Lutheran Seminary Education - A Disaster Fueled By ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC-Thrivent

 

Harvard University - Listen to the English Professor on the topic of Christianity: the basics of  mainline Protestants, Roman Catholic leaders, and Lutherans.

On Amazon Prime Video and audio sources - "Professor Leo Damrosch of Harvard University helps you navigate the Gibbon Decline and Fall themes, structure, and lasting influence."

I enjoyed Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and gave away my complete set to a genius student. I was enjoying Leo Damrosch's narration about Gibbon until he got on the topic of Christianity. I recognized that he was reciting the complete Handbook for Mocking, Unbelieving Agnostics. Forget Gibbon - Damrosch was on a toot that I have heard or read countless times, a litany of ignorance. The scholar became an advocate; the camera almost gave away his hooves.

Handbook for Mocking, Unbelieving Agnostics

I will summarize some of his unsupported claims:

1. The Trinity is not found in the New Testament.
2. The relationship between the Father and the Son is confused and confusing.
3. Miracles are a joke, easily disproven.
4. The Gospel of John is not apostolic but much later.
5. The New Testament texts were mixed up with all kinds of contrary copies, errors, contradictions.
6. Gibbon was right - there is no contest. Believing Christian leaders are not credible.

Christianity became an echo chamber for the errors of Calvinism and Pietism, and the Lutherans fell for both errors in various ways. Lutherans copied the weakness of the Mainlines with their betrayal of the King James Version. Lutherans followed with caving into the Harvard Handbook for Mocking, Unbelieving Agnostics and made it their own, starting with ALC/LCA and moving forward to the inbred Walther Synodical Conference.

Examples:

• The Watherites smothered the Reformation with endless worship of CFW Hisself. That disorder continues to this day, because it is a perfumed version of the Handbook for Mocking, Unbelieving Agnostics. Everyone is saved! Everyone! 
• Simple question - Does LutherQuest ever teach Dr. Martin Luther? or do they endlessly drool over the mythological CFW Walther, BA?
• All the Lutherans use a wide variety of Bad Bibles, from the Burglar Beck Bible to the NIV, and the three National Council of Churches Bibles - RSV, ESV, NRSV. The Greek New Testaments used (but not thoroughly) are straight from the bowels of Tischendorf and other frauds. 
• One example - the absent ending of Mark, with no empty tomb, no risen Christ, is the one of the latest belches from Concordia Publishing House. 
• Another example - CPH is also guilty of proclaiming and hiding their precious Waltherian forgiveness without faith, which is - by the way - essential to all mainline doctrine today. Everyone is saved. Everyone!
• Finally - the gravitational tug continues, as it must, in apostasy, with the so-called Confessional or Orthodox or Rock-ribbed Lutherans copying the radical Left while hushing critics up. Harmony comes from feeding from the same troughs - Thrivent Insurance and Irrevocable Trusts, plus the Omnivorous Siebert Luther Foundation.  

 Pity the Students

The Synodicals treat seminarians like dirt, with threats always before them - but not much education gleaned. Of course, the relatives of synodical bigwigs can do anything they want and find themselves rewarded and even arrogant about being bullet-proof, thanks to uncle, or dad, or grandfather. One WELS DP tried to impress me by revealing who his grandfather was! I was supposed to gasp in awe.

The charges for attending seminary are criminal, especially in light of what the carefree church bureaucrats give each other. As I wrote before, my tuition was $150 a year in 1970. The LCA told us, "Don't use this motel for the evangelism conference, pastors. It is too costly." Christina said, "Let's go there. The bigshots will be there." We picked that motel and the bigshots said with shock, "Why are you here?" (I knew them.) I said, "My wife said the bigshots would be here." 

Worst of all, the seminaries are not being taught the real Bible, the KJV, or the real text of the New Testament, the Traditional or Apostolic Text. The theology taught is a miserable combination of Fuller Seminary, Karl the Adulterer Barth, Paul the Promiscuous Tillich, and huge doses against Luther-Melanchthon-Chemnitz. I could probably grill the graduating class of any Lutheran seminary and get them to describe the work of Chemnitz or Melanchthon. It would be either tragic or funny what they said.

