The Value of Polarizing - The Tolerant Side Eventually Loses

I belonged to the radical Michigan Synod, LCA, but joined by getting a call - after some Left-wing stunts were used successfully.

One was organizing an educational series that had each parish - ideally - admitting they were all racists. That was over 40 years ago, and Detroit was still strong, not entirely war torn and desolate.

Another stunt was bringing a woman around who admitted she had an abortion - when that was quite rare, perhaps even before Roe vs. Wade. The activists who brought her along were sure to tell the congregational groups that "she did the right thing."

These efforts bore fruit, even though people complained about them. When the ELCA was being formed in 1987, the LCA component demanded racial and gay quotas, and they got them. I offered to nominate a Lutheran pastor from Gay, Michigan for the gay quota. He said with rare anger, "You better not."

"Brett, we are not done in ELCA yet.
It will get a whole lot worse."

I refused to participate in the ELCA merger and left for WELS, which billed itself as horrified with the laxness of the LCMS and the degenerate gaity of ELCA. Irony and church history run parallel paths.

The ELCA gay and racial quotas, not to mention feminist quotas, bore fruit in the 2009 vote to ordain and to marry homosexuals and lesbians. How could that be surprising, given the quotas used for 22 years and the febrile attention to the issue even before the merger? The bad leaven takes time to work through the dough and the leaders work hard to calm down, placate, deceive, bribe, or get rid of those who object.

The 2009 vote lit the fuse and ELCA blew up. I hear reports from friends and classmates about congregations torn up and still polarized over the issues. One high school classmate, a member of a Disciples congregation in Moline, became an ELCA pastor later and resigned from an enormous, apparently wealthy ELCA congregation. She said in her letter, "I cannot do this any more." The congregational newsletter implied that the budget was polarized over support for ELCA.

When the Illinois ELCA bishop accused Faith of violating
the Eight Commandment, I created this graphic,
which a member accidentally emailed to the synod staff.

The wounds show up in different ways. Faith in Moline left ELCA, but the bishop fought them, insulted them, and did everything possible to topple the effort to be independent of the 2009 vote. Faith won while telling the bishop that he or his staff would be arrested by the Moline Police if they appeared on the church property for any reason. Faith's sister church (Trinity, Augustana Synod years ago) hosted a faction from Faith still loyal to ELCA.

The Synodical Conference is another example of polarizing people, step by step, until the radicals are in complete charge:

1. Objective Justification
2. Unionist activities with the Babtists, ELCA, etc.
3. Church Growth
4. Feminist language in hymns and creeds
5. Women usurping authority and teaching men
6. Women's ordination
7. Open communion
8. The NIV and then the New NIV
9. Homosexual ministry - carried out by homosexuals. That was a key reason for leaving the LCA!
10. Pro-abortion and funding abortion activists. Another reason why we left the LCA.

Marcus Brenner-Manthey confused this issue entirely, deeply offended that I identified known criminal teachers and pastors in WELS. He said I should post all my sins, with photos, showing that he does not know the first or second part of this crucial section of the Large Catechism. (Shroeder to Bivens - "There is a large one? Mine is small.")

If I had any arrests or had to post bond - as Ski did in Milwaukee - I would be eager to post all the information.

WELS has been abusive so long and in so many ways that the members thereof have Stockholm Syndrome, loving the abuser and jumping on anyone who points out the truth.

Polarizing has worked beeyootifully for WELS. The younger ones will see WELS formally join ELCA in the future, but all of us have already seen the de facto merger.

Eaton's win was a big win for the Lavender Mafia,
just as Mark Hanson's was - before her.

More about Writing - Ichabod and Beyond. The Power of Myths

The first statistics I check in the morning are the posts being read in the last few hours. Increasingly, like the Glende links which are listed here - or the Paul McCain stories, linked here and also here - stories show up as being read by a group of people, even though the posts are several years old.

In case you wonder how they find those stories, here is a tip. Using Google search engine, put Ichabod the Glory in the window and also one search item - Glende, Ski, Buchholz, Webber, or McCain.

Example - Ichabod the Glory McCain - will yield the latest bog stories on McCain first. Ichabod the Glory McCain plagiarism will cough up McCain's plagiarism. But Ichabod the Glory plagiarism will include all blob plagiarism posts - Glende, Ski, McCain, DP Engelbrecht.

For fun, use the same search technique to find graphics on the topic. Warning. Warning, Master Robinson - I own the Lutheran topics from constant posting of graphics with captions. Serious and funny, they clog the Google search engine. And yet, I have no reason to apologize.

If an old story is being read, I post it again and update it. A blogger said the updates were really appreciated.

