Another Norman Rockwell Saturday

Long ago we had an apple orchard near our home in Moline,
and we could relax on a sunny day with comic books
and donuts. Actually, this was posed for a Melo-Cream calendar.

Sassy and I had our usual walk, which included several stops at our neighbors' yard sale.

The landscaper hosted it, and the Four S girls were there to help the joint effort. Their mom had the children's stuff out for sale, and her daughters helped arrange everything. Since all the daughters have names starting with S, we call them the Four Esses.

Sassy loved the attention, which included petting from each new visitor. Her favorite S girl knelt and petted her while the landscaper said, "I want that dog when he gets tired of it."

We traded some gardening information, and I asked for all the cardboard, which he was complaining about piling up for the garbage pickup. He was about to buy heavy-duty weed blocker plastic, because that was what they taught and used in landscaping. Once he saw the light, I thought my supply would be cut short, especially since the Four Esses mother discovered plastic was a bad idea for her garden.

But the whole idea is to use what is already there and good for the soil, so I am not worried about lacking cardboard in the near future. The same thing is true of logs, especially small portable ones. When I moved the Butterfly Bush, I carried the log fence that I placed there to promote a residence for toads and a perch for bird. The newly planted bush needed some propping, so the logs did double duty. A light went on in my head - "I can protect the new Elephant Ear bulbs the same way." I did not want them to be trampled - most likely by me. I was going to buy some little fences at Lowe's but that meant a new stop, something small to trip over, and some cash. Logs are free and more difficult to miss.

Plastic sheets are not good for the soil. We want the soil to breathe and the material above the soil to block sunlight, absorbing rain and rotting downward to feed the soil. Plastic promotes pathogen growth, I imagine, and will let weeds through over time, creating a real mess.

Naturally, an informal conversation leads to some bartering. I obtained a metal stand for very little, plus a promise of cardboard for the garden. The Four Esses garden, so I offered some sunflower seeds to them right after the landscaper gave me a box of wildflower mixture.

Sassy and I went back - 1/2 block - and fetched the sunflower seeds and some roses for the Four Esses.

Clueless History of the LCMS - From 2011. James C. Burkee. Forward by Martin Marty. Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod

Jack Preus, left, seems to be suppressing a laugh  as his ALC cousin Dave Preus, pontificates.
Dave Preus is now against the ELCA merger,
and so is former LCA president Crumley.

Pastor Herman Otten baffled and thwarted the apostates by quoting them.  The old joke about Otten was that he was not born, he was Xeroxed.

Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod: A Conflict That Changed American Christianity

By James C. Burkee, Foreword by Martin Marty

Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2011, 183 pages. #9780800697921.

Reviewed by Gregory L. Jackson, PhD

Martin Marty sets the tone of this book, in his foreword, where he refers to Pastor Otten as “Mr. Otten.” The Missouri Synod apostates have always insisted on “Mr. Otten” because they do not wish to recognize his ordination, which was valid and proper according to their own polity.

Marty guided the completion of this dissertation, as a “minor” and “neutral” observer. He has never been a minor figure in the Missouri Civil War, and he was hardly a neutral observer. A parallel would be asking Fuller student David Valleskey to write an analysis of the Church Growth Movement.

Fortress once had a reputation for telling the truth in its books, even if the truth involved their own liberal heroes, such as Barth or Tillich. That honesty is missing from Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod. The ELCA does not like the Missouri Synod; many of its leaders left the LCMS. In fact, Carl Braaten (never accused of orthodoxy) has blamed the Missouri come-outters for making ELCA so radical. They used their minority status to recast the merger into their dream organization.

The famous Seminex, made up of faculty and students who left Concordia Seminary, became the official seminary for the Metropolitan Community Church, a denomination set up exclusively for homosexual and lesbian pastors and members. These intellectual giants of Seminex determined the substance of ELCA with a quota system and other enhancements.

Burkee’s book is well written and difficult to put down, with many good insights into the background of the Missouri Synod conflict. However, he is completely clueless about the cause of the synod’s conflict. If he is not clueless, then he simply dishonest about what caused the split.

From the beginning, the author sets up a Straw Man with  the inerrancy term. His ELCA readers doubtless agree with him that inerrancy is a new term that does not fit the teaching of the Scriptures. Therefore, they will resonate with the concept that the evil Preus brothers used this newly-invented term to grab power and oust the Seminex martyrs.