WELS-LCMS-ELS-ELCA all mocked or ignored the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, 1517.

 

Concordia Publishing House Honors the Reformation!

 

"We both have fake doctorates!"

Reprise - Ordain a Lady!

The Bishop of ELCiC (ELCA in Canada, eh?)

 Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber, ELCA

 Pastor Anita Hill, ELCA pioneer in equity

 Clown Eucharist, Episcopal

ELCA Ordination

 US and Canadian Bishops, ELCA and Episcopal

Half of the ELCA bishops are women, so that probably doubled the number of seminarians. Right? Right?

 Jeske's pan-Lutheran speakers - including WELS, ELS, and LCMS - feature ELCA women pastors.

Where would WELS and LCMS be without dolts like these four?

 Jeske's pan-Lutheran speakers - including WELS, ELS, and LCMS - feature ELCA women pastors.

 She "administered the Means of Grace" for the coffee and couch WELS church. It bombed. She got a job with the district pope.

 Mirthless Mark Schroeder has moved WELS forward, not forward in Christ, but forward.

Jeske's pan-Lutheran speakers - including WELS, ELS, and LCMS - feature ELCA women pastors.

Remember when only pastors did that?

Weeds and False Teachings Are Alike. Pan-Lutheran Association of Nonbelievers

This statement seemed almost harmless when it was published, even before syphilitic Stephan and opportunist Walther landed in New Orleans. But it comes from a Pietist and explained by a Calvinist. Many careers and businesses arose from this modest start. Ask Fuller. Ask Purpose-Driven Rick Warren. Ask Willow Creek's Hybels. Ask Schuller at his Cathedral (now Papal). Ask Waldo Werning, LCMS, and WELS. They mined the fool's gold and almost got away with it. There is one Judge who will examine their treasures and announce His verdict.

I have constantly enriched the soil since we moved here in 2011. I have added red wiggler earthworms, countless bags of tree leaves, wood mulch, straw, hay, peat humus (manure in disguise), dead weeds and grass, and the roots of anything that will help fertilize.

Fifty pages of drivel were devoted to an attack on the efficacious Word, the Chief Article, and the Book of Concord.

Some plants will always be spectacular, while others respond to the most agreeable seasons, like this one promoting the blooms of roses and giving little foothold for the Japanese beetles (so far).

No matter what, weeds will always prosper, in neglect but even more with cultivation - grabbing the organic matter for its own growth. Weeds burst into growth with long rainfalls, but also rise above the parched blooms with the energy to take over, crowd out, and steal the sun, generously spreading its seeds or roots or runners - or even a combination of the two - all for the purpose of their own growth. Digging and churning the soil (if one can afford a rototiller) will slice up roots and worms, but expose vast amounts of weed seeds to the life-giving sun.

Waldo Werning was the punisher who attacked anyone who questioned his Church Growth copycat business. Like Valleskey and Bivens, he did or did not go to Fuller Seminary. Waldo's doctorate was every bit as valid as Larry Olson's.

As I worked among the weeds and flowers this week, I thought about how much false teachings are like weeds. Proper identification matters. For instance, if synods like the WELS-LCMS-ELS-CLC view Justification by Faith as evil, they will do their best to stomp the Chief Article of Christianity out. They are like Mrs. Ichabod's uncle, who thought the strange roots of asparagus were a dangerous evasive weed, so he tore them out. 

I said to Valleskey (Fuller Alumnus) and the Ohio Conference, "The Israelites took the gold, silver, and precious gems when they spoiled the Egyptians - not the garbage." He frowned. Privately he told someone that he went to that meeting to deliver a hit on me with his idiotic paper. Face-to-face, he was a scared rabbit.

Some never learn the truth in the realm of false doctrines. They lurch drunkenly from one fatal fad to another. I watched one green stalk of magnificence grow to six feet in the back garden. I finally identified it as a perfect example of Hemlock, poisonous and impossible to counter. It had good qualities (like false teachers) and hosted a battalion of lady bug babies on its budding flowers. Almost Eden said, "That's OK. Just don't eat it. How often do you have lady bugs young'ens?" A fireman dousing a fire looked over the fence and glared at it, trying to figure if a pot farm was starting out. I cut the Hemlock down at the base and tossed it into the garbage can, even though it was the best looking plant at the time.