Teaching is going well so I have time to concentrate on writing. The booklet on Making Disciples is nearing its finish. That has been fun, so I will produce some more booklets in the future, on Amazon and also for free on the blog. The next big project is Creation Gardening, which will be printed in full color and lavishly illustrated - with photos from my rose farm and graphics from Norma Boeckler.

My three favorite authors in gardening are Facebook friends, and we often chat back and forth. Compare and contrast that with the number who sought to silence me, shunned and unfriended and blocked me, and sought to undermine me in every possible way. They only motivated me to outlive, outpublish, and out them.

"One little Word shall fell them."

Myths are powerful. Even though they are demonstrably false, they dominate the thinking and the errors of large groups of people.

The Missouri Synod was started by a syphilitic sex offender, Martin Stephan, who used his position to be intimate without countless young women. The outbreak of syphilis fueled the riot which Walther led and enabled, just as he led and enabled the clergy circle around Stephan, with his eye on the prize. Walther was poorly educated, in rationalism and fanatical mindless Pietism, but he remains the American Luther for the LCMS and its fragments. That myth is powerful, but still based upon the lies promulgated by Walther and his circle

Even the honest In Search of Religious Freedom has the title all wrong. Stephan was free, as a Pietist in a special Pietist congregation, to conduct his cell group ministry on the church property. But he enjoyed breaking all the rules, taking young women for walks in the woods, installing one in his home,, setting up cell group meetings elsewhere, and having his clergy circle raise money for his luxuries and VD treatment at the spa. Stephan wanted to keep his harem in peace, so his house arrest provided the final step in moving his cult to America. Their early years were so racy, raunchy, and riotous that Walther did not want the history written down.

Even now, the official LCMS history has the synod starting in 1847, when it was officially organized, but the Missouri Synod began when Stephan ordered his cult to American and took his main mistress on the ship with him and his eldest son - but left dying wifey and syphilis-deformed children at home.

Even now, the Synodical Conference leaders, pictured above, try to convince unknowing members that Halle Pietism is Lutheran Orthodoxy.

According to Webber and other snake-oil salesmen,
the Pietists Rambach and Quistorp are orthodox Lutherans
because they agree with the OJ of Pietism.
That is circular reasoning, forbidden in academic writing.

Yes, Jay Webber would have us believe that his doctrinal history, as slanted as the Marxist-Leninist history of the world, is valid, even though:

• Forgiveness without faith (Objective Justification) is nowhere to be found in the Bible, Luther, the Book of Concord, or the immediate post-Concord era (except in Huber the Heretic).
• The language and explanations for OJ come directly from Halle University.
• The OJ/SJ terms are found in the Calvinist translation of the Knapp Halle lectures, a two-fer if I ever saw one.
• Evidence shows that justification by faith was the main teaching in Missouri and WELS - until the Walther-Pieper faction took over in gradual steps, supplanting the original German catechism of Missouri (1905), the Gausewitz catechism for all three synods, and the dominant influence of Luther and the Reformation versus Calvin and Pietism.
• Many LCMS pastors now teach justification by faith and some WELS clergy do as well. However,  the death squads do not administer their gracious extending of the Left Foot of Fellowship without fear or favor. Some must be flogged, others culled, yet some spared, just to show the SP will have mercy on whom he has mercy. Nevermind, go back to work for Holy Mother Synod.

Links to The CORE Scandals - Glende and Ski - The Booze Brothers - from 2013. 100% Support from Mark Schroeder the Reformer. Ha.

 The latest post on the Ski-Glende court case can be found here.

Note to Mequon graduates - you only need to left-click on the titles to find the post. That is called an embedded link. They teach embedded links in Web 101.

Write a letter about Ski getting back into the ministry, as Engelbrecht and Schroeder promised.

Team Glende's epic humiliation - all lawsuits dropped on Friday the 13th.

Friday the 13th - Three St. Peter Freedom pillars still suing.

Three from St. Peter are still suing, including Sexpert Ski.

Tim Glende's Lawsuit against His Own Member - Thrown Out of Court. Denied.

Hitler just found out.

Glende's First Congregation Will Close Soon.

More Hoo-Hah from Fox Valley WELS.

Four from St. Peter in Freedom are suing the husband of Ski's victim, hauling him to court to silence him.

Ski will return to The CORE as the pastor, as DP Engelbrecht promised and SP Schroeder agreed.

Ski's Scrotum Sermon - Which They Were Proud To Post.

All St. Peter Freedom (which includes The CORE) posts labeled on Ichabod.

DP Engelbrecht's email supports Ski's CRM status, implying a return to The CORE.