Inerrancy, Etc.

The Christian Church has always taught the inspiration, authority, and inerrancy of the Scriptures. The old term was “infallible” but the apostates kept watering down the meaning of infallible by saying “infallible in doctrine, but not in history or geography.” As a result, the term “inerrant” was used in its place or added to it. Catholics and  Protestants alike, not to mention the Eastern Orthodox, were in agreement. One pope said the Bible was like Christ, having two natures, divine and human, and yet without error.

Luther defined the Scriptures as “inerrant” and “infallible” in the Book of Concord, the Large Catechism, on Baptism, using the Latin words.

“57] Thus we do also in infant baptism. We bring the child in the conviction and hope that it believes, and we pray that God may grant it faith; but we do not baptize it upon that, but solely upon the command of God. Why so? Because we know that God does not lie. I and my neighbor and, in short, all men, may err and deceive, but the Word of God cannot err.” The Large Catechism, Book of Concord, Infant Baptism.

Moreover, the articles of the Creed were never subject to debate in the Christian Church proper until the rationalists began to attack each one. Someone who doubted the Virgin Birth of Christ and the actual resurrection of Christ was not an honored leader, a valued teacher, a man of wisdom and discernment.

The massive response against the Seminex heretics came from the laity and the ministerium realizing that Fuerbringer and his faculty were apostate, mainline Protestants, Unitarians who still used the liturgy – not faithful Lutherans, not proclaimers of the Gospel.

I got to know many of the main characters in this book, although I was newly ordained when most of the events happened and only viewed them from the perspective of an LCA pastor. I have met most of the main figures in this drama: Herman and Grace Otten, Walter Otten, Jack Preus, Robert Preus, Kurt Marquart, John “Warlike” Montgomery, Martin Marty, Walter Maier II, Fred Rutz Sr., Waldo Werning, Ralph Bohlmann, Robert Sauer, David Scaer, Father Richard John Neuhaus (and his father), and a few others.

Burkee argues that Missouri has fallen apart because the conservatives won, but the Seminex crowd actually came out on top. The synod no longer has a consistent witness of any kind. This is best illustrated by one of the heroes of the book – Waldo Werning.

Most of the leading figures are introduced with a mini-biography, quite useful. Although Werning is still alive and active, at the age of 90, he is not introduced in the same way. He gave many hours of interviews (p. xv) and emerges as a superman of the conservative movement. Burkee is no Thucydides.

Werning Facts

Werning was an early ecumenist and went back to unionism, so his conservative phase was bracketed by the opposite stance, making him more of a power-seeking opportunity rather than a principled leader. Far from being a conservative, he was an early advocate of Church Growthism from Fuller Seminary, promoting it in every way possible and brutally persecuting anyone who offered him a critique of his Schwaermer doctrine. I know one LCMS pastor who was driven out of two synods because he did not agree with Werning. Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne students were told never to confront Werning on anything, or it would be the end of their careers.

In fact, Werning was told he could not teach anymore because no one wanted his classes. He responded by helping to get rid of Robert Preus, acting on behalf of LCMS Synod President Ralph Bohlmann, another supposed conservative who switched sides.

Werning also turned against Otten, although he made so many secret contacts with Otten that the Otten children nicknamed him “Agent X.”

Werning is a major source for this book, but I would not trust a word from him, even if his tongue were notarized.

Secrecy

Burkee does a fine job of revealing the secret deals and gambits of the conservatives, who were always anxious to hide their connections with Otten and Christian News. They wanted the advantages of anonymously submitting their information, gossip, and opinions to the public, through the tabloid.

LCMS President Jack Preus was elected and continued in office because of Christian News. He worked with Otten, met with him, phoned him, attacked him in public and apologized in secret. Otten taped their conversations because he could not trust Preus.

Everyone knew Jack was a double-dealer, but almost all church officials are. They pose as conservatives while rewarding the apostates. I can offer names and dates for similar actions in various synods. Burkee has offered proof for what everyone suspected all along.

Al Barry was elected LCMS president the same way. Paul McCain was the Waldo Werning for that election, talking to Otten in secret and stealthily sending materials to be leaked via Christian News. McCain denied being in contact with Otten, but he bragged about it to me, just as Otten did.