Next the blackberries crept around the corner of the house and gradually took over the entire garden, once cleared for Silver Queen sweet corn (aka squirrel food when ripe). I thought they would be a terrible mess to removed, but it only took two efforts to clear them down to the soil level. They were not as mighty as they pretend, making the whole garden alive with white blossoms (so attractive) and alive with bees (always good). Once removed, they revealed the garden's surface - almost nothing else growing there. They were so greedy for soil and sunshine that they blocked the sun like mulch with their arching growth, planting extensions of themselves wherever the mower was silent and the gardener slow to act.

False doctrines are like weeds. Many seem tiny and harmless at first, but grow one way or another. One gardening expert planted an "easy to grow" plant and has to pull it out every year.

Church Growth, Objective Justification, and bad translations of the Bible go hand-in-hand. The three trends rely on the efficacious being dead and useless, unless we make it germane, appealing, and relevant - such as the campaign promising people they will have more friends if they go to church. 

 LCMS has to improve - this was rock bottom.

Now these weedy trends are so well established that the Church Growth Stars can easily remove anyone who objects. The truth-teller is the weed, in the eye of the salesmen.

Spurgeon certainly saw the future of WELS-ELS-LCMS-CLC.

Pan-Lutheran Association of Nonbelievers - PLAN - You May Be a Member

PLAN formed a long time ago, though photos of the leadership are difficult to find. This one includes, starting on the far left, Jack Preus LCMS, Someone, Robert Marshall LCA, and David Preus ALC.

I have grown weary of writing LCMS-WELS-ELCA-CLC-ELS-ETC, so I condensed it to Pan-Lutheran Association of Nonbelievers:

• Their Chief Executive Officer is their Father Below.
• Their post-graduate training academies are Fuller Seminary, Trinity Divinity School, and Willow Creek Community Church.
• Their bank is Thrivent.
• Their future is grim.

Pan-Lutheran can be found in many places on the Internet. Lutherans For Life began and continues as Pan-Lutheran. Supposedly WELS Lutherans For Life bugged out of the original LFL to avoid the stench of working with heretics, but they soon became Christian Resources or something like that, affording a bigger income base for the founder.

WELS was covert Pan-Lutheran for years, working with LCA/ALC while acting as if they were too good for anyone, even the ELS. A WELS pastor almost cried when I told him his Michigan District President sat on the Lutheran World Relief board with ELCA. Before that, Missions guy Norm Berg named his LCA buddies in missions, people I knew. When I wrote that WELS gave to the United Nations, various people demanded my proof, so I gave them page and year from the district brag book. The money went to UNICEF. Of course I had to prove it, because only a liar would say WELS threw money at the United Nations. Anyone who tells the truth about WELS is a liar. WELS response - "That's a lie! And Bivens never went to Fuller, even though he bragged about it!"

The son of the WELS homiletics professor said to the class that they had all kinds of options for training after ordination. He named Fuller, Trinity Divinity, and Willow Creek, as his father became increasingly alarmed. Finally, the homiletics professor said, "What about Mequon's classes?!" The fact that the Church Growth names came trippingly off the Balge tongue made me very suspicious. Every dysfunctional part of WELS was devoted to Fuller dogma, i.e. Jeske's Church and Change.

As I wrote before, three items cinch the accuracy of the name PLAN:

1. The groups agree with ELCA on forgiveness and salvation without faith, Objective Justification. Long ago I had an LCA training tape that denounced Evangelicals for their utter lack of grace. Like WELS - I came to learn - they imagined faith was the opponent of grace.
2. They treat Luther as the denomination's crazy uncle, though they are happy to make a few dollars from his name at anniversaries.
3. They love every Bible (ESV, EHV, NIV, RSV, TEV, Jerome) except their own, the Tyndale-Luther Bible called the King James Version. Their favorite translations obscure or eliminate the Sacraments, drop major elements of the Bible, and accelerate doctrinal indifference.
4. They love every confession of faith, except their own. No need for Calvinists to trash the Book of Concord - PLAN specializes in that art. Have an itch to venerate Mary night and day? - there is a place for you in LCMS-ELCA-ALPB. Is Eastern Orthodoxy the answer to all questions? - that is another tightrope to walk.

