Infrequently Asked Questions

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Dangerous Turf - The Efficacy of the Word in the M...":

I have to ask: Do you ever get tired of writing about theology?

No.

I mean, I have my own passions to be sure, but what gives you the energy?

Two mugs of coffee in the morning keep me going all day. Besides, what better occupation is there than proclaiming the Word? Blogging means anyone can read the material or ignore it. Faith in the Word makes people bold, as Luther once said.

Why not try a different angle... like sports writing? Or nature writing?

I will write more about Creation soon, but that is also theological.

Or better yet, a physical past time. You're moving to Arkansas and they have a year-round open season on wild Boar. Get a 7mm mag Remington Rifle (semi-auto) and try a hand at hunting. Then also take up Charcuterie. Or how about Morel hunting? It's a grand past time.

How about writing vapid comments on blogs?

Dangerous Turf - The Efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace: Receptionism = UOJism

Sig Becker, Enthusiast

Norman Teigen has left a new comment on your post "Dangerous Turf - The Efficacy of the Word in the M...":

Thanks for mentioning my father's work on the subject of the Consecration. One Missourian told me that B.W.'s book meant the end of receptionism in the Missouri Synod. My father's work is available as a no cost download from LOGIA and your readers are invited to secure a copy. The book and its link are The Lord's Supper in the Theology of Martin Chemnitz by B.W. Teigen.

Norman Teigen

ELS layman (but not an official spokesman, just an ordinary guy)

The Wisconsin Synod is now willing to engage doctrinal issues based on the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace. That is dangerous turf for them, since recent errors are all based upon the denying that Biblical concept.

Sig Becker's lectures on justification Enthusiasm are featured on the The Sausage Factory's websty. Don't fail to miss them.

Becker still drives the Little Sect on the Prairie crazy on the issue of Consecration. When I was in Ft. Wayne, schlepping Thy Strong Word, one seminarian asked me about Consecration. I said, "If you believe in the efficacy of the Word, as I do, there is no controversy."

The Synodical Conference proved its Enthusiasm by teaching pastors that the elements remain the same until they are received by the communicants, giving this position the name of Receptionism. As B. Teigen showed in the clearest possible way, this was the wrong position, a position condemned by Lutheran Orthodoxy.

But I thought the Synodical Conference was inerrant, infallible, and right just fine?

The Synodical Conference (Missouri Sect, Wisconsin Sect, Little Sect on the Prairie) was conceived in Pietism and born in Enthusiasm. Lutheran Pietism was and is a strange amalgamation of Reformed doctrine and Lutheran doctrine, with Reformed doctrine always emerging over time. Clergy are heading out two exit doors, both marked Enthusiasm - Church Growth and Romanism. Their answer to low church Enthusiasm (CG) is to adopt high church Enthusiasm (Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy).

To say, "We don't know when the Body of Christ is present," is to confess antipathy toward the efficacy of the Word. Some WELS Enthusiasts have proven that by holding a "communion" service without the Consecration. And WELS had women celebrating Holy Communion on their own, too. Why not? Kicking over the traces is fun. Ask Kelm, Becker, Jeske, Bivens, and Valleskey.

So--my ELS brethren and sistern, fellow Lutherans separated by a common faith--if you hate Becker's Receptionism, you have to hate his UOJ as well. If the world is absolved of its sin, without the Word, as Becker imagined, then Consecration is irrelevant. We just don't know.

Let's face it. The UOJ people do not even know when the world was absolved of its sin, so why would they know when two become four in Holy Communion? Either the world was absolved the moment Christ died (one UOJ version) or the moment He arose from the tomb (another UOJ version). I say, Let's fight over the Moment of Absolution to show Lutherans how ludicrous this Midwestern Pietistic notion is.

The guilt-free saints in Hell (J. P. Meyer) will rejoice to have this clarified.

Blaming the Boomers - I Have To Agree

The parents of Baby Boomers wanted to give them everything, but my Great Depression parents did not get that memo.

Someone opined--and I agree--that Missouri and WELS had their watershed moments and suffered from premature celebration ever since.

Missouri defeated the Seminex gang temporarily, inviting them back in later. They gloated that the Biblical inerrancy circle won, that the revived seminaries would repristinate the ministerium, one class at a time.

WELS and the Little Sect on the Prairie broke with Missouri in the 1960s, after decades of admonition. When I joined WELS in 1987, the leaders were saying, "We suffered from that break, so we do not want any more controversy."

From the looks of the WELS DPs, no one seemed to be starving. Everyone took up the theology of glory and kicked aside the theology of the cross. The LCA/ALC apostasy made WELS/LCMS/ELS look good in comparison, even though they were all in bed together, in the name of insurance grants and Church Growth.

In the 1980s, people older than I were in contact with me about Church Growth. They wanted to know where the men were, where the younger people were. The Boomers were leading CG or hiding in their rabbit warrens, afraid someone would say "Boo!"

Now the younger men are fighting for the Book of Concord and the efficacy of the Word. They will have to learn the Scriptures and the Confessions better to defeat the sectarians of the Left. That is God's purpose in doctrinal conflict, to prove what is good and acceptable.

The CG Boomers are retiring, one after another. They were great cult leaders but poor teachers. Their diciples (Stetzer spelling) are unable to defend the cult, so they will also move along, and sink beneath the waves with watery groan, unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown.

Heard from Various Sources at Once:Pastors Need To Work, Too

The efficacy of the Word has not been tried and found wanting.
It has hardly been tried at all!

"A home-visiting pastor makes a church-going congregation." The old saying explains why congregations grew in the past and now shrink. The ministers took the Word into the congregation. Hospital visits and deaths were considered ideal times to be with members and their families, but home visits were also a constant. I vicared with an old-fashioned pastor who visited constantly and expected the rest of us to do the same. I enjoyed the work, especially in small towns.

The two camps of Lutherdom seem to be avoiding the same thing. The Shrinkers are famous for staying in their offices and making the laity do their work. As Kent Hunter explained in his ecclesiastical husbandry lesson - "Shepherds don't have sheep. Sheep have sheep." Shrinkers copy the sermons of famous Enthusiasts, sometimes verbatim - often with a few words changed, a guilt-offering to Plagiarism.

The men considered orthodox are also famous for not visiting their members and not doing sermon preparation. I have heard this from another pastor in one region of WELS, various laity, and a church leader with some authority in WELS. For one reason or another, from various perspectives, these sources are saying with great frustration - "The orthodox men are not doing the work, and they are sound in doctrine."

The sick, shut-in, hospitalized, and grief-stricken should be visited routinely as the normal application of the Gospel. I recall a shut-in who had bets with her husband about when I was visiting - she could feel it in her bones. One day she was certain I was coming and said so to her husband. He gloated when I did not show up. The next day I did, explaining that I reached their house and turned around when I realized I had a doctor's appointment. Then she gloated. It is enjoyable and fulfilling to do pastoral calling. Visiting people at their homes during the year is also good for everyone. If this is neglected for another generation, there will be nobody left to visit.

Sermon preparation is also essential. A faithful minister becomes fruitful in his work by remaining close to the True Vine (John 15). At the very least, he and his family will benefit, as the Scripture says. A sermon should be written out completely and made available to everyone, using exegetical study, Luther, Lenski, and the Book of Concord.

My experience has been that people will write to me about a sermon when:
1. I follow the main lines of a Luther sermon.
2. I deal extensively with a doctrinal issue, such as baptismal regeneration, Holy Communion, or the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the Word.

