Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "MLC Video Comment - But Wait - Does Everyone Know ...":
I find it interesting that you choose only to post those blog comments that only correlate your opinion. [GJ - Could you get a third only into this sentence?] Why not post all blog comments on the page in plain view for everyone to see? [GJ - Obscenities and cursing too?]
Also where has our sense of humor gone? Are we all suppose to be staunch German robots set in our ways? Last time I checked it's hard to reach out to non-Christians when you have a "better than thou" attitude. Congrats to these young men for having some fun and letting people see their fun side.
I can only think that this will make it that much easier for children and teens to approach them when they become pastors and teachers. The children won't view them only as stuck up, snobby pastors and teachers who are unapproachable. Instead this will keep these young men down to earth and in touch with the one thing the WELS needs to continue, the younger generation.
[GJ - Ye shall know them by their fruits.]
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "MLC Video Comment - But Wait - Does Everyone Know ...":
So wait, this guy thinks it's okay to like Monty Python, but not a Youtube video featuring a mockery of another Youtube video, of which there are thousands online? He didn't even do his initial research to find out that the video was inspired by the Party in the FIP video. This blog, and the people responding to its completely outrageous claims are nothing more than a bunch of gossiping old grannies. And gossip is a sin, in case you didn't know.
[GJ - Sodom and Gomorrah were full of gossip columnists sporting leather pants, spikey hair, and earrings - the real sin of Genesis 19.]
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Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "WELS GA Personality":
There really isn't GA at the seminary anymore. It was over at least 5 years ago. The administration was (rightfully) afraid of a lawsuit. The dean of students, at least in years past, addressed the seniors and explained that seriously, really, not a joke, they can't have GA, because it could lead to a lawsuit. It's kind of funny that GA is so ingrained in their minds that he has to be emphatic that he is not kidding. [GJ - Even stranger is his argument based on fearing a lawsuit. A better statement would be - GA was wrong, stupid, dishonest, sadistic, anti-Christian, and against the spirit of any seminary. But that would have offended James Paul Tiefel, former GA pope, who got GA going again when students did cancel it.]
It's been replaced by a new activity with a German name, which I can't recall at the moment. They still pretend that something is going to happen. For the first few weeks, the seniors and middlers don't talk to the juniors in the cafeteria, but that is as bad as it gets. A few weeks into school, the juniors are told to come to the dorm basement on a Thursday night. There is a speech about what used to happen in GA. It ends along the lines of, "but we can't do that anymore. Oh, it's time to go." A line of cars is waiting to drive the juniors to a mystery destination... for a moment they wonder what will happen... then they pull up to a local bar. They skip the chasing, swimming, or whatever used to happen, and instead go straight to drinking, the merits of which I reserve for the reader to judge. [GJ - I am not going to assume this is true, just because someone posted it. If it is, the seminary is still begging for a lawsuit, for felony stupidity, not to mention other legal vulnerabilities.]
The secret isn't tightly kept. Some students inform their friends in advance (I was warned by someone who knew I might not attend otherwise), but let the the more enthusiastic have their fun and pretend to be surprised. Then Friday afternoon there is a quirky-but-harmless scavenger-hunt type activity in the Milwaukee area, followed by a pig roast, a devotion, and a party with skits in the basement. There aren't negative consequences if you skip out. It's admittedly unusual for a seminary, but an improvement over GA.
Pastor Jackson, I understand your suspicion. Given the secretive nature of GA and the animosity of some towards you and your blog, I would be suspicious as well. I agree 100% with your assessment of GA. But please don't report that GA continues. They really have stopped. I feel bad about spoiling the fun for future classes, but I would hate to see a qualified young man shy away from WLS because he is afraid of being hazed. And that's what might happen if he stumbles across your blog. If he is worried about GA, he should call seminary president Wendland (whose phone number is available at the seminary website) and ask him about it. I'm sure he will be open about initiation with any concerned layperson or prospective student. WLS is the synod's school after all, so all WELS members have a right to know what's going on there. But GA has been over a while. Most WELS pastors have been through it, but each year that percentage will be smaller. I think it would be helpful for everyone if the rumors were finally put to rest. Yes, it was inappropriate and harmful, but the seminary has repented, in a manner of speaking; it's over now and time to move on. [GJ - Godly contrition is required - not "moving on."]