Has this all happened by accident? Not at all. 

Proof That Someone Reads This Blog - From 2009. Enhanced with New Graphics

Oops, wrong graphic. This one is for all the comments from Church and Chicanery zombies.

Lesli Frank has left a new comment on your post "The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name: Stealth Con...":

I would personally like to thank you for your thorough investigation of these churches and pastors. Often times when my family and I go on vacation, other than sound emphasis on God's word, we don't really know what we are going to experience when we go to a WELS church. Because of your reporting, we now know that if we are in the areas of these churches you have highlighted here, we will most certainly attend them. We are always looking for the congregations that are looking to preach and live out the gospel message that Christ died to give us the freedom to follow Him. While most churches claim that and may very well do that, it seems that those that are willing to acknowledge that God himself gives no preference over traditional or contemporary, and He certainly doesn't state that either is wrong and that really appeals to us. May all of these churches and their pastors be blessed according to God's promise to those persecuted for His namesake. To God be all the glory.



GJ - Clearly this family thinks worship is an adiaphoron. Now they can have snacks and softdrinks at many WELS churches, like Victory of the Lamb, and Bible study with booze, too. See the links in the left column.

***

GJ - Once I told Doctrinal Pussycat Robert Mueller what a church member related to me. She said, "When my husband and I worship at WELS churches in Florida, the only way we can tell they are Lutheran is from the sign outside." That was 20 years ago. (27 years ago now)

Mueller glared at me. He claimed I was the "only one having problems with the Church Growth Movement." When I mentioned Pastor Stern's problems with CG, Mueller and Oelhafen immediately began making fun of Stern. I thought, "So this is how the Wisconsin leaders act?" And that was not the most disgusting moment by far.

WELS Pastor Jon Stern does not seem to be feeling fabulious
when posing with Scott Barefoot. Thanks to WELS' new
direction under Mark Schroeder,
they can say "Bottoms up!' with conviction.

I hear positive comments from a wide variety of people, included ordained pastors with some clout. No ELS, WELS, or LCMS pastor is allowed to be caught thinking. The officials remove the pastor by any means possible (since the officials reject the Means of Grace) and spew their venom on him and his family. I have seen it many times over. Next they justify their criminal behavior as saving their beloved Holy Mother Synod from harm. The results speak for themselves.

So I get a lot of positive remarks from all over, by phone, email, and even in person.

And there is this one:

"A friend alerted me to your slander. Please remove my name and image from your web site. I did not attend the Exponential conference. Get your facts straight.

Sincerely,
Ben Golisch"

I am checking it out with my source. I will make the correction if it is correct. The comment was anonymous and could have come from anyone, including Gunga Don. I do not think people have control over their published photos.

Pastor Ben fails to mention his co-pastor Stelljes being at Exponential. Stelljes is directly related to VP Gunga Don Patterson's Church and Change Network. Daddy Stelljes is a member at Holy Word, an ironic name for Patterson's nest of Enthusiasts.

CLC Pastor David Koenig is a big fan of Church Growth, false doctrine,
David Valleskey, and Larry Olson - but I am repeating myself.
Gutsche has been a pastor in ELCA, ELCiC, WELS, and the CLC,
but ELCA kicked him out when he was arrested and charged.

For years Valleskey peddled the lie that he never went to Fuller. He even claimed that his study of Church Growth was forced upon him when he gave his Figs From Thistles paper (which WLQ subsequently published). He had been teaching CG at The Sausage Factory for some time already, and his class notes clearly showed that he was completely smitten by Church Growth. When CLC (sic) Pastor David Koenig got him to admit going to Fuller, Valleskey was furious that Koenig told me the truth in writing. Of course, Koenig was also mad as a hatter about my publication of the truth. Church Growth never advanced by being honest with anyone.

