The Two Sacraments of Pietism - The Stink-Eye and Shunning. WELS-LCMS-CLC-ELDONA-ELCA

The "Why are you even alive?" stink-eye is especially comical among the Pietists, who do not get their own joke.

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When someone new comes to church, this happens when they cannot prove bloodlines or the place where they were born or went to school. One Mordor seminarian said in class, "The only real Lutherans are the ones in Wisconsin." The same dunderhead thought that Luther was wrong about Holy Communion - and that Zwingli was right!

This father-son stink-eye team should make people tremble, but the dogs still look cute.

America seems to be primarily Pietistic and Calvinistic, lacking the Means of Grace and easily becoming prey to rationalism and boosterism. A good example is having "greeters"  at the church door - wearing GREETER badges - who are friendly to their own friends and suspicious about others. "What synod are you? WELS? Are you from Wisconsin?"

If someone happens to be OK, bowing to the synodical stars, and dares to question the latest fiasco, the stink-eye is engaged and shunning is soon maxed out.

The comical side of this tragedy is the leaders guiding their process in the name of having everything done smoothly. No dissent. Buffoons carry on with their obsessions last buffed up at the recent conference. Pretending to shun one another, they sit together and learn 

1. at the Thrivent table together, 
2. at the Fuller conference, 
3. at the Trinity Divinity genu-wine Pietism training event, etc. '
4. at Willow Creek Community Church, where the famous pastor chased women around the altar when no one was looking. He made sure only feminist Bibles were used at his cross-free building.

The LCMS-ELDONA tag team is especially keen about following Church of Rome worship rules. I see their virtue-signaling popping up - all over the blogs and discussion sites. They even have very special circles within the circles. The comedy comes from these elite pastors (in their minds) having no grasp of Biblical Lutheran doctrine but hammering every detail of the latest things to do, always edging toward Roman or Eastern Orthodox ordination. Like Richard J. Neuhaus - LCMS, Seminex, ELCA, Rome - they hover at the Lutheran discussion sites to shred the last shreds of Lutherdom, the bland leading the bland while posturing as martyrs burning for the sake of the Mass.

Faith in Jesus Christ unites, but these people are sectarians who must have their organization united under their own strict but flaky rules. Is it any wonder that their denominations are falling away, nay, running from them?

Faith in Jesus Christ draws people together, because their object is the Savior, not the organization. The fruits of the Spirit come from the Gospel. Love, joy, and peace are not program targets but the divine product of the efficacious Word, the Means of Grace.