August 13th meeting - this was held to get Ski's CRM status going.

Budget for St. Peter is $1.4 million, so why did they get a $500,000 plus grant to buy a bar?

Remove the 12 WELS Apostates - Starting with Deputy Doug Engelbrecht

DP Engelbrecht Approved Plagiarism of False Doctrine

All posts labeled The CORE

Ski - so bad, he was canned twice. This is the second, official canning, April of 2013.

Bishop Katie cannot spell either, not even on her own web page.

DP Engelbrecht had two different stories about Ski leaving.

Church and Change.

All posts labeled Church and Change.

All posts labeled Tim Glende.

All posts labeled Fox Valley WELS.

Intrepids on Time of Grace.

Glende, Ski, and Engelbrecht kicked out Rick Techlin - for being correct about plagiarism of  false doctrine, and Glende lied about his plagiarism.

Meeting with the DP's sock puppets.

"This will solve our PR problems."

Ski turned down for CRM Status.

Photos of all the main players can be found here.

Paul McCain Was Causing a Stir in 2013. Intrepid Lutherans Became the Fourth Blog To Ban McCain

McCain is in the top four page views for the month. Mrs. Ichabod and I laughed all the way through the latest classic post as I read it out loud, below the dotted line.

Dr. Lito Cruz Asked That Bethany Add a PayPal Acco... Jul 5, 2011,	649
WELS Martin Luther College Graduate Has Changed Hi... Jan 28, 2016,	348
The Holy Spirit Teaches Man Better Than Books May 23, 2012,	233
From 2012 - Paul McCain Channels His Inner Lucifer... Feb 18, 2016,	180
John Brug and Mark Schroeder Put Women in the Pulp... Feb 4, 2016,	135

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Dr. Lito Cruz, with his wife Lynne,has an endless thread on Extra Nos,
featuring McCain and Kilcrease,
but Kilcrease kilcreased all his own comments.

Paul McCain said...

Just one more suggestion, if I may.

I'd suggest doing all you can possibly do to put as much distance between yourself and that wacko Greg Jackson as humanly possible. [GJ - Editor McCain repeats himself.]

I urged Pastor Rydecki to do so, but he remained very silent, which I found more than a bit disturbing. [GJ - Very silent? Is that more silent than silent?]

It's one thing to stand up for what you think is truth, but quite another sort of total foolishness to allow your church body to be trashed in such reckless, and frankly, psychotic fashion, by Jackson, a man who is championing "your cause" as he sees it.  [GJ - Whose mental health was challenged by a moderate, irenic discussion blog? McCain's.]

FWIW.

Was McCain counting up the blogs that banned him,
or just updating his resume on LinkedIn?

---

JANUARY 17, 2013 AT 3:03 PM

Intrepid Lutherans said...

Dear Rev. McCain,

Your ad hominem attack and personal insult against Greg Jackson is irrelevant, unchristian and out of place, especially here where we have made it clear that such personal attacks are unwelcome.

You may consider yourself banned from making further comments on Intrepid Lutherans.

JANUARY 17, 2013 AT 3:59 PM

***

GJ - From a man who said he did not "have a spoon in that soup," McCain seems to be double-dipping. Shocking too is his obvious devotion to my blog. I admit that I only read Cyberplagiarist when I need something to remind me how bad things really are.

He must read Ichabod a lot, but he is not clear about what bothers him.

Paul McCain has been banned from LutherQuest, ALPB's Online Forum, and now the Intrepid Lutherans.

The strangest part of this is my obvious distance from the Intrepid Lutherans. I have no role in its management, no suggestions for anything they cover. I do not link them on my blog.

Meanwhile, McCain pops up on various forums and tells people they cannot link Ichabod, etc. I heard that happened at least once on Steadfast (sic) Lutherans (sic). I only read those if someone gives me a link to a post differing from the predictable instant mashed potatoes rah rah for Holy Mother Synod and its infallible ruler.

I would define a psychotic as someone who puts "The Word of God Remains Forever" on his pistolero collection and teaches against the Scriptures, full-time.

I teach at three institutions of higher learning, including graduate school. They frown on employing psychotics.

Sadly, McCain cannot teach at a college or university. He is not qualified. His writing and editing skills are on display every time he posts something original, such as the incoherent rant above.

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Paul McCain Banned from Another Website - Three So...":

Some folks feel the need to be the resident smart aleck. They always have to get the last word in and enjoy lording themselves over others. It reminds me of the phrase "seagull manager". It refers to one who swoops in, makes a lot of noise and leaves behind a big mess for others to clean up. 

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Adolph Hoenecke has left a new comment on your post "Paul McCain Banned from Another Website - Three So...":

Does anyone know the record for number of blogs from which one individual has been banned? 