Yet Valleskey denied going to Fuller when I asked him after he gave his horrible paper at the Ohio conference.

Later, Valleskey even claimed I never spoke to him, a common WELS accusation aiimed at any public criticism of their published false doctrine. Of course, that was also a fabrication. I had to corner Valleskey, who tried to escape my probing questions. That claim about never speaking to Valleskey was passed on by Doctrinal Pussycat Nitz, whom Frosty Bivens called "the second most spineless DP in WELS."

A Midland circuit pastor asked, "Who is the most spineless?"

Frosty said, " Robert Mueller."

Later, Tim Buelow related his shock at Bivens openly criticizing an official. Normally the officials all treat each other as infallibly led by the Holy Spirit. One pastor even said, "I am not going to argue with the Circuit Pastor. The Holy Spirit appointed him." When ex-convict DP Ed Werner was choosing CPs who would wink at his criminal behavior, was that the work of the Holy Spirit?

DP Ed Werner was known for molesting girls in his congregation.
WELS did nothing until he was convicted, thanks to a new generation
of victims and their mothers.

---

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Proof That Someone Reads This Blog with Discernmen...":

How ironic that the Doctrinal Pussycat is now filling a vacancy in Florida! He'll fit right in there.

Notice How the Duggar IFB Quiverful Bob Jones Hyles Cult Resembles WELS in Its Practices, Secret Language, Abuse of Women and Children, and Deceptions

Notorious bachelor Bill Gothard, abuser of young women,
posed with the Duggar daughters.
Where did Josh meet his future wife Anna? At a Gothard event.

I was preparing to write a second post linking Lutherdom crimes when a regular reader wrote to me about a book -

I Fired God: My Life Inside---and Escape from---the Secret World of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Cult 

Kindle Edition

From her page:

Jocelyn Zichterman was born, raised, married into, and finally, with her family, fled the Independent Fundamental Baptist church. Founded by the fiery preacher Bob Jones, with several hundred thousand members, IFB congregants are told they must not associate with members of other Baptist denominations and evangelicals, with an emphasis on secrecy, insular marriages within the church, a subservience for women, and unusual child raising practices.

In I Fired God, Jocelyn Zichterman systematically details the IFB's disturbing history, exposing a cult-like atmosphere of corruption, greed, and abuse. Having been initiated into its innermost circles, Zichterman knows that the gentle demeanor America sees in the form of the Duggar clan on 19 Kids and Counting disguises the truth about the darker side of the church. 

With written documentation and sources so thorough that law enforcement has used her work as a foundation for criminal prosecutions, Zichterman exposes the IFB with revelations including:

- The disturbing world of abuse within the IFB and doctors and teachers who cater exclusively to church members and fail to report physical and sexual abuse

- The IFB-controlled Bob Jones University, which issues degrees of questionable value while making vast sums of money for its founders

- The way the IFB influences politics on the local, state, and national level, and protects its abusive culture under the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion.

***

GJ - This book put two things together for me - the extensive, overlapping financial network of the Independent Fundamentalist Baptists, and the parallels to Lutherdom.

• Bob Jones University (which gave Billy Graham an honorary doctorate), 
• Quiverful Movement (babies galore), 
• The Hyles connection with hundreds of abuse cases.
• The Duggar clan's secret language.
• Spying and reporting on each other.
• Phony doctorates (like Dr. Bob Jones and Dr. Paul Kelm).
• Parallels to WELS, the LCMS, the ELS, and the CLC (sic).

Caution - the author does not come out of this Purgatory a political conservative, after experiencing "conservative family values" masking incest, child abuse, and a network of deceptions.

The interlocking business aspect of this abusive cult is impressive. As Luther said, deception and greed rule the world. The IFB pretends to be independent, but the cult controls people, congregations, and escape attempts by having a file on everyone. They can build up a person and give him plenty of income, or they can make him a leper and deny him income, friendship, and family.

The author suffered horrible physical and sexual abuse from her father, sexual abuse from her brothers, and cult abuse from the IFB, her high school, her college, and the college where her husband worked until they walked out of the cult.

