Sunday, December 23, 2012

The Heavy Price of Control

McClaren is one of those Fuller Seminary cool guys.
He participated in his son's pagan/Christian marriage to another man.
SynCon leaders adore anything from Fuller Seminary.


Frightened church leaders are faithless church leaders. They do not believe in anything except the need to maintain control of the money and power spigots. Therefore, they control everyone as much as possible.

Martin Luther College (WELS) students know that they should not be caught reading Ichabod. If they say something positive about the blog, woe be unto them. And yet they are in higher education to learn critical thinking and be open-minded? No, they are in a parochial college to be fashioned and dulled into proper synodical drones.

The great tyrants of the world have shown that little progress is accomplished, little thinking is done when the dictators control everything. There is not only a fear of total exclusion--in the form of death--but also a terror of being shunned, becoming a non-person. As a result, everyone remains in a state of paralysis - except for carrying out Great Leader's plans.

As an LCA observer pointed out to me, the elected official is not really the leader. He is a figurehead representing the power structure. That is why the perennial discussion of picking the right synod president is so comical. There is no choice, except for Bad Candidate A or Bad Candidate B. The outcome is 99% certain, just like presidential politics. The power structure makes sure that the money and power will flow their way. Everyone else is just a cog in the machine.

In the worst Depression since the Great Depression, WELS and Missouri leaders send themselves to luxury resorts 


Though ev'ry prospect pleases
And only man is vile.

Their pastors and teachers can put themselves into hock for a lifetime of student loan debt. No matter. Where can they go? The synods all work together to choke off any flow of dissenters from one pigsty to another. 

No one will openly discuss the Great Apostasy in Lutherdom today. No, I don't count. I blog and conduct worship services in from a "rented house." (I wonder what the CyberPlagiarist thinks about the Nativity stable, which Joseph rented for a brief stay.)

Bishop Stephan and Pope Walther led the way in showing how to conduct a complete dictatorship. The Muhlenberg tradition was quite congregational in contrast, until mergers consolidated power and mimicked the Walther Stalinism so effectively.

This is not exactly a secret.
Walther bided his time as the pimp and enforcer for his syphilitic bishop,
then organized a mob to rob and kidnap Stephan, taking over as the new pope.
---


What if you created a "postmodern" seminary?

In light of how much you have to say about postmodernism, I am wondering what your approach would be if you could start a "postmodern seminary." What kind of emphases would you like to see? How would you approach theological education? What kinds of courses might you offer?
Would there be a certain background you would look for in potential faculty members (that might be different from most other seminaries)?What else would be important for you that I have not asked about? Thanks!



I talk about this very thing at the end of A New Kind of Christian, and I’m glad to say that there are a number of seminaries exploring this territory – among them Mars Hill Graduate School, Biblical Theological Seminary, George Fox Seminary, Fuller Seminary, Carey Theological Seminary, and others, I’m sure. There are good things brewing – and it’s happening faster than I would have expected due to the good leadership at these and other schools.

Glende and Ski follow the Emergent Church model favored by Brian McClaren.
See below to discern where that leads.
"Don we now our gay apparel. Falalala-lalala."



WELS leaders Mark Schroeder and Keith Free funded this fiasco,
about $500,000+
with a grant! - a few blocks from a real congregation.