***

GJ - Doubtless being banned from four (4) is an enviable record - if someone wants to envy No Call Paul.

Jay Webber and Rev. Becky Hand Prepared for Their Big Moments at ELCA's Online Seminary

Rev Becky Hand prepared for the ministry
at ELCA's online seminary -
Institute of Lutheran Theology,
UOJ guru Jay Webber (ELS) earned his STM there.

Science leads pastor into ministry

Hand: Paul’s writings are down to earth to post-resurrection people

The Rev. Rebecca Lynn “Becky” Hand had long been certain her destiny was to be a veterinarian when she graduated from Odessa High School in 1983, but a serious illness during her first year at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences ended that ambition.

After recovering from mononucleosis, Hand got her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in science and genetics from Tarleton State and Texas Tech and taught the subjects for 14 years at Odessa College; however, the ministry’s call changed her course again when in 2007 she became the founding pastor of Life in Grace Lutheran Church at 1009 N. Tom Green Ave.

Asked if she sees a conflict between science and religion, Hand said, “No, we study the signs and how things were made, but that doesn’t mean God didn’t make them.

“I marvel at the intricate details life has. There are things we still don’t know, but God knows all the secrets because He did it. I worried about aliens when I was young, but it dawned on me that if there are other life forms, God created them, too, and He is still in charge.”

Hand leads services at 11 a.m. Sunday, where an average of 30 people attend, and at 9 a.m. Sunday at Hope Lutheran Church in Midland.

She earned a master’s of divinity degree from the Institute of Lutheran Theology in Brooking, S.D., in 2014. Hand and her husband Robert have three children and three grandchildren. Her maiden name was Hennig.

“The sermon always has to be about Jesus, His love for us and His grace and forgiveness,” she said. “The entire Word is inspired by God, and through the whole scripture the thread that ties it all together is Christ.

“I love the books of Romans and Ephesians because Paul is down to earth in his writings to post-resurrection people. He tells us to live like it is our last day, and we have to take that to heart.

“We can’t see the whole ocean from any one viewpoint, and God’s love is bigger than that with more depth and breadth than we can imagine. We can try to see others the way God sees them, but sooner or later our innate selfishness is going to get in the way.”

Tammy Brown of Albany, who attended Tarleton State University with Hand in Stephenville, said the minister “was very grounded even as a young person.

“You could talk with Becky about anything, and she always had an answer,” Brown said. “You could see God was in her with the way her eyes twinkled.

“She has the biggest heart and a real cute sense of humor. She’s a genuine, good, Godly person who cares about people.”

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Ordination & Installation of Pr. Becky Hand

Sherita Reno - August 22, 2014
Life in Grace Lutheran Church

The long awaited day of Rebecca Lynn (Becky) Hand to graduate with a Master of Divinity arrived on August 17, 2014. Along with her ordination as an LCMC pastor and installation as pastor of Life in Grace Lutheran Church, Odessa, TX, and Hope Lutheran Church, Midland, TX. 

Pastors in ceremony attendance were as follows: Rev. Alsen Wenzel, St. John's Lutheran of Winters, TX, Rev. John Rasmussen and Rev. Timothy J. Swenson of the Institute of Lutheran Theology, Brookings, SD, Rev. Mark Schimmel, Zion Lutheran of Priddy, TX, and retired Lutheran pastor Jerry Kaskela of Lubbock, TX.

The Grace of our Lord was overflowing from early morning church service to Pastor Becky's special afternoon service with family, friends and other Lutheran churches of the community! We all know and believe that she will spread the Gospel of the "Good News" to everyone, for God has called her to do so and she will deliver his Word!

Jay Webber's ILT graduation ceremony was held
in the corner of a restaurant.

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Thanks to all who contributed and participated in the District convention April 25. Pr. Becky Hand from Gardendale, Texas preached on the theme “Hope for the Long Haul.” Keynoter Pr. Steve Lien, LCMC Coordinator of Pastoral Ministry, discussed sobering challenges facing pastors and congregations, but also reminded the convention of the good and the hopeful. Pr. Julie Smith, LCMC Board of Trustees updated the convention on LCMC activities. Pr. Becky Hand, Odessa, TX was elected to complete the District Council term of Pr. Randy Freund. Loren Brekke, Hanska, MN; Pr. Craig Nehring, Caroline, WI; Jane Evers, Comfrey, MN and Lou Weeks, Marshall, MN were elected to three year terms. Emilie Wildey, Stewart, MN and Gaylen Lerohl, Alexandria, MN were reelected to three year terms on the District Council.