IFB and WELS are quite similar, in many departments. What makes an IFB or WELS person a professor? Answer - education in their inbred system, where similar poorly educated people have been allowed to rule the roost. This yields a dictatorial class of people who use their secret language to control everyone while they live lawless lives.

How did WELS happen to ignore decades of a District President abusing young girls in his own congregation? His entire district knew about it and used the information to have their own fun.

My wife and I enjoyed the Duggar programs at first but I became suspicious of the special language and the weird rules explained by Josh Duggar. I said to Mrs. I, "He does not have his heart in this. Look at his face while talking about defrauding the eyes."

The Duggar women glammed up later,
but in the early days they looked like cult Mormons on parade.

Some other Duggar terms and practices were - 

• No hand holding until engagement.
• Side hugs, because a regular hug is fraught with danger.
• No kissing until the marriage ceremony.
• "Nike!" - the girls ordering all the men not to look an attractive woman walking by, but to look at their shoes instead. Guffaw.
• The wife has to be totally available at all times for the husband's pleasure.

Where did all these special rules and words come from? Answer - Bill Gothard, whose seminars made millions of dollars while this bachelor kept a harem of beautiful young girls at his headquarters so he seduce them with his emotional support and blackmail. That does sound like the founder of the LCMS, Martin Stephan, does it not? And no one knew! Well, they knew about Stephan's adultery but they didn't know. Both stories are out there.

The Missouri Synod did not officially start until Stephan was robbed, kidnapped, and left to die in Illinois, where he did pass on later. So Walther founded the LCMS. Oh yeah, sure. Who got 700 people into ships when he was under house arrest for promiscuity and misuse of funds? Stephan did, not Walther. CFW was the betwitched or cynical follower who went along with the cult and kidnapped his own niece and nephew for the trip.

Spying, lying, and control are crucial in the IFB network and in WELS. Jack Preus compared WELS spying to the KGB, but that is unfair to the KGB. That was disbanded. WELS spying continues unabated.

Here is a partial list of SynCon abuses.

A totally controlled sect is a money machine, because everyone has to go to the seminars and buy the materials. Everyone has to work for nothing because they are serving the Lord.

Guilt, guilt, and more guilt is a great way to control people. Abusive families do this instinctively. The author's father was a sadist who tortured and killed their pets and abused all his children with savage beatings and humiliation. Any infraction was a horrible sin that had to be punished.

The school system for Bob Jones and IFB affiliates will sound familiar to WELS survivors. Girls were routinely humiliated in what is now called slut-shaming. That is one of the paradoxes of Pietistic Calvinistic cults like WELS. They act holier than thou and purer than the snows of Kilimanjaro, but they treat young women like dirt and think of wives as dumb slaves. 

Northwestern College had Score Reports, where the men shared intimate details about their dates. When one wife objected to the practice, her Circuit Pastor husband roared with laughter.

The author writes about the leaders encouraging abuse and enjoying it. That reminded me of Mequon faculty watching GA hazing rites and enjoy them all over again. Acceptance of abuse is what glues a cult together.

When John Brug was on the front page Christian News, his wife had no idea. She said, "I know about WELS, but it is getting better." Brug seems to be one of the WELS minders, whose job it is to keep Otten controlled. Every congregation and every pastor has a minder or two. Nothing happens without it being reported the the higher ups.

Pastor Jon Stern's enthusiasm about the Starr-Barefoot
gay ministry program is contagious.

Does anyone know what the District Presidents earn? And what about their perks like the winter vacation in the Carib? The Synod President's salary and benefits are none of your business, but all of your business is his business.

In Lutherdom, sin has nothing to do with the Ten Commandments. First Table - false doctrine? No problem. 

Second Table? Every pervert was forgiven 2,000 years ago. Adultery and homosexuality are only sins when getting rid of someone. In the leadership, even at headquarters - no problem at all. The radicals can do no wrong in Lutherdom unless they start drawing fire on the denomination. Even then, the leadership would rather promote the unrepentant, move them, and defend them.