Trusting the Word does not translate into doing no work.

Breaking News - Jeske Featured or Sheepdipped at LCMS District Meeting

Crude Photoshop speaks the truth: what Jeske promotes.
Life TV Groeschel, Babtist Andy Stanley, Nominal Lutheran Ski.

Rev. Mark Jeske, double-linked on the official WELS website, spoke to the Southeastern LCMS Disrict in June.

Let me be blunt for a change - Jeske is moving on with his life, following Dan Kelm and others in joining the Missouri Synod.

He recently spoke at the LCMS college in Mequon. I heard that The Sausage Factory faculty woke up from their slumber and yelled "Hey!" about that.

Some call this sheepdipping. He needs some credibility before joining and probably wants to test the waters, to see if he is welcome.

Jeske's departure implies the leadership of Church and Change departing. Three bored-of-Lutheran-doctrine members are current or former Jeske employees. Other nodes of the Jeske Chicanery network are - the Kudu Don Patterson Safari Team and the Parlow Fox Valley Consortium. However, such departures are often unpredictable, with some staying and others going.

PS - Jump, jump, jump!

How To Get Robbed (Not Robed) By WELS Perish Services

Those 9 points, in that one post, about Perish Assistance recommendations are exactly the same as those they were selling to our church back a few years, when the program started here. The "printed" report that was the result of Phase 2 of the effort came to 70 pages, and cost 70-75 dollars a page. The one problem was someone forgot to do a Find and Replace for the name of the previous congregation in the boilerplate. For most of the specifics they named Our Church accurately, but in some places the name of the congregation was Another Church. Oh-oh.

***

GJ - So I am doing the math. The Perish Consultants (as in Paul Calvin Kelm, James Huebner, et al.) come in and pretend to study the congregation. They print up their recommendations, which are simply the same things over and over - without even changing names. And they charged this poor congregation $5,000 for one phase alone! So why did WELS have to bring missionaries home? Because these plagiarizing copycats from The Love Shack drained the life-blood of the congregations.

Did they benefit the congregations? No. They alienated people and moved on with the cash in hand. I would love to know what Kelm, Stroh, Huebner and others were paid in addition to their normal salaries.

When I was in the evil LCA, a building consultant from the national office met with us several times about a new addition. They charged nothing for this, since the consultant was paid from benevolence.

When I vicared in the LCA, someone from the Lutheran Layman's group organized the capital funds campaign for a weekly fee - no commission. He used Biblical material for the most part, but some of it was over the top, as in "If not now, when? If not us, who?"

If someone working for the LCA had tried to charge $5,000 to $35,000 for handing a congregation some Fuller Seminary boilerplate, the congregation would have tossed him through a stained glass window, head first.

---

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "How To Get Robbed (Not Robed) By WELS Perish Servi...":

The pastors of those congregations served by Parish Services think it was money well spent. It's like the MasterCard commercial:

o Xeroxed study with a little white-out--$10 grand

o Pastor never has to do evangelism or much visitation ever again--priceless!

Wilken Out - Jeske In - KFUO

Jeske's Time of Generic Grace on KFUO Now

September 4, 2009

“Issues, Etc.” and “Time of Grace”

KFUO-AM is now airing “Time of Grace,” a weekly program featuring Pastor Mark Jeske, senior pastor at St. Marcus Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wis. If you go here on the LCMS Web site, you’ll see that the group that produces the broadcast is now a Recognized Service Organization of the LCMS.

What’s curious about that is that in order to be an LCMS RSO [Revered Service Organization], you have to have an LCMS clergyman on your board. Time of Grace doesn’t.

The Board for Communication Services lifted that requirement in a recent meeting:

M/S/C to remove the contingency of LCMS clergy presence on the board for LCMS RSO status for Time of Grace Ministry. [The operative assumption, however, is that the board will continue to have LCMS lay presence.]

But what has people talking is that the host of the program is THE leader of the “church growth” movement in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Fighting some of the false doctrine in the movement is a major problem for the WELS and I’m sure they love that the LCMS is now supporting this program.

You can listen to the program for yourself. Not much Gospel proclamation, which won’t surprise anyone familiar with CGM.

But I can’t get over how odd it is that KFUO would ditch its flagship program — Issues, Etc. — and begin airing “Time of Grace.”

***

GJ - Most likely Jeske is going to lead the troops out of WELS into Missouri. Kieschnick's LCMS is CGM-friendly, nay CGM-ecstatic, while Schroeder's WELS is CGM allergic.

Note that Paul Calvin Kelm's brother and son both left WELS for Missouri a long time ago.

I cannot imagine the Chicanery crowd staying in WELS. The trouble is, they want to bug out when clergy positions are scarcer than hen's teeth.

They will want to take some of their sugar daddies with them. In a parish, the pillars often hold up the church in more ways than one. The exodus of people too good for a congregation is normally the best thing to happen to it.

Likewise, the pastors and laity who despise the Means of Grace and mock the efficacy of the Word should find a safe haven. As Mischke supposedly said at a WELS convention, "Paul Kelm would be welcome in any denomination." Amen to that.

The Chicanery exit from WELS will brighten up the entire Wisconsin Synod.

Failure To Supervise - Lutheran Synods in Epic Fail

Cardinal Manning

Pundits are saying that state governments need to downsize permanently. Tax revenue has plummeted and shows no sign of improving. Synodical income is bound to follow that trend nationally.

WELS Perish Services has been getting huge fees - $30,000+ - to sell boilerplate to their own congregations. Where were the Circuit Pussycats and Doctrinal Pussycats during these grand thefts? I just answered my question. They were purring about being in a purr-fect synod and showing claw to anyone who raised an eyebrow, let along an objection.

Before the regime change, one pastor was ousted when he asked about how WELS was spending the money.

"Failure to supervise" is a serious offense in the court system. The laity and church officials have a fiduciary responsibility to take care of money which is not their own.

More importantly, they are "stewards of the mysteries of God." No one has a license to set aside the Word of God in favor of synodical decisions. ELCA hailed its overwhelming vote to overturn Romans 1, as if voting revealed a new truth. The leaders called it "taking a risk," although they clearly favored one outcome only.

The economic debacle has proven that material value is only a number for the moment. I talked to a stock broker before the housing meltdown. He loved housing stocks and held his nose about Walmart stock. Home-builders are clawing for the edge of the quicksand pit, hoping to stay alive. Walmart remains a strong, profitable company. He also liked bank stocks, which collapsed soon after. I listened and invested in more training.

The truth of God's Word is eternal. The Book of Concord never hesitates to mention the treasures of the Gospel. I am continually amazed that Lutherans have been willing to sell their heritage for a bowl of lentil soup, served cold by the Reformed.

Synodical esteem reminds me of the price of home-builder stocks a few years ago - another bubble easy to puncture. Strachey wrote about an ambitious minister in his Eminent Victorians. Cardinal Manning devoted his life to his own career and squashing his competition (Cardinal Newman). Now Cardinal Manning's hat is hanging on a peg, his fame resting on the devastating portrait painted by Strachey. The painting posted above is not flattering either.

Wouldn't it be better to pass on the incorruptible treasure of the Gospel and be forgotten, than to short-sell the treasure in order to gain the temporary esteem of corrupt men?

Double-Dipping at The Love Shack

The recent post on Perish Services wrecking a congregation brings up an interesting issue about synod-paid Chicanery staff double-dipping.

Feel free to correct my facts, since I am not on their memo list.

