Monday, August 19, 2019

Kevin Leman's Birth Order Book - For Pastors



The Birth Order Book - Kevin Leman, PhD


I have had a lot of respect for Kevin Leman, from the beginning of his career. His common sense approach is looking at the birth order of children in relationship to their parents' birth order.

This cannot be summarized in a few sentences, but only indicated. These are tendencies, not rigid rules.


  1. Most architects, pilots, and pastors are first born or only children.
  2. Many entertainers are the babies of the family.
  3. Middle children are a puzzle to the rest, because they tend to be independent people, often diplomatic, sometimes a rebel, who value long-term relationships. 
I asked a group of pastors:
  • Who is a first-born or only child? Most of the hands went up.
  • Who is a second-born child? A scattering of hands went up.
  • Who is the third-born child? One hand went up, mine.
This really comes down to the way parents treat their children, not some magical formula. First-born children get a lot of attention and a lot of new clothing. They often end up caring for the younger ones. They tend to be dominant and successful, perfectionists.

 Becky was an only child, "an adult before she was eight."

 One of the great books of English literature - does anyone read it?


Only-children are even more so. They have two parents who treat them as another adult. Only-children have said to me, "Yes, I was the crown jewel of the family, and very self-centered. I was an adult before I was eight years old." That is also noted in Thackeray's Vanity Fair. They are very successful in what they do.

Of the first 25 or so Apollo astronauts, all of them were first-born or only-children.

Everybody Loves the Baby of the Family
Many times the parents decide they really do not know that much about children, so they decide to enjoy the baby of the family. Everything the baby does is cute, funny, and non-destructive. Older children observe and glare at the total absolution given in advance for the very acts that were once their felonies.

I guessed a social worker was the baby of the family. "We bought you a copy of The Birth Order Book." She did not say, "No, you should not do that - don't spend money on me." She gave herself a hug and grinned, she was so pleased. Super sociable babies of the family are not driven straight A students, but they are so likeable that they do well in relationship type jobs, sales, and entertainment.

Marriage Birth Order - Plus Children
We marry a different birth-order, and we tend to support the child who belongs to our birth order.



Most pastors are first-born, so they see the world as a set of rules, as Adler wrote. Most pastors are pragmatists, a quality making them putty in the hands of sharpies like the Fuller Seminary snake-oil salesmen.

"Oh, you are from a conservative Bible denomination. The studies show that you will grow." [GJ - They collapsed after embracing Fuller nonsense, chiefly because they bedded with these little Antichrists of Calvinism.]

"Do not worry. All our methods are doctrinally neutral." [GJ - I thought they "worked best" with conservative groups!]

"This is how you overcome resistance. It is like slowly boiling a frog in a kettle." [GJ - Neither side was ever near a kettle, a stove, or a frog, but they sold books on this theme.]

"You must rekindle the cell groups from your Pietistic past." [GJ - I thought the methods were [doctrinally neutral."]

"You must get rid of your denomination's name, the liturgy, those old hymns, the pipe organ, the creeds, and those sermons." [GJ - I thought the methods were [doctrinally neutral."]

 "Professor Brug and faculty, we love your work in promoting women's ordination, gender vague language, and our beloved NIV paraphrase of what the Holy Spirit would have said with a degree from Fuller."



Blog Views in the Last 24 Hours Reveal Interest in Previous WELS Scandals



How does one graph stupidity and false doctrine?


95
Aug 18, 2019,
44
32
Aug 19, 2019,
29
18
15
9
8
5
4


Everyone seems to be reading the Jeske cover-up for Dave Wendt, linked here.

 When will these Calvinists repent?

 For posting this, one of these WELS guys threatened me - that he would "seek legal action." He accused me of creating this Photoshop, but it came from one of his WELS buddies. That is slander and libel to spread the story that I would create such a low-quality Photoshop. Who forced them to pose like this? Who actually created the graphic? Did they enjoy "Party in the MLC?" These questions would be asked by a predatory lawyer from Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe.

Heine on Martin Luther


Luther, on the Scriptures, from "Table Talk":

Dr. Luther once said: "Had I known at first, before I began to write, what I now know, that people are so hostile to the Word of God, and determined to oppose it, I should certainly have held my tongue. I should never have been so bold as to attack the Pope and almost all men, and incense them against me. I thought that they sinned through ignorance and human frailty. I did not understand that they purposely kept down the Word of God. But God drew me on in my blindness, just as men blind a horse that he may run the better." 

---

A quote from the introduction to a small book of selections from Luther’s Table Talk.

“One more example may be given of German reverence for Luther. Heine was a Jew by birth, and a religious skeptic, and as a critic he often employed his unrivaled mastery of gibes and sarcasms in sneering away German reputations. But of Luther he wrote: —
“Honor to Luther! Everlasting honor to the dear man to whom we owe the recovery of our noblest rights, and through whose labors we live today! It becomes us ill to complain of the narrowness of his views. The dwarf who stands upon the shoulders of the giant may certainly see farther, especially if he puts on spectacles; but he cannot bring to the prospect the lofty emotion and the giant heart of the other. It becomes us the less to judge his faults severely, as his very faults were of more service to us than the virtues of a thousand others. The fine discernment of Erasmus, and the gentleness of Melanchthon, had never done so much for us as the divine brutality of Brother Martin.”