The Seminex bunch lied from the beginning, saying they were faithful and confessional when they knew very well they were not. Tietjen started a foundation (FLUTE)  to support the faculty’s exit from Concordia Seminary, but refused to answer any official questions about it. As an employee of the synod, he owed them answers.

The LCMS gave the Seminex faculty all kinds of chances, allowing them to stay in faculty housing. Burkee did repeat the fact that the glorious day of EXILE, photographed by the press, ended with the students coming back to have their next meal at the seminary – not much of an exile, not a heavy cross to bear!

I asked a Seminex student if they stole all kinds of valuable books from the Concordia Seminary Library. He said, “They were ours!”

Tietjen’s public relations offensive was completely dishonest. He portrayed them as victims, martyrs of a power-made cabal of extremists. The press ate up the phony drama and acted as the Seminex mimeograph room. Nevertheless, Seminex was a flop and got moved to Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, another failure.

Moving the Structure Around

Jack Preus managed to take away the props for Seminex, by moving the schools around. Once the LCMS colleges could no longer feed students into Seminex, it faded away, even with the extra Metropolitan Community students.

Burkee is correct in showing that this civil war was more of a power play than a principled effort. Its success came from the training and knowledge of the old guard, commonly mocked as Bronze Age Missourians.

When Jack Preus left office, there was no more jousting against liberals in the presidency. His chosen successor, Ralph Bohlmann, was committed to the opposite side (in spite of his image) and soon displayed it. Bohlmann supported the Church Growth Movement with gusto, worked with the LCA/ALC, and moved toward women’s ordination. His lesbian daughter is now an ordained United Church of Christ minister, living with her partner.

Al Barry was no improvement, and the LCMS has recently voted overwhelmingly to work with ELCA.

Great Entertainment

I enjoyed this book immensely, but it should be read with Adams’ Preus of Missouri, and Marquart’s Anatomy of an Explosion. Marquart is good in tracing the doctrinal history of the civil war. Adams is full of background material and anecdotes.

Otten

Herman and Grace Otten are the indispensable leaders in this drama. They put together a newsletter, later a tabloid, with great efficiency and CPA frugality. The value of Christian News, and the pain inflicted, is not the quirkiness or even bizarre nature of the publication. Otten reproduced the actual documents displaying the Unitarian doctrine of his Seminex opponents. Meanwhile, Herman and Grace raised a large brood of kids, built a camp used by many Lutheran groups, and published a few books on the side.

The Left accuses him of doing unethical things, and some details (especially the student days) sound like training camp at CIA headquarters. The Left has done that much and more.

WAM II

The most instructive section of this book was its treatment of Walter Maier II, Ft. Wayne professor and son of the famous radio preacher.

Maier dared to go against Jack Preus, so Jack did the most evil thing I have seen pulled by any church executive – and that is saying something. Jack attacked WAM II as a false teacher, accusing him of denying Objective Justification, which ended Maier’s chance to be Synod President or seminary president. The effort was intended as a complete repudiation and humiliation of WAM II. He also lost the chairmanship of his department.

The irony of this debacle is that Robert Preus stepped up as the new Ft. Wayne president. Robert Preus and the seminary took the false doctrine of Objective Justification from Pietism (and Walther) and made it the norma normans (ruling norm) of the synod. Robert Preus finally repudiated this OJ error in his final book, but the damage has been done. The OJ fanatics of the past cannot face up to their error.

Jesus did say that evil fruit came from evil trees. The old Synodical Conference is paying double for all its sins through their promotion of grace without the Means of Grace.

Who Won?

Clearly, the apostates of Seminex won. Those liberals who remained in Missouri were rewarded with the best positions, just as the signers of the Statement were in days past. The president’s office, already under Jack Preus, called off the war, surrendering while claiming, “We won!”

Under Bohlmann, Barry, and Kieschnick, the conservatives were spanked, shunned, punished, and fired. Werning’s Church Growth Movement was put on steroids, vitamin pills, and energy drinks.

Supposedly, the great doctrinal error of ELCA is Gospel reductionism and Universalism. Everyone is forgiven and everyone is saved.