Someone like Paul Calvin Kelm gets a "call" to be a Perish Consultant. Apparently there are Consultants and Assistants - but I am not sure. I will include the Planned Giving Counselors, laity and pastors, who offer estate planning seminars and holds granny's hand while she signs over an Irrevocable Trust over the the synod.

I have to assume that there is a set salary, or they would not gather there, like flies to buttermilk. But there is also a commission or fee. The Bergs said that the Special Giving Counselors get a commission for each gift, that this is written in the contract. Laity reporting from the battlefield tell me that the Perish experts extract huge fees, up to $10,000.

The Ron Roth/Jeff Davis team imposes a large fee plus a percentage of the money raised, contrary to normal stewardship practice (but in harmony with Jewish traditions). Roth and Davis, Inc are not now part of The Love Shack, but they use their WELS connections accordingly. Roth midwifes the Church Growth Movement in WELS, so bow down. Both are Chicaneries, Ron a founder and Jeff a stealth board member (photo but no bio!).

Most people probably assume that staff from The Love Shack are doing their work because mission offerings have already paid them.

My experience with the Chicaneries is - they leave no money-source stone unturned. Members and pastors should be more careful with the money entrusted to them.

---

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Perish Assistance in WELS":

I know of two churches which spent between $30,000 and $35,000 each on Perish Services.

If you want to save the money, here is the essence of the program.

1. Get lay people to take over some
of the pastor's duties in the
Sunday morning worship service.
2. Start a pre-school.
3. Have a greeting and visitors
center in the narthex, which
is improved with coffee.
4. Get a new church sign.
5. Spruce up the landscaping.
6. Find a way to increase
offerings -- anything from an
every member (stewardship) visit
to hiring an outside firm.
7. Write a mission statement since
you can't know what are a doing
without one. (Shame our
forefathers' churches didn't
have them. WELS could be big by
now if they had!)
8. Start a committee to talk about
"The State of the Church."
9. By the way, some new buildings
would help.

If you think this is worth thirty grand, I have a message for you. I will discount it to $20,000 just for you. If you want to buy in, leave your email address on this blog and I will get in touch with you where you send the money. It's a deal. I just saved you $10,000. Only serious contributors of $20,000 need to respond!

---

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Perish Assistance in WELS":

My congregation used Parish Assistance several years ago. I firmly believed that a good plan was developed. However, with any plan the pastor and laity must be involved, supportive, and committed to address the plan that was adopted. Many years have now passed, the plan gathers dust and the pastors discuss how overwhelmed they are with two bible studies on Sunday mornings and nothing else the rest of the week. Parish services may be bad and my experience doesn't support it but we're in denial if we think we do not have leadersip issues to address churches that are frankly withering away.

"Ichabod The Glory Is Departed" -- Is Departed

Blog not found

Sorry, the blog you were looking for does not exist.

However, the name ichabodthegloryisdeparted is available to register! 

***

GJ - Sickabod retreated in haste again, erasing all posts and eliminating the blog address. It is no longer available to register.

By a strange coincidence, Joe Krohn's Rock N Roll blog also ended the same way, with all posts erased and the address not available.

 

Pan-Denominational NIV To Undergo Additional Changes: Will "Make Disciples" Turn into "Make Cell Groups"?

Smoke and mirrors make Mark Jeske more awesome.


Yahoo News


Best-selling Bible to undergo revision
AP

By ERIC GORSKI, AP Religion Writer Eric Gorski, Ap Religion Writer – Tue Sep 1, 5:55 pm ET

The top-selling Bible in North America will undergo its first revision in 25 years, modernizing the language in some sections and promising to reopen a contentious debate about changing gender terms in the sacred text. The New International Version, the Bible of choice for conservative evangelicals, will be revised to reflect changes in English usage and advances in Biblical scholarship, it was announced Tuesday. The revision is scheduled to be completed late next year and published in 2011.

"We want to reach English speakers across the globe with a Bible that is accurate, accessible and that speaks to its readers in a language they can understand," said Keith Danby, global president and CEO of Biblica, a Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Christian ministry that holds the NIV copyright.

But past attempts to remake the NIV for contemporary audiences in different editions have been plagued by controversies about gender language that have pitted theological conservatives against each other.

The changes did not make all men "people" or remove male references to God, but instead involved dropping gender-specific terms when translators judged that the original text didn't intend it. So in some verses, references to "sons of God" became "children of God," for example.

Supporters say gender-inclusive changes are more accurate and make the Bible more accessible, but critics contend they twist meaning or smack of political correctness.

Acknowledging past missteps, the NIV's overseers are promising that this time, the revision process will be more transparent and that they will actively promote what they describe as a long-held practice of inviting input from scholars and readers.

The NIV was first published in 1978 and more than 300 million NIV Bibles are in print worldwide; its publishers and distributors say the translation accounts for 30 percent of Bibles sold in North America.

The Committee on Bible Translation, an independent group of conservative scholars and translators formed in 1965 to create and revise the NIV, will oversee the new revision.

An effort earlier this decade to create a separate version of the NIV that used more gender-inclusive language in an attempt to reach a younger audience fell flat with groups that felt it crossed the line.

That edition, Today's New International Version, will cease publication once the new-look NIV is released, said Moe Girkins, president of Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Zondervan, its North American publisher.

"Whatever its strengths, the TNIV has become an emblem of division in the evangelical Christian world," Girkins said.

It was the TNIV that ushered in changes from "sons of God" to "children of God," or "brothers" to "brothers and sisters." In Genesis I, God created "human beings" in his own image instead of "man."

Many prominent pastors and scholars endorsed the changes. But critics said masculine terms in the original should not be tampered with. Some warned that changing singular gender references to plural ones alters what the Bible says about God's relationships with individuals.

The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution saying the edition "has gone beyond acceptable translation standards."

"We fell short of the trust that has been placed in us," said Danby, of Biblica. "We failed to make a clear case for the revisions."

Danby said that freezing the NIV in its 1984 state was also a mistake, however. He emphasized that in the revision, about 90 percent of the NIV will be unchanged.

Douglas Moo, a professor at Wheaton College and chairman of the Committee on Bible Translation, said the group is committed to "a complete review of every gender related change."

"I am not sure how it's going to come out," Moo said. "We have a genuine, authentic review process ... Everything is on the table."

One of the most vocal critics of gender-inclusive translations, Randy Stinson of the Louisville, Ky.-based Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, said the group supports updating the NIV. He credited organizers for their openness.

"We're still probably going to differ on the way they handle some of the gender language," Stinson said. "But we're open and anxious to see what they come up with and we're really going to be reserving judgment."

Most changes will have nothing to do with gender inclusivity, Moo said. And the TNIV provides a glimpse of likely changes: In the '84 NIV, Mary is "with child," but in the TNIV she is "pregnant." In the NIV version of Psalm 146:9, "The Lord watches over the alien." The TNIV used "foreigner" instead of "alien."

***

GJ - Every so often someone leaves a gratuitous remark about the KJV. I am not a KJV legalist, so I am open to a better translation. I favor the KJV family (New KJV, KJV II, etc). Currently, there are several KJV updates, which are far more reliable in text and content than the NIV and its competitors. The KJV we all use today is itself an update from the original. Unfortunately, the modern KJV variations like to omit the Sacraments. Still, the worst KJV variation is better than the best NIV or RSV.

Missouri and WELS are NIV-only. The NIV monopoly was doubtless a money decision for Lutherans.

Missouri and WELS made a big mistake in getting behind the NIV. Now Paul McCain is promoting the ESV, which is another version of the RSV.