But to question the synod? That is a horrible, unforgivable sin. In fact, even bringing up the problem is a sin, so any meeting or discussion will involve a denunciation of the despicable way in which it was brought up. We said, write a letter, but look at the horrible language, Eighth Commandment violations, and failure to follow Matthew 18!

The Abusive Sect Hates People Out and Demands Them Back

The author describes how the abusive leaders hated them out of the college and connected IFB business arrnagements, but the cult also demanded they come back as servile and repentant slaves to the organization.

I have seen so many cases where WELS pastors or laity were driven out, hated out, shunned and abused, only to see them work their way back in. They complained about the abuse, loudly, and went back for a second helping. Of course WELS loves to have troublesome pastors back, broken of their habit of dissenting. 

Every so often I see a prominent leaker of information announce in public he is so grateful to be in WELS and loves his fellowship so much. Truly, such evidence of mind control should draw iron tears down Pluto's cheeks (Milton).

The sub-cult of UOJ works the same way. One dentist questioned every assumption of UOJ, found himself completely pistol-whipped by Rolf Preus and others, and came back repentant and embracing UOJ. Now he is so nasty about UOJ, without being prompted or asked, that I had to block him on Facebook. I do not mind debating UOJ the rest of my life, but ridiculous and gratuitous insults are not welcome. If I missed that so much, I would post on SpenerQuest.

Beyond the Duggar Headlines

The media will chew on the Megan Kelly interview of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. This never came up - three abusers were very close to the family:

1. Bill Gothard - They routinely attended training at the Gothard conferences. Josh and Anna Duggar met at one Gothard confab. Over 30 women reported being abused as youth by Bill Gothard, while Gothard's brother committed adultery with the women staffers.
2. Doug Phillips - This home-schooler's hero moved a young woman into his home to serve as a nanny and as his intimate, much like the Gothard approach. Like Gothard, he had to resign when the facts came out.
3. State Trooper Joseph Hutchens, a re-offender in state prison for the rest of his life, was a child pornographer.

This cluster of offenders around the family should tell us something about their toxic influence on the faith and actions of the Duggar clan. Gothard was a blatant false teacher among Evangelicals. Phillips was offended anyone brought up his disgusting behavior, because he was out of a job now. 

In Gothard’s booklet Establishing Biblical Standards of Courtship there is a page for sons and daughters to cut out which is a covenant they sign with their fathers to “…demonstrate your commitment to God’s plan for courtship instead of man’s philosophy of dating….”22 

The young person must say to his or her father, “I will wait for your full release before entering into marriage.” The father, in turn, tells his daughter that “I will protect you from unqualified men.” To his son the father says, “I will protect you from strange women.” This covenant is “between a father and a son as witnessed by the Lord Jesus Christ” and must be signed by the child, the father, and the family’s pastor.

Veinot, Don (2003-08-25). A Matter of Basic Principles (Kindle Locations 4219-4225). Midwest Christian Outreach, Inc. Kindle Edition. [GJ - Sound familiar, Duggar fans?]

Someone wrote me:

Your blog helps a lot, no question about it.  Just think about the people who have been abused in the church.  If even one finds your blog and is able to retain their faith because of the comfort they receive, isn't that fulfilling the will of God?

And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold [water] only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. Matt 10.42

I am only using the Duggar cluster of abusers to warn people away from similar situations in their own "conservative" Lutheran synods.

The Mother of the Year Award
came from an Evangelical leader who kept a hawt nanny in his home -
for his children, of course.
LCMS founder Martin Stephan did the same,
and left Dresden "In Pursuit of Religious Freedom."

Those who enable and empower these abusers are the worst criminals of all, yet they are at the top of the food pyramid, devouring the estates of widows and orphans, pointing their crooked fingers at anyone who questions their infallibility. I know another Josh who willfully erased the evidence of criminal behavior of synod leaders on the group blog he helps to edit - at the command and by the authority of Matt Harrison.

"Put not your faith in princes" - and that includes the princes of the visible church. 

Doug Phillips and Bill Gothard
must have shared tips on grooming young women for the harem.

