Intrepid Lutherans: The whole flock won't survive 'jumping the shark':
Dear reader, your first reaction to the above image may be the result of a generational divide in Lutherdom. Some may first notice a Lutheran church promoting itself with the image of a 'Sacred Heart' of Jesus. Others may notice it's merely a figurine caricature. Others still may recognize the image as "Buddy Jesus" most often used as an internet meme to mock Jesus Christ and His Church.
The card itself (the obverse and reverse shown above) was conspicuously left in a business waiting area. When I first glanced at it from a distance, I recognized the posture of "Buddy" Jesus and assumed it was an atheist/anti-Christian screed. I picked it up intending only to throw it in the trash — just like I'd have done with Watchtower or LDS tracts —, to protect tender Christians who may be stumbled by whatever text would accompany the current favored meme to ridicule Jesus on the fallen world's internet.
The caricature originates in the movie "Dogma" starring George Carlin. Suffice to say, the movie is not an apologetic for sound Christian doctrine. In the movie, a church decides the usual picture of Christ — slain for our sins, dead on the Cross — is too off-putting to get people to come to church. So the priest decides to make up his own Jesus based on what he wants Jesus to be. The script-writers (thinking themselves clever) aren't mocking the Christian Church, but unwittingly, just the Church Growth Movement.
The Northern Wisconsin District convenes in June leaving four months for laity (half of the Voters assembling) to contemplate a few questions. Whether Mittelding (aka "Adiaphora") really means 1) purposefully grinding the Lutheran school bus along the guardrail overlooking the rocky precipice while enthusiastically shouting, "As long as we don't actually drive off the cliff, we're just fine!"; or 2) safely keeping the flock on the well-worn path toward the verdant pastures. Similarly, is it scripturally defensible to seek numerical and spiritual growth by fertilizing our doctrine with practices from Zondervan Publishing's Augean stable of heretics like Rick Warren or Craig Groeschel?
Despite a half-millennium of sound, encyclopedic Lutheran exposition, who in our Synod teaches that mocking Jesus, "as long as it draws a crowd", is an adiaphoron? I'd like a name.
'via Blog this'
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My opinion: Nothing will happen.
If the CoP doesn't care about excommunications then they won't care about this.
Mitch Forte
If the CoP doesn't care about excommunications then they won't care about this.
Mitch Forte
The CORE News:
February 5th
Parables You Wish I Had Told - The Safe Sheep
Too often the world takes God's Word and twists it so that God's Word can fit into situations that make us feel comfortable. BUT, rather than telling us the things we WANT to hear, God's Word tells us the things we NEED to hear. Join us at 5:30pm at the OuterEdge Stage for our final week of this sermon series.
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GJ - Readers can look up the comments. Joel Lillo, a CORE Enthusiast, defends it. Several are posting that criticizing the card is an example of breaking the Eighth Commandment. I have not found a source for the sermons, but they do sound canned. The Sex Ed stuff was right from Groeschel, including the graphics.
Just create an account and you can listen to the Law based sermons (gotocore.com).
Also, if I know my voices...the talk from 1-29-12 is from the Dean of Luther Prep: Tim Dolan. So I guess it's safe to say that our young ones at LPS are being taught doctrine and being influenced by the Dean of LPS; the Dean who approves of The CORE's methods and the undermining of the doctrine of election and FC SD and Ep on adiaphora. (And maybe even justification with their harping on good works so much).
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GJ - My impression is that someone or a few people with big bucks said, "This is what we are going to do. If you don't like it, we can leave WELS, just like Stadler did."