John Jeske (Mequon professor, Jumpin' Jack, aka Jester) participated in the NIV. Jester excused its unionistic errors by publishing a piece about the errors he endorsed through his joint work with Pentecostals, Babtists, and other ideologies. Of course, he practiced safe sects, so no unwanted spawn emerged from that union...

Unless we count the unionism of Mark, his son. Time of Grace is much like daddy's NIV. It belongs to no particular confession of faith, but Mark solicits funds and trinket sales from WELS.

Today Rupert Murdoch, billionaire, owns Zondervan, and Zondervan publishes the NIV.

The WELS-LCMS-ELS switch to the NIV union translation--and the monopoly enjoyed by the NIV--are the overlooked causes for unionism in those groups. As Reu wrote so eloquently, unionism promotes doctrinal indifference, and doctrinal indifference promotes unionism.

The radical Left in Lutherdom can be tracked by their endorsement of liberal Babtist Walter Rauschenbusch.

The Shrinkers can be identified by their perversion of the Great Commission, from "Go, teach all nations, and baptize" to "Go and make disciples...."

Sickabod Retreats Again, Blowing Smoke, Leaving Foul Odors Behind, Like His Father Below

Shocked

Paws for Concern - Chicaneries Have Nothing To Offer But False Doctrine and Despair

Seminary Kitteh

The pan-Lutheran Shrinkers are becoming aware that the new generation is not buying their Gospel-marketing methods.

Confidential to spineless Boomer pastors: You have done to the Lutheran Church what the secular politicians have done to the country.

Perish Assistance in WELS

"Just read the C&C brochure on Ichabod. I don't think I'll sleep. I'm surprised I didn't receive a brochure. Our congregation used ___ and ___ with Perish Assistance - worst thing to ever happen to us."

***

GJ - The details are horrible to read, about how WELS spent enormous sums driving the congregation into the dumper. Multiply that many times over - that is the Church and Chicanery legacy.

---Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Perish Assistance in WELS":

Parish (sic!) Assistance at our congregation started about 10 years ago - $10,000-$15,000. It reorganized our entire council structure into what I would describe as an unethical mess. We then spent about $15,000 with a company to see how much money we could raise, and recently received a $50,000 grant from Thrivent to hire a firm to help us raise money for a building project. Church membership over the 10 years has decreased significantly, as has the number of families with children in the congregation to the point that there are only about 70 K-8 children here out of about 900 souls. I've heard of positive results from P.A., though I can't give you any names. I would not recommend it to anyone.

***

GJ - I have more details from the source, but I am going to leave what is posted above as it is, without clarifications. The Shrinkers are more than willing to extend the Left Foot of Fellowship to anyone who questions them. Like the indulgence trade that started the Reformation, this is false doctrine mining the gold of faithful Christians.

Wherever Perish Services lurk, WELS congregations find the following, so beware:

1. Enormous fees for fund-raising, including a commission on the profits. As Kelm explained, "No, this is a non-prophet organization. Your spelling is off."
   
2. New buildings and remodeling projects as a Means of Grace. Build it and they will come is a fatuous Hollywood slogan. Pass the popcorn, because that will not happen.
   
3. Entertainment-style services, man worshiping himself rather than God's grace coming to people through the Means of Grace.
   
4. How can we hide the Sacraments better?
   
5. The liturgy is a real downer. Let's leave people upbeat and positive.
   
6. Division, alienation, loss of membership in the name of growth.
   

The wreckage left behind by Perish Services is a tribute to Church and Chicanery, because one is the lobby for the other, as the Chicanery website shows. The agenda is Fuller Seminary, Willow Creek, and the newbies on the block - Groeschel, Stanley, Beeson, Driscoll, Sweet, and other idiots.

Sore Losers

The poor losers at Sickabod are whining again. They were trounced and humiliated at the WELS convention while people continuously downloaded and posted to this blog. The fact is - the pleasant and Gospel-oriented people in WELS, laity and pastors alike, enjoy Ichabod. I get long personal emails and phone calls from them.

Sickabod does me a great favor by displaying their utter lack of reading comprehension. They remind me of the Canadian who was telling me how superior that educational system was. I asked, "Then why did your Prime Minister go to Harvard Law instead of the University of Toronto?" He continued his memorized speech when I said, "We have double the percentage who go to college." He countered, "But you have more people in America." Thus Sickabod - not just wrong on all the facts, but buffoonishly wrong. I graduated from a Jesuit school! I teach at a Babtist school! I am fired from UOP - but I was chosen to mentor new faculty there - in their graduate school. Can you find 15 things wrong in each paragraph at Sickabod? If not, you are not up on Googling.

In contrast to the affable Gospel-centered WELS people, the works-salesmen at Church and Chicanery do not represent WELS at all. They are a cancer growing from the Pietism that some elements never gave up completely (unionism, Reformed doctrine, shunning). I had cancer many years ago - just a minor basal cell carcinoma. Still, it had to be cut out.

False doctrine is a cancer, according to the Word of God. False doctrine needs to be diagnosed and removed. There is no other option.

I have lawyers in my family, which is good for several reasons. One is that I get plenty of legal advice. Another is that I know when people have overstepped the boundaries of civil law.

---

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Sore Losers":

Your analogy is not that smooth; what do you do when the cancer has spread and it is not possible to remove it? There's also cancer that no matter how many times it is removed it comes back in different forms on different organs. There is no cure for cancer, only management techniques. The good news is, God saves us from all kinds of cancers, even false doctrine.

***

GJ - Not my analogy.

KJV 2 Timothy 2:17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;

The word "canker" is translated in modern versions as gangrene or cancer.

Faith in the Holy Trinity Means Trust in God's Word

The next book, cover design by Norma Boeckler

The unionists want us to believe that the differences between Lutherans and the Reformed are minor, easily overlooked, and no barrier to joint education and religious projects (on Reformed terms alone). As David Valleskey said, "They are Christians, too. We can learn from them."

One General Council theologian said, "I admire everything about the Reformed - except their doctrine."

The Zwingli-Calvin doctrine of the Word is anti-Biblical, so this is not a matter of comparing brands or franchises.

The Scriptures are the revealed Word of God for the Reformed, but they deny the divine efficacy of the Word. Their famous comparison is - The Word is like a statue of Mercury, which only points the way. In contrast, Isaiah 55 and many other passages consistently teach that God's will is accomplished through His Word alone.

The Church Growth obsession with methods is based upon the Reformed lack of trust in the Word. The poor dears actually think that God relies on them to make the Word relevant, reasonable, and attractive. If I said they were trying to market the Gospel, the Chicaneries would rise up as one and condemn me. But Missouri and WELS have both promoted "Marketing the Gospel," the actual name of the blasphemous video. True, this was when the dark shadows of Gurgle and Mueller passed over the land, but it remains a recent memory.

If we say that we believe in almighty God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - but prop up His Word with gimmicks, slogans, and marketing, we are contradicting ourselves. That contradiction is why Shrinkers become atheists. Their foundation is sinking sand. Rationalism begets more rationalism until nothing is left. Besides, there is the nagging reality that all the Shrinker principles--so carefully noted and taped and written down and memorized and recited--are bogus. How does a deluded Shrinker go back to the liturgy he raucously mocked for many years? How does a Chicanery build a congregation with vanished money, without the Word? How can synodical royalty admit he is a beggar, like the rest of us? (Luther died with a scrap in his hand - "We are all beggars.")

