I never expected much of a response from blogging. I knew the clergy would be afraid to say anything, especially under the glaring light of Circuit Popes, District Popes, and Synod Popes. I had a few sources who wanted me to write what they would not say for fear of the popes. The only way the popes can stay in office, eat fancy food, and make the pastors afraid is to freeze them out, hate them out, or send them far away.
I had a phone call from a pastor who learned that my facts came from his fellow clergy. He screamed and slammed down his church phone. That was before the omnipresence of cell phones, iPhones, and big phone bills. A lot of disguised emails came through, and some said, "You can't quote me!"
Christina thought the hate messages were horrible, so how could I laugh? I pointed out that the anger was simply the second stage of denial. "What comes next?" I said, "Silence." I knew that some, especially WELS, would polish their synodical merit badges and brag that they had shut me down. Unfortunately, two things worked against them. Others could identify their style, and response emails - though anonymous with funny names - were copied by me onto permanent posts, not the erasable kind. Jack Kilcrease (Jesuit PhD) was so quick to erase his own responses that I had to stop and permanently upgrade them. Someone coined the term "kilcreasing," which means posting a negative response and erasing it.
The third stage is silence. That may be the only skill of WELS clergy and laity. They do not just push the shun button. They smash it down with both hands. WELS and the Missouri Synod consider shunning to be a sacrament, their only sacrament, because it reduces Holy Communion and Holy Baptism as ordinances, something that should be done but could be ignored. I am not exaggerating. WELS/ELS reject the efficacy of the Word in favor of neat tricks and gimmicks from the Church Growth ninnies. The ELS and CLC (sic) may be their equals but they are on a fast train to oblivion, so that does not matter.
Attend some LCMS clergy gathering. They will hardy-har-har their fellow pastors, especially those from one seminary, not the other. (Gettysburg and Philadelphia pastors used to do the same thing in the LCA, but now they are united under the leadership of an Osage Indian and his husband.) The LCMS clergy wear the same suit with a clergy collar - both seminaries. I have never seen clergy so precisely uniformed outside of the Missouri Synod. What they teach - everyone knows, anything goes.
The Big Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) have become so faithless that they live in constant fear. They must continue their obedience to their Father Below or be struck down. They have no spiritual values so they rely on material success.
I have established, through exploring the materials and "spoiling the Egyptians" that The Big Five have ignored the gold and silver of the Bible. Instead, they fight over the entrails of people slaughtered by such genius theologians as C. Peter Wagner (faith healer), Donald McGavran (Columbia sociologist), and Robert Schuller (He started Church Growth, lost everything.)
"Being faithless makes us fearful; being faithful makes us fearless."
The remedy for fearfulness is to dwell on Psalm 1, the introduction to all the Psalms.
Psalm 1
KJV Psalm 1 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law [Torah means teaching] of the Lord; and in his law [teaching] doth he meditate day and night.
3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