What is taught in the LCMS, WELS, ELS, and the micro-mini sects? God has already declared the entire world forgiven of its sin (Enthusiasm), and the whole world is saved (Universalism). They will not admit this yet, but they teach exactly what ELCA teaches. That is why the LCMS, WELS, and ELS work so well with ELCA: they believe the same thing.

One solution, employed by Seminex supporter Richard Neuhaus, is to join the Church of Rome. Many LCMS pastors are now following his lead and becoming priests. Some choose Eastern Orthodoxy, which is just one step away.

Father Richard J. Neuhaus, a critic of Church Growth and ELCA fads, became a Roman Catholic priest before he died, taking some Lutheran pastors with him, including the subsequent editor of the Lutheran Forum Letter.

Wordsworth Was Correct - Little We See in Nature That Is Ours. Creation Shows the Efficacy of the Word. Apostasy Dominates Today in Lutherdom

Butterfly, by Norma Boeckler.
We spray for flying insects and wonder where the butterflies went.
We plant acres of flower-free lawns
and expect them to feed on Scott's chemicals.

The World Is Too Much With Us

Related Poem Content Details

BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

The world is too much with us; late and soon, 

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;— 

Little we see in Nature that is ours; 

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! 

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon; 

The winds that will be howling at all hours, 

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers; 

For this, for everything, we are out of tune; 

It moves us not.

The second part of the poem may be seen as blasphemous or prophetic, since it describes our current situation. We have so many Hollywood priests and priestesses of pagan religion, guiding us in the way of their enlightenment, suckled as they are in creeds outworn.

                                 Great God! I’d rather be 

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; 

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; 

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; 

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

The Lutheran Reformation continued with great strength into the next century and then began to sputter into philosophical arguments with the Calvinists, supported by grand Latin terms but little Biblical understanding. 

When the era of Pietism began with Spener, the seminary students and laity were in a state of famine, so little did they know about the Bible itself. They packed the lecture halls and created cell groups to study the Bible as it is.

Where is our society today? Lutherdom has repeated the errors of Orthodoxism, that period of rationalistic top-doggery where everyone debated trivia in grand, obscure terms they invented from their university educations. After Gerhard, who worked with Chemnitz, are there more than a few old theologians even worth mentioning? They became rationalistic and Pietistic, as if the Reformation never happened.

And now - where are the great oaks of a few decades ago? They have been replaced with willows swaying in the wind. They are clouds without rain, offering nothing but their self-puffery. For example, the Preus brothers - Jack and Robert - for all their faults, went against the leadership of the time and put some permanent potholes in the rush to join mainline apostasy. Jack restored the old tradition of a church leader being a scholar, taking his synod back to Chemnitz, a theologian universally ignored at the time. Robert managed a pretty good seminary and continued to fight battles that were already lost in the LCMS (women usurping authority and teaching men) and anticipated the flight to Rome in Justification and Rome.

The LCMS has gone from translating Chemnitz and writing his biography (Jack Preus) to working with ELCA and playing the banjo. 

Where are the replacements for Jack and Robert? The new potential leaders have been snubbed, silenced, sent to the boonies, and otherwise squashed like bugs. One advances in the various sects by going along with the boys and girls in power. Erase evidence needed in a clergy crime? No problem! Forget something ever happened? The proper response is - "Forget what?" Go to Fuller Seminary? "Sign me up!" Sell bad hymnals and worse Bibles - "There's money to be made here."

A detail of a peacock feather shows what the Creator can do.

Little We See in Nature That Is Ours

The remedy is realizing the complexity of Creation and how that collection of infinite dependencies comes from the Word of God.

Darwin's Black Box explains how our science has looked into the extraordinary mechanical and chemical complexity of microscopic life. Brett Meyer was struck by the ability of a fungus to trap a nematode with a spring trap, a pivotal photograph that moved a gardening expert to abandon his fertilizer and toxin remedies for Teaming with Microbes.

Tachinid Fly - smaller than a housefly -
welcomed in the garden by discerning Creationists.

Dealing with Creation itself shows us how these miracles of design, engineering, and management are all around us. Today I was writing about Tachinid flies in the garden - beneficial and easy to spot - they look like small houseflies, but houseflies are not found in the garden. Later, in moving a Butterfly Bush I spotted a Tachinid fly on the Bee Balm. 

