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| "We are one in the spirit, we are one in the Lord, and we pray that diversity will one day be restored. And they'll know we are Thrivent by our dough, by our dough, and they'll know we are Thrivent by our dough." |
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| You read about it first on Ichabod, because the rest are busy arguing over trivia. Lutheran Brotherhood (Jacob Preus) and Aid Association for Lutherans were chartered as lodge insurance, based on the earlier efforts of Masonic and Roman Catholic fraternal insurance. That supposedly gave those insurance companies a break because they gave benefits to the members.  That probably changed when the two merged to become Thrivent, which sounds like a potion prescribed by a vet. The executives have prospered, with some getting $1 million a year in salary. Proof of the deluxe treatment is Mark and Avoid Jeske, who gets more than $120,000 a year for being on the Thrivent board. Jeske arranges joint ELCA-WELS-LCMS pastoral conferences, women pastors included. See above.  Thrivent benefits in arranging programs through unified ELCA-WELS-LCMS efforts. That was being done before with LB and AAL, but the two companies had to work out who would do what and how much each would share in benefits. Members and pastors might want to ask about where all the money went. Guidepost used to be free in looking at all non-profits, including Christian News, but lately the cost has been $1,000 and up to peak at the financials. LCMS had huge non-profit salaries for such niceties as CPH. |
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| Straight talk, lopsided ambiguous smile. |
Hilarity - or sadness - comes from the fact of all this going on in public view with no one having any problem with it. If Thrivent gives $17.67 of matching funds for a parish bake sale, and gets a gushing letter of thanks in the church bulletin, the congregation is happy and plans for the next sale. I once installed free cardboard fans in the pews at my church and gave the local newspaper this feature - "St. Timothy Installs Energy Efficient Air Conditioning in the Worship Area."
The big money at Thrivent is None of Your Business, but they offer a very nice golden calf to carve up for the ELCA-WELS-LCMS executives. Let's not be squeamish. Thrivent gave birth to triplets, and Mark Jeske was the midwife. Celebrate!
