'Tis too bad I am so old - I remember ELCA forming at the end of 1987. They were spewing members before the papers were signed, early in 1988. It was more like projectile vomiting. They made sure that traditional Lutherans would gag on ELCA's open quotas for gays. Entire congregations left and ELCA began conjuring "worship places" for the radicals to keep their splintered parishes alive (without a building, pastor, or much income).
The Faithless Four - WELS - ELS - CLC (sic) were smacking their lips over the harvest of ELCA members ejected from their parishes. But wait! Even though a popular expert on churches promised them 10 to 20 percent gains from this debacle, the bump never happened.
No wonder, the Faithless Four were famous for their nastiness, superior attitude, and observing the sacrament of shunning. You doubt? I made a point of offering a cheerful handshake to pastors I knew from WELS and LCMS. They responded with dark looks and sometimes with weak "let me go" handshakes.
The Stephan-Walther hoax boasts that Bishop Martin Stephan STD brought 700 people over to America to protect and promote the Book of Concord. Ha! He was a little more Lutheran than his peers but was also a dedicated Pietist, dedicated to spending hours at night walking with young women. This was known before he came to America, his mistress and son with him. His wife and children were left and abandoned in Dresden. Stephan already had syphilis in Dresden, and that was the ultimate scandal that got him robbed and forced across the river to Illinois. "Stephan was put across the river to wilderness near Kaskaskia, Illinois, followed by one of the women with whom he had been accused of consorting, and who stayed with him until his death." (Wiki)
The "firm foundation" of the Stephan pilgrimage is still blurred by the half-truths and questions surrounding Stephan, Walther, and many others.
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