"Thank you little fellow. I do not know how you found my yard or decided to work for me, but I am glad the Bee Balm was a welcome sign for you."

The Tachinid fly will lay eggs on or in - shudder - a pest. The babies hatch and eat their way to maturity, killing the host pest. The double bonus is another generation of Tachinids and far fewer insect pests. But how do we keep the adults happy and well fed? - with pollen and nectar.

"Call security!"
The Flower Fly or Hoverfly is a syrphid fly,
patrolling against pests.

Wiki on Hoverflies:
Aphids alone cause tens of millions of dollars of damage to crops worldwide every year; because of this, aphid-eatinghoverflies are being recognized as important natural enemies of pests, and potential agents for use in biological control. Some adult syrphid flies are important pollinators.

Wiki on Tachinid food:

Adult flies feed on flowers and nectar from aphids and scale insects. As many species typically feed on pollen, they can be important pollinators of some plants, especially at higher elevations in mountains where bees are relatively few.

A constant supply of pollen and nectar comes from a wide variety of plants, most of which are overlooked as not important, beautiful, or useful. Clover, buckwheat, and tiny weeds in the grass are sources of pollen throughout the summer. The plants need pollinators, and God provides many kinds of creatures to do that work.

Denial of the efficacy of the Word is
not different from rejection of Creation.

Likewise, at the bird feeders, the birds eat according to their preferences. Doves will eat from the platform feeder, as the cardinals do, but both are happy to eat from the ground while others scatter perfectly good seed downward for them to enjoy. The tiny birds need to work a sunflower seed over with their beaks to open it up, so they will eat the tiny seeds in the finch feeder most of the time, avoiding the bullying squirrel.

Starlings want the suet and eat it up fast, but the woodpecker family will also eat suet when given a chance. On the ground, Starlings and Grackles will drive beaks into the soil for grubs. Everyone says, "I hate Japanese beetles (June bugs) and Starlings." Pick one or t'other. Starlings eat Japanese beetle grubs, so the Starling fans - like me - see few June bugs. I never got anywhere in the past against the Japanese beetles, whether using Sevin pesticide, My Beetle-Sin hormone traps, or milky spore disease. The birds simply ask for some food, mostly natural, some baths and spas, and shelter for their homes. Their orders come From Above, programmed by the Creating Word and managed by the Holy Spirit.

"Forget Abraham," the faux-Lutherans say.
"The entire world is declared forgiven without faith."

Creation and the Word of God

Creation is one piece of cloth. All the threads are connected, one way or another. Our country is in decline because we began a wholesale abandonment of the Word in the 1930s, with the foundations laid in the 19th Century, when the intellectuals favored Evolution and made fun of Creation.

Lutherans never tire of claiming the Reformation while working against everything taught in the Scriptures, Luther, the Book of Concord, Chemnitz, and Gerhard. The 500th Anniversary of the Reformation promises to be a gaudy spectacle of buffoonery.

We are bigger than the Kentucky Derby.
Come hear us experts on thoroughbred racing.

The WELS-ELS Luther Days fake conference is prelude and foreshadowing of what official Lutherdom will do next year.

Picture a herd of jackasses braying about how they are thoroughbred race horses, so trusted that they will host a convention for thoroughbred racehorses. So they invite the laziest, most obstinate jackasses they know to lead this conference on racing.  And they will call it

The Triple Crown Racing Event of the Century - Biggest Ever!

We have appointed ourselves experts in the finest
racing traditions and ceremonies. That is why we banish
anyone who disagrees with our scholarship, our bloodlines, our leadership.

This Foolishness
shows a lack of connection with the Word of God and alienation from Creation. How can the glorious LCMS, WELS, and ELS maintain such warm relations with ELCA, where the norms of Creation are not only rejected but repudiated in the most obnoxious ways possible.

Like all Enthusiasts, ELCA and their bedmates of the Synodical Conference reject the efficacy of the Word but not the efficacy of their own words. We never stop hearing from them, how they will cure Lutherdom, fix Lutherdom, and make Lutherdom grow again by making it real, relational, and relevant for the first time ever.

Coming from drunks, Sodomites, and degenerates, their tawdry message to join the party should be given the attention it deserves.