Gutsche Koenig Update

Gutsche apparently told Koenig that he would not attend this year's Free Conference in Germany so as not to be an embarrassment.  But the CLC (sic) is budgeting another $5,000 for this -- what a waste of money.

***

GJ - Koenig is simply one more dysfunctional pastor taken seriously by Herman Otten. 

Gutsche plea-bargained his conviction down, but he was convicted and fired from his job as an ELCA pastor - after being a CLC (sic) pastor. At some point he was also a WELS pastor.

Gutsche misrepresented his case to me on the phone, a line of blather he probably tries on everyone. Dismissing his case, after being on probation, means the court was done dealing with him. The court documents, which I published, clearly state that dismissal does not mean innocent, just over and done with in the system.

Exactly how does the Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic) portray itself to German pastors as an alternative to those horrible ELCA style pastors when Gutsche is one of them, helping to organize this farce each time?

ELCiC is the Canadian version of ELCA, eh? Here is their bishop, Susan Johnson.

ELCiC Bishop Susan Johnson,
enjoying a lighter moment.

Three out of four ELCA-Episcopal leaders are...
women.

Resident Hater in a Fanatical Sect Finds Eldona a Fanatical Sect - For Its Potential Support of Justification by Faith.Ask Kurtzahn and the CLC If Incestuous Adultery Is a Sin.

George Mueller (Mueller) Advanced Member Username: Mueller Post Number: 907 Registered: 11-2012	Posted on Thursday, September 26, 2013 - 8:58 am:       Among some orthodox Lutherans the theological method becomes quite insular and parochial, consisting mostly in quoting other members of the group. Since they deem themselves orthodox and outsiders heterodox their students rarely give much attention to what outsiders say. But, alas, they sometimes make poor arguments and the bright students become impatient, and seek instruction elsewhere. That explains the Paul Rydeckis of this world. Bright, dissatisfied, arrogant, and just a little bit smarter than the average bear. The WELS descends into theological sloganeering rather quickly. That doesn't make her wrong. Just annoying. But Rydecki, knowing he knew more than his fellows, knowing he was smarter than they, confused himself. He saw the shortcomings in the way WELS was wont to articulate the gospel and attributed them to doctrinal error. True enough, some within WELS might present the objective/subjection distinction in terms that appear to make the gospel mere information about a past justification. Appear to. Don't actually do so, but men like Rydecki are looking to find fault for other reasons as well. So he chucks objective justification. He knows better than his teachers. The self-assurance of the ELDoNA crowd and their apparent scholarship and familiarity with authentic Lutheranism made them a good home for this disaffected WELS man. Why not join with a group of disaffected Missourians? Here's the sad irony. While they all have plenty of legitimate criticism to level against their former synods, they are rejecting, not only a truth on which both of these synods agree, but a truth that is far more precious than any of the things with which these bright men occupy their minds. Let him that thinketh he stand take heed lest he fall. Pride is the chief cause of the fall. [GJ - Plus there is just plain schtoopid.]
Timothy Blank (Timothyblank) Intermediate Member Username: Timothyblank Post Number: 488 Registered: 11-2004	Posted on Friday, September 27, 2013 - 1:29 am:       Seems the ELDONA has gone from a fringe group in Lutheranism to a fanatical sect. To list, as I have counted them thus far, their deviations from orthodoxy: 1) At best, tolerance of deniers of objective justification, and at worst, outright rejection of Christ's complete work on the cross. 2) Belief that the Great Commission is directed only to future clergy and not to all believers. 3) Rejection of the priesthood of all believers. More specifically, they reject that Christ commits to all believers the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and commissions all believers to preach the Gospel and to administer the Sacraments. (Brief Statement, par. 30) Timothy the Blank
Tim Schenks (Tschenks) Advanced Member Username: Tschenks Post Number: 804 Registered: 3-2006	Posted on Friday, September 27, 2013 - 6:50 am:       I recall that Pr. Rolf Preus, resident Lutherquest chaplain, didn't want anything to do with the Eldona either. But I'd like to hear what Pr. Eric Stefanski has to say about this, as he did join Eldona. To bad he won't post on LQ. Tim Schenks Schanks Schunks