2011 Snowbird Conference of ELCA, LCMS, and WELS
At the Snowbird Ecumenical Conference, the best ever,
according to Rev. James Schaefer, our council of presidents
and other leaders, 25 in all, were taught how to manage the
church by a woman. They were taught what St. Paul says about
ministry by a Trinity Seminary professor, an advocate of the
historical-critical method. They were told by a liberal
Reformed theologian that the radical left mainline
denominations were not becoming "sideline" denominations.
George Barna, Who's Who in Church Growth, also taught our
leaders at Snowbird, but they seem to know Barna's work quite
well already. When Columbus WELS pastors invited ELCA to
discuss inerrancy, no one from Trinity Seminary showed up.
They understand fellowship. But our synodical president
posed for photos with Rev. Herb Chilstrom, former Pietist,
who advanced himself by promoting the cause of homosexuality
and pornography-as-sex-offender therapy as bishop of the
LCA's Minnesota Synod. A Lutheran troubled by false doctrine
in Missouri and ELCA would have to say, reading The Lutheran,
"They are all in it together." Knowing the ELCA quota
system, I have to conclude that the very large ELCA
contingent included homosexual and lesbian pastors, certainly
a large group of women pastors and women executives. Did we
not express our approval of this violation of Scripture, not
to mention the blasphemies of Braaten Jenson's Christian
Dogmatics, which is the standard ELCA dogmatics text? 47
Another insurance sponsored ecumenical endeavor, the Joy
radio show, put together by ELCA, LCMS, and WELS, has 3
versions about its development. The one published in
Christian News, 12-9-91, p. 2) claimed it was the first joint
ministry among the three groups. The synod office denied in
writing that we were involved at all and claimed that the
ELCA pastor had been corrected. Another version, from ELCA,
is that John Barber was involved from the beginning and WELS
supported the joint religious program. As of 1-10-92, no one
had informed the ELCA pastor who wrote the release that WELS
was not part of the program. I spoke with him and with his
secretary at length. ELCA sent out various publicity flyers
identifying our participation in a classic case of rank
unionism. A third version of events came from the synod
office - that John Barber was sharing his great talents with
ELCA and LCMS. Is that so bad? The NWL denied WELS was part
of the program itself. Since I was once part of the LCA's
enormous media program, as a writer and stringer for The
Lutheran, as chairman of the district committee, and as a
participant in a national conference with the LCA media
people, I was amused to learn that ELCA needed our man at
all. (Worthy of note: we are following Missouri and ELCA in
spending bundles of public relations and advertising - and
getting the same results.)
WELS has acquired a well-deserved reputation for rudeness to
outsiders over the years, but I do not think that public
relations and unionistic efforts will change anyone's
attitude toward us. If we want to be loved and respected by
false teachers, then we must wallow in Enthusiasm with them.
If we want love, a fruit of faith, to flourish among us, then
we must believe, teach, and confess the true Christian faith.
As Lenski wrote, we cannot pick apples where there are no
trees. Schwaermer trees will only produce large, wormy
apples.