God's divine power is so great in His Word that He overcomes the frailty and weakness of His followers to accomplish His will through the Word - without fail. A Shrinker says, "Not Thy will but mine." A believer says, "Not my will but Thine."

The Shrinker motto is bound to disappoint in time, because delusion has a way of multiplying until Satan takes away the blinders to let the deceived see what they have done - ruined marriages, ruined families, ruined congregations, lawsuits, failure, humiliation, despair.

Believers bear the weight of the cross daily, and our Old Adam complains eloquently. But God surprises us by answering our prayers before we ask them, by adding abundance to anything we request, and by giving divine wisdom in the way He answers.

Paul made it simple in telling the Corinthians - sow abundantly to reap abundantly. Any gardener or farmer knows that. Abundant proclamation of the Word yields an abundance of spiritual fruit. There is no other way.

God is patiently waiting for Shrinkers to see the folly of their ways. WELS members and pastors can help by attending the next Shrinker convention in November and confronting the Chicaneries with their false doctrine.

Happily, the Chicaneries have listed their favorites in their new brochure. It is not too late to rescue them from doctrinal error. Sometimes they arrive locally too, like the cultists at the door. Trusting God's Word means applying it to brothers living in error.

You may snatch them from a future of atheism, lawsuits, and despair.

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rlschultz has left a new comment on your post "Faith in the Holy Trinity Means Trust in God's Wor...":

Thanks for the link to the Chicaneries' brochure. They may have disinvited Ed Stetzer, but it is still a Chicanery conference. There definitively is an overtone of undermining the public office of the holy ministry with all of the lame leadership workshops offered. Yes, folks, everyone is indeed a minister, or at least, a leader. From the beginning of the brochure, you can see how the issue has been framed in terms of Church Growth. There are WELS congregations on life support. But, lets look at the ones that have grown numerically and learn from what they have done. There is also the implication that these are the ones that have been blessed because they have been doing church right. Who needs Stetzer when you have Hunter, Becker, Lampe, Stroh, et al?

***

GJ - And be truthful. Ski netted 9 members (probably transfers from WELS) after spending $250,000 - figures revealed at the church where he was called and is listed as a pastor - St. Peter, Freedom, WI.

Gunn started revising his resume once the outside money dried up. Whoa - I thought that was a successful stealth mission to emulate.

IBM - First Photo of a Molecule

A team from IBM captured its first photo of a molecule. Unfortunately, the photographer sneezed when snapping the picture.

Boomers waited all their lives for this?

ELCA Church at the Crossroads

 

Rev. Richard Mahan
South Charleston, WV
richmahan@sttimothy.com

• Practical Evangelism: Anyone Can Share the Good News of Jesus
• How to Evangelize My Neighborhood?

On August 13, the 2003 Churchwide Assembly adopted “Sharing Faith in a New Century: A Vision for Evangelism in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.” The strategy calls on the ELCA to “train disciples by equipping people of all ages to be faith-filled witnesses to God as revealed in Jesus Christ.” To help with this equipping, the ELCA Evangelism Partners Network is a group of skilled evangelism practitioners who are ready to provide workshops and seminars on practical evangelism skills for ELCA synod or cluster gatherings.

To schedule a partner in evangelism for a
workshop or seminar, contact:
Kathryn Love
ELCA Division for Congregational Ministries
8765 W. Higgins Road, Chicago, IL 60631
800-638-3522, ext. 2102 or
kathryn.love@elca.org 

St. Timothy Church at a crossroad
By Alison Knezevich

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In the cornerstone of St. Timothy Lutheran Church, two dates are engraved.

In 1948, members broke ground on Ohio Street in South Charleston. In 2004, they held their first service at a new church built on a hilltop off Corridor G.

Now, the congregation - and other Lutheran churches around the country - have reached another point in their history.

Earlier this month, leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) met in Minneapolis and voted to allow gays and lesbians in lifelong, monogamous relationships to serve as clergy.

St. Timothy's pastor, the Rev. Richard Mahan, received national attention when The Associated Press quoted him calling homosexuality "immoral and perverted" at the ELCA assembly.

He got more notice after he hung black cloth over the word "Lutheran" on the church's signs, in protest of the vote.

It's not clear whether St. Timothy, which has nearly 400 members, will separate from the ELCA. During the past week, Mahan has declined media requests for comment. And several church members told the Sunday Gazette-Mail they don't know what direction the congregation will take.

Bishop Ralph Dunkin of the ELCA's West Virginia-Maryland Synod plans to meet with Mahan in the next few weeks.

"I know that Pastor Mahan took the decisions very hard. I think he's personally hurt," he said. "I think part of Pastor Mahan's struggle is, how do we show that we disagree or dissent without leaving? And covering up the sign is one way to do it."

Reactions have been mixed among Lutherans, Dunkin said.

"We have some pastors who will celebrate this decision, and their best friends will be on the other side," said Dunkin, who also voted against allowing sexually active gays and lesbians to serve as pastors.

In Dunkin's synod, many don't accept the decision, he said.

"Our congregations are very conservative," he said. "I think one of the real divides of our church is that the urban areas have been discussing this for 40 years. This synod only been talking about it since 1997."

Dunkin said the ELCA always has welcomed gays and lesbians. Before the assembly's vote this month, they could serve as clergy if they took a vow of celibacy.

"A lot of our people, they're just not ready to go to the next step," he said.

Church leaders still have to work out details and write policies related to the assembly's recommendations - a process that could take nine months, Dunkin said.

The decision won't force any church to hire sexually active gay pastors, said ELCA spokesman John Brooks.

"The policy of the ELCA has always been that the congregation chooses its pastor," Brooks said. "Nothing has changed with this action."

Physically, emotionally,
Spiritually drained

The ordination of gays and lesbians has been an issue since three Lutheran organizations joined together to form the ELCA in 1988. It now has about 10,400 congregations in the U.S. and Caribbean.

It's too early to tell whether many ELCA churches will separate, Brooks added.

"We've certainly heard from a few that are deeply concerned," he said. "But it remains to be seen whether they actually decide to go ahead and do that."

If St. Timothy or any other church wants to break away, the congregation must vote to do so by a two-thirds majority, according to the ELCA Constitution. Then, church members must meet with Dunkin and take a second vote.

If the church decides to separate, the Synod Council has to grant permission for the congregation to keep its property, according to the ELCA constitution.

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U.S

Conservatives mull future after ELCA lifts gay ban

By PATRICK CONDON Associated Press Writer

Aug 22nd, 2009 | MINNEAPOLIS --

Even though the Rev. Mark Chavez believes the leaders of his church made a decision in direct contradiction of the Bible by lifting a ban on sexually active, monogamous gays and lesbians as clergy, he said he's staying with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

"I'm not leaving," Chavez said Friday night, promising an effort to keep the church moving even further toward what he sees as an embrace of behavior condemned by Scripture.

Chavez, of Landisville, Pa., is director of Lutheran CORE, a conservative group within the ELCA that fought the gay clergy policy. The group will hold a convention in Indianapolis in September to review its next steps, but Chavez said he thinks some ELCA clergy, congregations and individual members will walk away from the nation's largest Lutheran denomination.

The change to gay clergy policy passed with the support of 68 percent of about 1,000 delegates at the ELCA's national assembly. It makes the group, with about 4.7 million members in the U.S., one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations yet to take a more gay-friendly stance.

