ELCA Former Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson Speaks Out

 

"Brett, you know very well that a stole over a business suit is the perfection of unity which I always try to maintain. More of a hybrid, one might say. That is how we blended other issues, to amalgamate rather than having harsh issues of doctrine. You might say Ohio Bishop Eaton set up the volley and smacked it over the net herself. She took over after me, after I steam-rolled the Big Issue of 2009. Oh, the joy!"

Presiding Bishop Liz Eaton was at the 2024 Youth Convention.
One can only guess what that produced.

Gloom and Doom from Richard Neuhaus' Nephew - Ovaltines Update.They Brought It All Down, Collecting the Demolition Fees.

Richard Neuhaus graduated from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, backed Seminex, joined the LCA, and became a Roman Catholic priest. That is also the mix at the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau Discussion Group.

Pastor Peter Speckhard (above)

ALPB Contribution Leader, Neuhaus Nephew

"I agree with the "change and decay" sentiment as sentiment of my generation, but I am heartened by the rising generation that never knew an institutionally strong and growing LCMS with mainstream aspirations and take the challenges of the world for granted as part of the bargain.  A lot of younger pastors have no illusions about salaries and fully expect to be bivocational. They see it as, in some ways at least, a feature of rather than bug in our current context. And they have no worries about not being mainstream. The question is whether they can convince any parishioners to join them in sufficient numbers to actually have congregations. But heartened as I am by their zeal, I can't join them except as a cheerleader. I was formed by a different world. I liked having a lot of Concordias. I like Valpo as an LCMS-centric Lutheran university. I appreciate a highly educated, professional clergy. I feel as though I have to focus on the next sermon and trust that the kingdom is advancing not because I am particularly faithful but because I am not really equipped to do anything else."

***

GJ - Christina and I met Neuhaus father when we were in Ontario and visiting that LCMS congregation. I corresponded with Richard Neuhaus and he quoted me in the ALPB Forum Letter, and we met him at the Ad Fontes (Come to Rome!) conference. There he spoke with the LCA President James Crumley, and we ate lunch with Crumley, a kindly person who wanted to know about my move to WELS.

LCA President Crumley attended the synod's conference for communication in Seattle. I paid for Christina's ticket. He would have been a good ELCA leader, but the radicals were already in charge before the gavel came down. WELS and the LCMS thought hordes of ELCA into their corrupted bosoms, but hey! - The Faithless Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) worshiped and learned together - WELS' Ron Roth and others were at Fuller Seminary from 1977 onward. ELCA did not officially start until New Year's 1983.

How about Snowbird ELCA-WELS-LCMS, 1991? -
"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.

 

As chairman of the board of Seminex, Jungkuntz approved this school for training future Metropolitan Community Church (gay) pastors. Many Seminex leaders were graduates of Northwestern College (WELS), where he taught earlier. 

Daily Lutheran Sermon Quote - "For there is no greater distress and calamity than when God sends us sects and false spirits, because they are so impudent and daringly bold, that they are really to be pitied. On the other hand the Word of God is such a great treasure, that no one can sufficiently comprehend its worth."

 

Complete Sermon - Tenth Sunday after Trinity, Luke 19:41-48. Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem

APPLICATION TO GERMANY.

11. Here let us learn a lesson, for this concerns us, not us alone who are here present, but the whole country of Germany. It is not a mere jest, nor should we think that it will go different with us. The Jews would not believe until they experienced it and became conscious of it. God has now also visited us, and has opened the precious treasures of his holy Gospel unto us, by which we can learn God’s will, and see how we were held by the power of the devil. Yet no one will earnestly believe it, yea, we much more despise it and make light of it. No city, no officer of the government is thankful for the Gospel; and what is still worse the great majority persecute and blaspheme it. God has great patience; he waits to see how we will deal with his Gospel; but when we once let the opportunity slip, he will take his Word from us, and then the wrath which consumed the Jews will also consume us. For it is one and the selfsame Word, the very same God, and the identical Christ, the Jews themselves had; therefore the punishment in body and soul will also most certainly be the same. [We, of course, regard it as mockery, and care nothing for it. This is only an evidence of our own blindness. We ought to perceive that God is hardening us; for there is not a single city that is concerned about it; no officer of the law shows any zeal in its favor. It is most deplorable.] And I fear the time will yet come when Germany will lay in a heap of ruins. The evil winds have already begun to blow destruction in our peasant war. We have already lost many people. Nearly one hundred thousand men, only between Easter and Pentecost! It is an awful work of God, and I fear it will not stop at this. It is only a foretaste of a threat to frighten us, that we may prepare ourselves for the coming ordeal. So far it is but a fox’s tail, but God will soon come with a terrible scourge, and lash us to pieces.

12. But we will act just like the Jews, and care nothing for it, until all help and counsel are lost forever. Now we might check it, for now it is high time for us to know what is best for us, and accept the Gospel in peace, while grace is brought, and peace is offered unto us. But we permit one day after another, one year after another to pass, and do even less than formerly. No one prays now, no one is in earnest. When the time is past, prayers will be of no avail. We do not lay it to heart, and think we are safe, and do not see the awful calamity which has already begun, and are not aware that God so dreadfully punishes us with false prophets and sects, which he sends us everywhere, and who preach so securely as though they had swallowed the Holy Spirit whole. Those whom we had thought were the very best among us, go to work and lead the people astray, until they scarcely know what to do or leave undone.

13. But this is only a beginning, although it is frightful and terrible enough.

For there is no greater distress and calamity than when God sends us sects and false spirits, because they are so impudent and daringly bold, that they are really to be pitied. On the other hand the Word of God is such a great treasure, that no one can sufficiently comprehend its worth. For God himself considers his treasure immensely great, and when he visits us with his grace, he earnestly desires that we should gladly and freely accept it, and does not compel us as he is able to do, but it is his will that we should gladly obey it from choice and love. For he does not wait until we come to him, but he comes first to us. He comes into the world, becomes man, serves us, dies for us, rises again from the dead, sends us his Holy Spirit, gives us his Word, and opens heaven so wide that all men can enter; besides he gives us rich promises and assurances that he will care for us in time and in eternity, here and there, and pours out into our bosoms all the fullness of his grace. Therefore the acceptable time of grace is now at hand.

Yet, we neglect it, and cast it to the winds, so that he will not and cannot give it to us.

14. For when we fall and sin in other ways, he can better spare us and be lenient, he of course will spare us and forgive; but when we despise his Word, it calls for punishment, and he will also punish us, even if he delays a hundred years. But he will not wait that long. And the clearer the Word is preached the greater the punishment will be. I fear it will be the destruction of all Germany. Would to God I were a false prophet in this matter. Yet it will most certainly take place. God cannot permit this shameful disregard of his Word to go unpunished, nor will he wait long, for the Gospel is so abundantly proclaimed that it has never been as plainly and clearly taught since the days of the Apostles, as it is at present. God be praised! Hence it applies to Germany, as I fear it will be destroyed, unless we act differently.