenz laughed in the middle of his sentence about this - another common WELS trait - starting, laughing, and then finishing the sentence.

The serious bullying begins at the two remaining prep schools and worsens in college and seminary. I know two men who were knocked or beaten unconscious during hazing. An ELS leader was whipped on his bare buttocks with a wire hanger. 

The students are punished for telling their parents, and often no one believes their saintly WELS brethren could be nasty, cruel, crude, violent, and degenerate.

 The GA Pope, dressed somewhat like this, became a district president.

The promotion of cross-dressing and their fun of sodomizing the Sprinter statue is well known. They not only dress as women, but photograph and videotape their celebrations. 

The WELS college guys copied the Fire Island Pines video almost frame-by-frame, except that the WELS version added a gratuitous grabbing scene taped in a public part. Antinomians have no Law and no sense.

Criticizing the secretive, double-talking, and abusive tactics at the WELS schools is a lifetime sin, considered the mark of Cain. When one pastor backed up his cousin about the abuse at the late Northwestern College in Watertown, the college president said, "_____ criticized GA!" Now we know who the felons are - people who complain about degenerate and criminal behavior.

One Northwestern student quit after his fellow students locked him in the men's bathroom all night. He was labeled bad for "not getting along with the others." He dropped out.

Alcoholism is rampant in WELS, so a stewed DP is not going to be hard on a pickled pastor or teacher. The mutual encouragement of alcohol abuse sets the stage for a life of addiction and denial. Boys will be boys, they say.

Lying is promoted so much that members and clergy know that the latest whopper is intended to tell everyone, "Be quiet or else. That is the way we are doing things." 

Two Examples - 

1. When Wayne Mueller published the lie that WELS had no Church Growth program, cuz he would know, that meant - "I will get you and your little dog too!" Wayne once threatened a whole group of WELS clergy for giving me a copy of his false interpretation of Luther. Touchy, eh? Physical threats are the fruit of hazing - they mean it.
   
2. When the Synod President told all the districts that WELS would "pull the plug" if the Martin Luther College enlargement bill got higher than $8 million," he was saying - and he did say - "The bulldozers have started, we can't stop now." Did it matter that the vote to merge the colleges failed? No, they switched the vote count and threatened the counting committee if they told. 

Ancestor Worship

Certain families have automatic get-out-of-jail-free cards, no matter what they do. Others will say in a hushed voice, "He is a Name!"  When people were questioning Mark Jeske, he responded, "I am fifth generation WELS. I am never leaving." The unfolding merits of paternity and maternity are awesome. Blood is thicker than doctrine in WELS.

One pastor was protected as a falling-down drunk because his wife "is a Name."

All this creates and sustains a secretive cult - so insecure, the scandals and felonies must be denied. The laity repeat the lies of the clergy and synod officials. 

Star published two books at Northwestern Publishing House on his favorite topic. He and young Scott Barefoot also started a gay ministry, not too far behind ELCA.

If questioning laity or clergy force a meeting over the issues, they find out how quickly everyone can become the enemy, especially the kindly person who offered to help and speak on that person's behalf. That is GA double-talk, pretending to be sympathetic (the Softs) and laughing at those newbies who take them seriously.

If someone objects to clergy adultery and alcoholism, the response is about the complainer - repeated all over the WELS Grapevine - "He is bitter."

WELS is especially obsessed about Justification without Faith, so that makes Antinomianism their religion. There is no Law and therefore no Gospel. But legalism triumphs.