"I have seen these same-gender relationships function in the same way as heterosexual relationships -- bringing joy and blessings as well as trials and hardships," the Rev. Leslie Williamson, associate pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Des Plaines, Ill., said during the hours of debate. "The same-gender couples I know live in love and faithfulness and are called to proclaim the word of God as are all of us."
But the change may be too much for some Lutherans. Conservative congregations will not be forced to hire gay clergy, but opponents nevertheless warned there could be spiritual consequences for a church that strays from Scripture.

"This will cause an ever greater loss in members and finances. I can't believe the church I loved and served for 40 years can condone what God condemns," said the Rev. Richard Mahan, pastor at St. Timothy Lutheran Church in Charleston, W.Va. "Nowhere in Scripture does it say homosexuality and same-sex marriage is acceptable to God. Instead, it says it is immoral and perverted."
Mahan said he believed a majority of his congregation would want to now break away from the ELCA.

Other leaders indicated they might leave as well. The Rev. Tim Housholder, pastor of St. Luke's Lutheran Church in Cottage Grove, Minn., described himself during the debate as a rostered ELCA pastor "at least for a few more hours." The Rev. Marshall Hahn, pastor at St. Olaf Lutheran Parish in Dubuque, Iowa, said he'd need to talk to his bishop "to discuss what this means for my future with this church."

Other Christian denominations in the United States have struggled to remain united in the face of such debates. In 2003, the 2 million-member Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly gay bishop, a move that alienated American Episcopalians from its worldwide parent church, the Anglican Communion. The divide has led to the formation of the more conservative Anglican Church in North America, which claims 100,000 members.

But ELCA supporters of its denomination's change said failure to ratify it ran just as great a risk of alienating large portions of the membership, particularly younger ones.
The Rev. Katrina Foster, pastor at Fordham Evangelical Lutheran Church in The Bronx, N.Y., said Lutherans heard similar warnings about flouting Scripture when they made past changes that are now seen as successful -- chiefly, the ordination of women.

"We can learn not to define ourselves by negation," said Foster, a lesbian. "By not only saying what we are against, which always seems to be the same -- against gay people. We should be against poverty. I wish we were as zealous about that."

Under the new policy, heterosexual clergy and professional lay workers must still abstain from sex outside marriage. The proposed change would cover those in "lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships."

ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson said after the vote that he'd commit himself to keeping opponents of the new policy within the ELCA fold.

"For those that did not prevail tonight, are you willing to stay engaged in the conversation?" Hanson said. He added, "I'm pleading with people to stay in there with us in this conversation."

***
GJ - I published a chapter in "Out of the Depths of ELCA" about this, 22 years ago. The movement has been pan-denominational.

The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Cover by Norma Boeckler
The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity

Pastor Gregory L. Jackson

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bethany-lutheran-worship

Bethany Lutheran Worship, 8 AM Phoenix Time


The Hymn #479 Zion rise 2:13
The Confession of Sins
The Absolution
The Introit p. 16
The Gloria Patri
The Kyrie p. 17
The Gloria in Excelsis
The Salutation and Collect p. 19
The Epistle and Gradual 2 Corinthians 3:4-11
The Gospel Mark 7:31-37
Glory be to Thee, O Lord!
Praise be to Thee, O Christ!
The Nicene Creed p. 22
The Sermon Hymn #469 Glorious things 2:26

Ministration of Righteousness

The Hymn #442 Lord of glory 2:61
The Preface p. 24
The Sanctus p. 26
The Lord's Prayer p. 27
The Words of Institution
The Agnus Dei p. 28
The Nunc Dimittis p. 29
The Benediction p. 31
The Hymn #508 Thou whose almighty Word 2:7

KJV 2 Corinthians 3:4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. 7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

KJV Mark 7:31 And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. 32 And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. 33 And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue; 34 And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened. 35 And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. 36 And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it; 37 And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

Twelfth Sunday After Trinity
Almighty and everlasting God, who hast created all things: We thank Thee that Thou hast given us sound bodies, and hast graciously preserved our tongues and other members from the power of the adversary: We beseech Thee, grant us Thy grace, that we may rightly use our ears and tongues; help us to hear Thy word diligently and devoutly, and with our tongues so to praise and magnify Thy grace, that no one shall be offended by our words, but that all may be edified thereby, through Thy beloved Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one true God, world without end. Amen.

The Ministration of Righteousness
This Epistle is one of the great Bible passages on the importance of the Gospel, without denigrating the Law.

The history of Christian doctrinal conflicts is full of extreme positions being taken, usually as a reaction to some error or weakness. A reaction to a weak position does not create a strong, orthodox position. It often generates another problem to be faced.

Luther properly divided the Scriptures into Law and Gospel. Unionistic Protestants like to say there are few differences between the Lutherans and them, so why not just agree with them? That is like saying men and women have hundreds of similarities, so why not overlook the differences and declare one gender?

The differences between Lutherans and other Protestants add up, and so do the differences between Book of Concord Lutherans and the rest.

Let’s start with Law and Gospel itself. No other Christian confession emphasizes this so much. In fact, they really do not use those categories in any consistent way. For example, Karl Barth—theologian of Fuller Seminary—began one of his volumes this way: “The gift is a demand.” So he was saying (via his mistress Charlotte Kirschbaum, who wrote most of his Dogmatics) that the gift of salvation imposes a Law demand on all believers. For Lutherans, that is a clear confusion between Law and Gospel, turning the Gospel into Law.

Non-Lutheran Protestants impose Law demands on believers to prove outwardly that they are believers. For example, they must not smoke, drink alcohol (not even communion wine) use tobacco, dance or watch dancing, or participate in the theater in any way (including Disney movies). The essence of Lutheran Pietism is a list of outward signs of inward sanctification, while relaxing doctrinal standards and neglecting the Means of Grace.

Among Lutherans, Law/Gospel confusion can be found in various forms.

To emphasize the greatness of the Gospel, some Lutherans become anti-Nomians and declare, “There is no Law. It is obsolete.” This is appealing because anti-Nomian attitudes lead to hedonism, universalism, UOJ.

Clever anti-Nomians even use Paul’s inspired words to turn his doctrine upside-down. They say, “The Law is a pedagogue or tutor that leads us to Christ.” So the Law no longer has any function once we are believers. But I have found these anti-Nomians are the most legalistic people around, and quick to condemn anyone who does not fall for their claptrap. Oh, they have shiploads of Law for those people.

That is where the anti-Nomian position harmonizes the UOJ of WELS/ELS/LCMS with the Gospel reductionism of ELCA. They have the same message – “Everyone is forgiven by God’s grace.” Each sect says they others are bad because of outward behavior, either promoting sodomy or not promoting sodomy, advocating close communion or advocating open communion. But the apostates of each group like working together because they agree on basic doctrine – Everyone is forgiven, everyone saved – the Gospel is telling people this message that they are already forgiven, saved, going to heaven.

Paul’s message in this lesson is very much condensed, which is why Luther saw more Gospel in the Epistles than in the Gospel narratives themselves.

In II Corinthians, Paul is defending himself against false teachers by teaching the congregation what a faithful ministry is. The accusations were about the shortcomings of Paul, including his chronic illness (which is never disclosed to us).

Those now familiar with Pietism can see the Pietistic argument – “You are outwardly defective in these ways so you are not a real minister or the right one.” America is Pietistic to a fault, which is why a lying murderous scoundrel has to be buried as a saint to make his followers feel good. I finished watching the latest Kennedy funeral thinking, “He was just too good to be sullied by association with the rest of us. Heaven may need some new laws passed before he will step inside.”

“Our sufficiency is of God.” Those familiar with the efficacy of the Word know what this means. A careful reading will show a perfect harmony between faithful ministry, the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word, and the effectiveness of the Gospel.

