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Richard Neuhaus graduated from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, backed Seminex, joined the LCA, and became a Roman Catholic priest. That is also the mix at the American Lutheran Publicity Bureau Discussion Group. |
"I agree with the "change and decay" sentiment as sentiment of my generation, but I am heartened by the rising generation that never knew an institutionally strong and growing LCMS with mainstream aspirations and take the challenges of the world for granted as part of the bargain. A lot of younger pastors have no illusions about salaries and fully expect to be bivocational. They see it as, in some ways at least, a feature of rather than bug in our current context. And they have no worries about not being mainstream. The question is whether they can convince any parishioners to join them in sufficient numbers to actually have congregations. But heartened as I am by their zeal, I can't join them except as a cheerleader. I was formed by a different world. I liked having a lot of Concordias. I like Valpo as an LCMS-centric Lutheran university. I appreciate a highly educated, professional clergy. I feel as though I have to focus on the next sermon and trust that the kingdom is advancing not because I am particularly faithful but because I am not really equipped to do anything else."
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GJ - Christina and I met Neuhaus father when we were in Ontario and visiting that LCMS congregation. I corresponded with Richard Neuhaus and he quoted me in the ALPB Forum Letter, and we met him at the Ad Fontes (Come to Rome!) conference. There he spoke with the LCA President James Crumley, and we ate lunch with Crumley, a kindly person who wanted to know about my move to WELS.
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| LCA President Crumley attended the synod's conference for communication in Seattle. I paid for Christina's ticket. He would have been a good ELCA leader, but the radicals were already in charge before the gavel came down. WELS and the LCMS thought hordes of ELCA into their corrupted bosoms, but hey! - The Faithless Five - ELCA-LCMS-WELS-ELS-CLC (sic) worshiped and learned together - WELS' Ron Roth and others were at Fuller Seminary from 1977 onward. ELCA did not officially start until New Year's 1983. How about Snowbird ELCA-WELS-LCMS, 1991? - "At the Snowbird Ecumenical Conference, the best ever, according to Rev. James Schaefer, our council of presidents and other leaders, 25 in all, were taught how to manage the church by a woman. They were taught what St. Paul says about ministry by a Trinity Seminary professor, an advocate of the historical-critical method. They were told by a liberal Reformed theologian that the radical left mainline denominations were not becoming "sideline" denominations. George Barna, Who's Who in Church Growth, also taught our leaders at Snowbird, but they seem to know Barna's work quite well already. When Columbus WELS pastors invited ELCA to discuss inerrancy, no one from Trinity Seminary showed up. They understand fellowship. But our synodical president posed for photos with Rev. Herb Chilstrom, former Pietist, who advanced himself by promoting the cause of homosexuality and pornography-as-sex-offender therapy as bishop of the LCA's Minnesota Synod. |
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| As chairman of the board of Seminex, Jungkuntz approved this school for training future Metropolitan Community Church (gay) pastors. Many Seminex leaders were graduates of Northwestern College (WELS), where he taught earlier. |