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GJ - I repeated the claim that GA is over. However, I was also told otherwise, so I mentioned that as well. The spirit of GA permeates the Shrinker sub-class. Witness the decades old lie that there is no Church Growth Movement in WELS.
Someone perceptively wrote: "I think IJ Reily's comment about the severity of hazing is quite perceptive....
The bad thing is that the severity of hazing (at least in years gone by) can linger for many years. After all, you are only 13 or 14 years old when you are living away from home for extended time periods. While still a WELS member in "good standing", I will always be mistrustful of giving the WELS my unqualified devotion, support, or confidence.
I always thought these traditions developed and continued to exist in WELS prep schools for several reasons. One reason is as follows:
Imagine a family has 3 kids and 2 parents. The ratio of supervision is 2 to 3, or 66 percent
Now imagine a dorm full of minors, numbering about 140. Imagine there are only 2 or 3 tutors residing in that dorm. The ratio of supervision is now only 3 to 140, or 2 percent.
Quite a difference !!!
So, much like prisons have used the "trustee system" in which certain prisoners are given authority within the prison system, upperclassman are given (or were given) certain authority over the underclassmen.
Unfortunately, abuse in such a situation can often creep in. Few 16, 17 or 18 year olds have the maturity of using power wisely.
Here's a thought to keep you awake at night. Imagine if WELS had boarding school for middle school (6th through 8th grade) students!!!!
William Golding's "LORD OF THE FLIES" comes to mind."
Oversight by older students is a common feature of boarding schools. How this is handled is another question.
I do post foolish comments from time to time. The Shrinkers started their own anonymous blogs but could not keep them going, for some reason. Ichabod is not a free ride for anyone with some free time and public library access. When the nastiest ones got their own blog going for a few weeks, they only published congratulatory comments from Shrinkers Tim Felt-needs and Joe Krohn, who were the only followers. They even eliminated a link to Thy Strong Word from a comment on the topic of UOJ! So they hauled out the Synodical Conference boilerplate claims about UOJ as their proof but would not link a scholarly book where all those claims were matched with the Scriptural and Confessional repudiation of forgiveness without faith.
UOJ is not only a product of Pietism. UOJ is also closely associated with anti-nomianism, lawless legalism, an obvious component of the old Synodical Conference and still in evidence today.
I want to add that some of the warmest, most Gospel-centered people I have known are WELS, pastors and laity alike. I realize people are struggling to overcome the errors of the past. For that reason I am glad to provide a podium for those people.
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Fire Island Pines Video Inspires Future WELS Pastors
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Miley Cyrus in concert in Los Angeles.
Who says the Walt Disney Company doesn’t have a sense of humor?
Perhaps no star is more important to the media giant these days than Miley Cyrus, the 16-year-old “Hannah Montana” actress who also delivers hit movies, merchandising lines and albums. The already protective company is überprotective of her.
So when a video popped up on YouTube on Monday – depicting seven gay men in speedos cavorting on a beach to “Party in the USA,” Ms. Cyrus’s new single – Disney’s blood could easily have boiled. The upbeat video is G-rated, but a tad on the flamboyant side (writhing on the sand, a pool-dancing sequence).
“I assumed it would be taken down pretty much immediately, particularly because of the music rights issue,” said David Fudge, a 27-year-old marketing executive at Esquire who made the video, titled “Party in the Fire Island Pines.”
But Disney left the ditty alone and it soon exploded in an underground way, collecting 200,000 views in just three days. Disney employees started e-mailing it to each other, and before long Mr. Fudge’s office telephone rang. On the other end: Rich Ross, the president of Disney Channels Worldwide.
“I was like, who?” Mr. Fudge said. “He just said that he loved it and wanted to tell us that. He was extremely nice.”
Mr. Ross declined to comment, but another Disney executive noted that the video (and the reaction to it) demonstrated how Ms. Cyrus was broadening her fan base beyond little girls. Moreover, at a time of declining CD sales, even a teen queen like Ms. Cyrus needs all the attention for her songs that she can get. Her new album, “The Time of Our Lives,” arrives in Wal-Mart stores on Monday.
Ms. Cyrus herself is apparently a fan of Mr. Fudge’s work. Earlier this week, she wrote on Twitter: “I am OBSESSED with this video! Let’s make one!”
[GJ - Thanks to this video, Miley has moved her fan base from little princesses to young queens.]