A wrong (Reformed) view of the Gospel is that we must make it alive, germane, relevant, appealing. A good Reformed minister, like the late D. James Kennedy, is one who is good at packaging and selling the Gospel. I mention him because I liked him and admired what he did – to an extent. I did not admire his doctrine at all.

Opposition to the Word never takes the form of “I hate the Scriptures.” People will say, “The announcements are too short or too long.” And they work over the minister and each member of his family. This is funny when a member of the church is busy wrecking it, because the same people then say, “He is a charter member of this church,” conferring sainthood on demonic activities. But such are God’s ways, that He turns destructiveness into new blessings and moves the Gospel to another place and new people.

“Our sufficiency is of God” is just the opposite of worrying about “how well we are doing.” Looking for outward signs of success is typically Pietistic and bound to lead into doctrinal error and apostasy. The Old Adam wants an Old Adam minister who appeals to his carnal nature with spiritual-sounding words.

6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

There are many ways to rewrite this and keep the same meaning. Ministers of the Gospel are ministers of the Holy Spirit. The Law kills but the Holy Spirit gives eternal life through justification and salvation.

9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

We Are All Paul Gerhardt Now: Going Galt in Obama's America

Everyone has been deeply affected by the economic crisis, losing income and equity at the same time. My friends have been laid off or had their wages severely cut. I expected the same.

Teaching income decreased by 50% almost overnight. I expected some decrease, which is why I began again with life insurance. For several months, I was actually too busy teaching to get involved in sales. But both schools are expanding their faculties to have full staffs when the Boomers retire or reach room temperature. Enrollments are probably weak, too, although no one is saying so. Educators in Phoenix are being bumped at all levels, whether in public schools or higher education.

So we are short-selling our house and moving near our son's family in Arkansas. We expect to be there fairly soon. The politicians have fulfilled one promise - affordable housing is available everywhere.

All my work is online, so moving anywhere with broadband is relatively easy. I will still be blogging, conducting worship services, and teaching.

I have been greatly encouraged by some recent trends in one corner of Lutherdom, especially by the number of readers who want to do something about anti-Confessional strategies. For the last few years, a few drama queens have tried to paint me as the Freddy Krueger of WELS, but their convention voted otherwise. I see church institutions as representing a lot of individual moments where people respond to doctrinal issues or duck them. Naming the anti-efficacy error and citing the Means of Grace are both good indications for the future of WELS, if pastors and laity follow up.

"Going Galt" is a new trend. That means producing less income to starve the government of tax revenue. Or, in many cases, finding ways to live on far less income.

Readers can contribute to the move by donating to Bethany Lutheran Church, 6421 W. Poinsettia Drive, Glendale, AZ, 85304.

More details will follow.

Interesting Parallel

Thursday afternoon, libertarian journalist David Weigel sent out a message on Twitter that struck me as profound: "The proliferation of liberal media watchdogs has led to much, much, much more repetition of what conservatives say."

From The American Spectator

The most amusing example was the fake Ichabod copying my Photoshops (many done by others) and repeating my work, drawing more attention to the original blog.

That is the Wesley maxim that I try to follow - "If you can't convert them, at least make them angry." Angry people repeat to themselves and each other what upsets them most. When cultists call on me at the door, I do my best to leave them seething and shouting at me. People may find it difficult to imagine me having this effect - but six cultists have left my home shouting insults at me.

Doctrinal apostates are usually political Leftists as well. One Chicanery jumped in to defend the honor of Trust-fund Ted Kennedy. Nihil nisi bono (nothing except good said about the dead) only applies to honorable men.

There are Chicanery minders who check this blog daily so they can react, also so they can warn their pals about being named. One person has rigged Google to report when his father's name shows up on Ichabod. Don't worry - drunk driving does not qualify for a post.

Ted Kennedy--chuckle--Liked To Hear and Tell Chappaquiddick Jokes

Newsweek’s Ed Klein (told interviewer) Katty Kay about Kennedy’s love of humor. How the late senator loved to hear and tell Chappaquiddick jokes, and was always eager to know if anyone had heard any new ones. Not that Kennedy lacked remorse, Klein quickly added, seeming to intuit that my jaw and perhaps those of other listeners had just hit the floorboards. I gather it was a self-deprecating maneuver on Kennedy’s part, exercised with the famous Kennedy charm, though it sounds like one of those “I guess you had to have been there” things.

Link to quotation  


Notice on the audio that Ed Klein, a top editor at Newsweek, chuckled when he began to mention Kennedy's favorite jokes.


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Mild Colonial Boy, Esq. has left a new comment on your post "Ted Kenneday Proved Why Felons Should Not Be Defen...":

I believe Pastor Jackson's comments are completely justified - after all, as I've seen written elsewhere, If they want to continually bring up Camelot, they should also mention the Lady in the Lake.

A poem by Hilaire Belloc seems appropriate.

Epitaph on the Politician Himself

Here richly, with ridiculous display,
The Politician’s corpse was laid away.
While all of his acquaintance sneered and slanged
I wept : for I had longed to see him hanged.

Ted Kenneday Proved Why Felons Should Not Be Defended and Absolved

Chappaquiddick - the Kennedy legacy - will never be forgotten.GQ on Teddy.


Ted Kennedy died today. Someone joked he was so drunk he didn't know that Ted is short for Theodore, not his actual name Edward.

Ted should serve as a prime example of why parents should not cover up the crimes of their children. Of course, his father Joe Kennedy made his money with Mob, in the liquore trade. Joe cheated his closest friends so often that one person said, "I don't know why he is swindling me. I'm not one of his friends!" Joe disgraced himself during WWII as the ambassador to England.

Joe drove his sons to compete for fame. Joe Junior blew himself to bits on a ridiculous mission, trying to compete with Jack, whose incompetence was turned into fame by daddy's bought-and-paid-for media friends. Jack got his PT boat rammed by Japanese because he killed the motor. The valve covers had to be lifted before accelerating. JFK did not do that and made his boat a sitting duck for a destroyer. But that became the PT 109 story, good for stories, souvenirs, and more lies.

So Joe Jr. had to compete and died.

Ted's birth was some kind of a deal made between daddy and Rose, who was a gothic horror story all by herself. He ran from the police, cheated at Harvard and got caught, and became a senator because of his last name.

The press absolved the Chappaquiddick scandal. They still play it today as a "tragedy." When a Kennedy skies into a tree, after being warned repeatedly, it is also a "tragedy." No wonder their booze and drug-soaked family is so tragic.

A Skakel murdered the girl next door in Greenwich. Robert Kennedy married Ethel Skakel.

One Kennedy drove recklessly and disabled a girl for life. He came to the hospital to scream at her.

I have seen many church leaders cover up for their felonious clergy friends. Like evil Joe Senior, they do these men no favors. They only set them up for a bigger fall, but the wolves take along a number of victims too.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Ted Kenneday Proved Why Felons Should Not Be Defen...":

Can you not even pay respect to the deceased at least for a few hours or so? Even if you disagree with this man and his behavior, respect is clearly not a concern of yours.

***

GJ - Ted murdered a young woman. He left her in a partially submerged car. She did not drown. There was not a drop of water in her lungs. She slowly asphyxiated as she reached up for air. There is plenty of evidence to suggest two accidents, the second one staged. The car was destroyed. Mary Jo's clothing was destroyed. The parents were paid off but clearly outraged.

Ted did drugs with his own children and was on the property when a party girl was assaulted or raped by his younger nephew - on Good Friday.

