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| Synodocrats take a selfie - they just got another estate. |
The church bodies work at two levels, which means their operational dishonesty establishes new generations of dishonest clergy and disinterested laity.
When we graduated from college, 50 years ago, I went to seminary and attended classes with a lot of time for discussion. The new attitude shocked me. Instead of debating issues, people became angry if I disturbed the status quo by questioning something.
- One minister in the seminary theology class told me off and called me a series of names in a burst of anger. Why? - because I said the book being fed to us, The Shining Stranger, was garbage. Nobody answered the fuming pastor, but some chuckled later, "We didn't have the professor's son reading that book to us anymore."
- In the graduate seminar on hermaneutics (Biblical interpretation), I suggested that we offer our opinion of the Virgin Birth, true or false. The entire class went nuts and no one answered, especially the professor, a PhD from Princeton.
- I vicared where no one else wanted to work, the largest Lutheran congregation in Canada. The church was bi-lingual and the pastor very old-fashioned. The German chapel? - "The Labyrinth in the Chapel is currently available for use Sunday mornings from 9 am to 10 am." The congregation now has 1/3 the members of 50 years ago; it pioneered gay marriages.
At the congregational level, the Lutheran congregations were equally liturgical, used hymnals, and followed a set of Biblical passages for the sermons. That was just as true of the ALC-LCA as the LCMS. Although the ALC-LCA pressed for women's ordination, that had little effect for decades. Quotas leveraged that, and now Bishop Liz Eaton, ELCA, leads the pan-sexual army.
Everything the Lutheran sects officially practiced in the 1970s was just the opposite of what they believed, as shown by the firecracker-in-the-henhouse effect of addressing the Biblical doctrine of the Virgin Birth. The LCMS was almost LCA in those days and more devoted to politics than to the Book of Concord. The conservative reputation of the ALC and LCMS were promoted for PR but despised by the leaders and professors.
That dishonesty has continued and has the same effect as sprinkling salt on soap bubbles. Where did everybody go? Why are the seminaries empty?
Some thematic lies that should not be challenged today:
- WELS was born orthodox. "There is no Church Growth Movement in WELS." God is thankful for WELS.
- The LCMS was never Pietistic but always taught Objective Justification. Church Growth is good.
- The ELS is a shining light of Book of Concord Lutheran doctrine. Church Growth Movement? Where?
- ELCA has discovered the value and divine merit of diversity.
- The Church of Rome is the answer - or at least Eastern Orthodoxy.
The synodocrats have a proven method to lead laity around with their lies and discussions. The leaders are hyper-sensitive to clergy who question the downward rush to apostasy. They have extended the Left Foot of Fellowship so often that few are left to voice an opinion.
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| "Don't let Ichabod disturb you. That blog is a waste of time, all lies and slander." |
