By chance I received a book called the Wheat Flour Messiah, about a hyper-Pietist who preached righteousness while leaving "Jesus babies" behind wherever he roamed in Sweden. He founded Bishop's Hill, not far from Moline, Illinois, where I was born.
The book reminded me of Martin Stephan, CFW Walther, and WELS. The fault of Pietism has always been confusing sanctification with justification, and making sanctification (good works) the requirement for justification (forgiveness of sin).
The hyper-Pietists are not just in WELS. In NW Arkansas, the Babtists make WELS look positively mainline. They send out the stink-eye without even knowing somebody, and their shunning is DefCon 1, the highest level of readiness.
WELS has the additional burden of the German Disease - alcoholism. Germans never accepted alcohol as a sin, and most make it a virtue. Cousin Peter would ask me, "Do you know what we call beer?" No, what? "Liquid bread!" WELS calls beer "synod vitamins."
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| Let's put it all together - alcoholism, false doctrine, treating staff like dirt, suing people for telling the truth, and always being bailed out by Church and Change. |
Therefore, alcoholism is not a problem for WELS and drunks are very much admired for being out of control. The original starting point was Northwestern College in Watertown, where students who were minors were provided with as much as they wanted. The takeover by Martin Luther College changed nothing, and that merger was cited as advantageous for eliminating the grossness of NWC.
I could easily name famous DUIs in WELS and those who considered that nothing. No one considers what being caught once means for routine drunk driving. Maybe I am overly sensitive because two teens in my church were slaughtered by drunk drivers who survived those two accidents.
An alcoholic synod is one where stupidity and irritability go hand-in-hand. Drunks may start out smart but they fog their brains over time, and they get a lot more touchy from withdrawal symptoms.
Right and wrong are turned upside-down. Just as alcoholics stay squiffed most of the say and try to act sober, a hyper-Pietist sect will act much holier-than-thou while engaged in the same things they denounce.
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| Gutsche even had WELS on his resume, and he was buried like a saint. |
WELS made such a fuss out of any suggestion of unionism - while leaders were studying at Fuller, Willow Creek, and Trinity Divinity. WELS worked with ELCA on many projects, decades ago, and lied about it. Everyone was afraid to admit the truth in a perfect but abusive sect. Discussing that among clergy was cause for alarm and revenge. Publishing about Church Growth and ELCA! - unthinkable.
GA - HB - Secret Mequon Initiation Rites
Let's stop and ponder the significance of a ministerium where every single pastor (a few exceptions) will engage in lying and deceit with their precious initiation rite - called GA in the past, HB or something else now. How many times has it been "eliminated" as Church and Change was? The innocent need to know that blatant lies from WELS mean - We are doing this our way and you will not open your stupid trap about it again!WELS is no less rainbow than ELCA, and they know it.
WELS - Paleo-Woke
People are starting to notice the attributes of the Woke Generation - where youth and adults jump on anyone who has said or even suggested something on the banned list.The Woke are humorless, quick to accuse, eager to shun, and impossible to placate with the truth. The shun-list is never revised because there is no forgiveness for breaking the rules.
The Woke in American society are simply the hyper-Pietists without religion.
WELS has been practicing this sanctimony all along, and they are good at it. The trouble is, they drive people away and rejoice in their iniquity.
The in-bred leaders take care of themselves and their kin, but they have squandered their assets so foolishly that nothing is left to keep the circus going another generation.