I have no respect for Ted and no one else should, either.

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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Ted Kenneday Proved Why Felons Should Not Be Defen...":

"Can you not even pay respect to the deceased at least for a few hours or so?"

Sure I can. I mourn the senseless murder of unborn children everyday. Speaking of which, let us peruse Teddy's voting record on abortion:

(if this doesn't Kelm the right way see: http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Ted_Kennedy.htm)

Voted NO on defining unborn child as eligible for SCHIP. (Mar 2008)
Voted NO on prohibiting minors crossing state lines for abortion. (Mar 2008)
Voted YES on expanding research to more embryonic stem cell lines. (Apr 2007)
Voted NO on notifying parents of minors who get out-of-state abortions. (Jul 2006)
Voted YES on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives. (Mar 2005)
Voted NO on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. (Mar 2004)
Voted NO on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life. (Mar 2003)
Voted NO on maintaining ban on Military Base Abortions. (Jun 2000)
Voted NO on banning partial birth abortions. (Oct 1999)
Voted NO on banning human cloning. (Feb 1998)
Rated 100% by NARAL, indicating a pro-choice voting record. (Dec 2003)
Expand embryonic stem cell research. (Jun 2004)
Sponsored bill for emergency contraception for rape victims. (Sep 2006)
Rated 0% by the NRLC, indicating a pro-choice stance. (Dec 2006)
Ensure access to and funding for contraception. (Feb 2007)

I would say RIP but I'm sure Ted is facing his maker and has lots of explaining to do.

Birth Certificate Revealed!

Born Lutheran - a claim few in WELS/ELS/LCMS can make.

I just wanted to show how easy it is to display one's own birth certificate. The Democrats sued John McCain to prove he was qualified to run for president, since he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. The Panama Canal Zone birth happened precisely because his father was serving his country in the Navy.

Obama has never displayed his actual birth certificate. That is just one issue involving the least-known US president in history. There are numerous Obama family stories (in Kenya too) about Obama being born in Africa when his hippy mother flew there to reconcile her marriage to Obama's putative father. There are no Jackson family stories about me being born in another location, not even about being born at First Moline Hospital, next door to Lutheran.

More importantly, all the evidence points toward Obama having another name and citizenship in Indonesia. He had to be a citizen to go to school there. He was registered there as a Muslim, adopted by his mother's second husband, having an entirely different name. And yet he has disclaimed his Muslim faith, even while promoting it and mentioning "my Muslim faith" himself (in an interview, corrected only by the interviewer). He has sworn many times (as I have) that he has never had another name. I have to swear that when I get licensed in life insurance. Swearing otherwise is a felony - each time.

That fact would make Obama's presidency questionable. The mainstream media is concentrating on the birth when citizenship is the real issue. What were the legal issues when Obama came back to live with his grandparents? Did he get a scholarship for foreigners at Occidental College? Records are hidden. Even yearbooks are hidden. He is the man nobody knows - Occidental, Columbia, Harvard Law.

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raklatt has left a new comment on your post "Birth Certificate Revealed!":

Had I been born in Illinois, I would rather have a certificate from the institution sure of the fact, rather than from the county clerk's office where I might be shown to have voted several hundred times in any given election, postmortem.

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GJ - William F. Buckley's father is quoted as wanting to be buried in Chicago, where he could continue voting forever. JFK won through the crooked vote counts in Chicago and Texas. Ike wanted Nixon to have a recount, so egregious was the cheating.

Voter fraud is now institutionalized.

Elvis Has Left the Building:So Has Community of Joy, Glendale, Arizona

I tried to kelm the Community of Joy blog, about the vote to leave ELCA, but they make that very difficult.

Here is the link.

I phoned Parlow for some tips because Kelm was busy working on his resume. Here are the introductory paragraphs, which I was able to copy after all - thanks guys:

The Results Are In!

Dear Family and Friends of Joy,

I am eager to share some good news with you. On Sunday afternoon, June 28, a victory for the ultimate authority of God's Word was enthusiastically and overwhelmingly supported by God's people who participated in our congregational gathering. A defining Bible verse for what God did is recorded in Romans 8:37: "No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ who loved us."

The result of the vote to end our affiliation with the ELCA was 174 in favor and 11 opposed. Imagine, 94% of those present were eager to move into relationships and partnerships that are more aligned with Joy's vision, values and mission. This is a significant step into a future filled with unlimited opportunities to experience God's blessings of obedience and righteousness.

Three other major decisions were made. Joy committed to enter into a relationship with a spirit-filled Lutheran association known as the LCMC (Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ) by a 98% margin. This part of the Body of Christ is very closely aligned with Joy's vision, values and mission.

snip snip

Get ready...the best is yet to be!
With joy and enthusiasm,
Pastor Walt

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GJ - For years the LCMC has been gathering strength by taking out the biggest ELCA churches, a statistic mentioned obliquely in ELCA statistical reporting.

Read their website and note the photos being displayed.

ELCA has done exactly what the United Methodists did. By driving out the conservatives, the remaining membership becomes even more buoyant (pun intended) and reaches ever greater heights of euphoric Leftism. "No one can stop us now."

More Information on Theology of the Cross

NPH News - August 25, 2009

Finish your summer with this popular Impact series book.

Featured Item

The Theology of the Cross: Reflections on His Cross and Ours by Daniel M. Deutschlander Are you living under the theology of the cross or the theology of glory? This new book looks at Christian doctrine and reminds readers that all biblical doctrine relates to Scripture's central teaching that God sent his Son to save lost sinners. However, it also deals with the seeming paradox between the theology of the cross and the theology of glory. Sinful people tend to overlook the cross and its demands. As a result they take their eyes off Jesus and turn their attention to themselves. It is a rich study of a weighty theological issue and a worthy addition to a professional or personal library. For further comment on this volume, from Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Professor James Korthals, click HERE. Paper cover, 292 pages View sample pages. Listen to radio interview with Daniel Deutschlander. CC15N0746, $17.99.

"These are the last days of a mad, old world." - Martin Chemnitz

The Martins has left a new comment on your post "ELCA Approves Homosexual and Lesbian Partners in t...":

Bless you sir,After searching out ELCA recent rulings,I find your Blog and am blessed and encouraged.The Truth must be spoken and I find that in this place!!!

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GJ - Opinions about this blog vary, but I am glad for support of traditional Christianity wherever I find it.

Mainline Leaders Desert Obamessiah During His Giant Conference Call To Promote Cuban Health Care in America

American Spectator

As is frequently noted, mainline Protestant denominations -- the prominent ones being the United Church of Christ, the Disciples of Christ, United Methodists, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian (USA) and the Episcopal Church -- may be losing their once dominant status, but they are still filled to the brim with aging middle and upper class white seniors. Precisely the kind of people who have been in the headlines for showing up in a fury at all these healthcare town hall meetings with members of Congress.

Which may explain a curious point. Of the 16 people who participated on the phone call with President Obama only one -- Dr. Sharon Watkins, the General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) -- was the head of one of these major denominations. The heads of the Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Evangelical Lutherans and United Church of Christ were either not invited or declined an invitation to speak. They did allow the names of their denominations to be listed as a "call sponsor" -- but there was literally no voice to be heard from people who are never shy about this sort of thing.

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GJ - I noticed ELCA was mentioned above. Presiding Bishop Hanson has political commentary on everything, always consistently from the far Left perspective. Cuban Health Care is an ideal soapbox for him, except his members are also the very ones doomed by Obamessiah.