Saturday, March 24, 2018

I Was There - Before the Great Apostasy at the Philadelphia Seminary

 Krauth Memorial Library, ELCA Philadelphia Seminary,
now United Lutheran - more or less.
By Smallbones - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12212579
See the Krauth graphic below.


The battle at United Lutheran Seminary has appeared in every periodical except the Ferrier's Journal.

As I wrote before, I went through an HEW interview at the Philadelphia Seminary around 1981. They had their new hired already. The extra interviews were to prove to HEW that they were not discriminating against anyone.

New links to various magazines, journals, and shopers' gudes reminded me of a non-incident when I was there. The Lutheran magazine (LCA) - now The Living Lutheran (ELCA) - just ran an article by a Philadelphia professor outlining the traditional view of marriage. When we were lining up for lunch, one professor passed by the author, who was in line, and said, "Good article."



Looking back, there must have been a battle brewing. I know the liberals of the LCA were glad to see the magazine's conservative editor retire. Soon every issue was geared for the quotas, as if the entire LCA were a gay, Black abortion lobby. The formation of the ELCA followed the same quota pattern, so the new organization was designed to be a self-perpetuating far Left enclave.

Needless to say, the new orthodoxy not only demands the current Hollywood standards, but a lifetime of the same counter-cultural attitudes. Those students previously disqualified for the ministry are the new dictators, denouncing the new thought-sins (even if ancient thought-sins) with all the energy of youthful Maoists. They have a new group, which I refuse to name or link - whatever the American population is doing, we have a right to do the same.

 Dirty deeds are done dirt cheap - by all the parasites in Lutherdom.

Needless to say, ELCA is falling apart as rapidly as the LCMS, WELS, and ELS. The so-called conservative side went through the same revolution decades ago. Timid Tim almost cried when I told him WELS was working with the LCA/ALC through Lutheran World Relief, etc. He grew up in WELS and did not know. (No points awarded for Ninja awareness.)

The so-called conservatives decided to work with the LCA/ALC and really coveted the relative size and wealth of their larger counterparts. I recall Mordor students saying with glowing eyes, "Look at all the money they have for advertising!" Clearly, one of their designated hero-leaders planted that thought in their minds. Paul Kelm? Let's graph how that has worked out for everyone.

The son of the homiletics professor spoke excitedly in class about all the post-seminary educational options for the senior class - Fuller! Trinity Divinity! and more. How did those names fall so trippingly off his tongue?

Of course, the slow erosion caused by UOJ permeated WELS from the start, with so many trained at St. Louis, including most of their faculty - except Hoenecke. The ELS was founded on UOJ, as history proves, so that remains their nursing mother, their crack cocaine.

 This is the only worthwhile church growth chart.