Abusive Churches - WELS/ELS Certainly Fits - Add LCMS, Not as Consecrated and In-Bred

I have spoken to two ex-WELS members in the last day. I am not going to add any personal details. But that is the setting for what follows.

People do not realize they are in an abusive cult because they are surrounded by those who constantly tell them that God is honored and pleased to have such a wonderful group of Christians - if only the rest were as good. An abusive cult will love-bomb people into the group but also hate them out. Someone who is ex-WELS is the worst of all reprobates, especially if that individual is onto the abuse and talking about it.

The two main components are the abuse (emotional, physical, sexual) and the foul doctrine. The evil doctrine allows and energizes the abuse. WELS teaches universal absolution without faith, which is handy for murdering one's spouse and using the youth group as sex slaves. But WELS also lays down its own law on everyone, and that law has no mercy, no forgiveness, and no fruits of the Spirit.

WELS has a long list of unrepentant, adulterous clergy and teachers. If they are in with the In Crowd, they are guilt-free. However, if a dissenter exhibits any mortal failing, the In Crowd will bury that person in verbal abuse, shun to a fare-thee-well, and excuse their behavior as discipline.

WELS has taken the verse "All men are liars" to a new level - Exponentially, one might say. Thus, they are pleased to brag about their dozens of rules about fellowship principles but will not admit they violate all of them - and have for decades. One proof of that is the shock in the voice of WELS members who do not realize they have been in bed with ELCA (and its forerunners) for many decades. "I never knew that!"

Support for the United Nations? Sure.

Pose with the head of ELCA at a leadership conference? Lie about it. "We had to take their money or someone else would have spent it."

Study at Fuller Seminary? Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, brag, deny. By all means, promote the men who studied there and lied about studying at Fuller. Here is a good one: "I am glad I was there so I could witness against their false doctrine."

Have any of the Ten Commandments survived the brutal regime of WELS? No. False doctrine is promoted as "a gray area of Scripture." The Eighth Commandment applies to dissenters who talk about doctrine, murder, adultery, and child abuse.

Murder? - "That was a long time ago." I am quoting a pastor.

But the worst part of this abusive behavior is the members and church workers try to adjust for the false reality imposed on them. Either they go along with all of it, which is extremely dangerous for the soul, or they snap out of it and get expelled.

Missouri does some of this. The Little Sect on the Prairie re-elected Pope John the Malefactor for being abusive. The micro-mini sects specialize in abuse.

My prescription for healing is two-fold.

First, begin reading the Lenker set of Luther's Sermons to hear the true Gospel and the Reformer's brilliant practical applications.

Second, leave the sect behind whenever that is possible. Worship at home is better than going along with an abusive, false-teaching group. Reading a book on abusive churches will help people realize that they come in all flavors, all confessions.

An ex-WELS pastor told me it was all over for the Wisconsin sect when he read in Mark Schroeder's spin-report that WELS does not repent. Once a sect has reached that level of self-absolution and self-absorption, there is no help.

The Word can address all these problems, but not if no one will wield the Sword of the Spirit.

Nothing Will Happen To Stop Abuse in WELS Schools - Because "Nothing Happened!" - Their Favorite Response

Guenther brought down this bear cub when he was in Alaska.
Now he is in paradise, New Ulm, Minnesota.

WELS is an abusive sect, proven by the fact that they enjoy handing out the abuse and saying, "Nothing happened!" That is so dominant as a response that one ex-WELS pastor said the same thing to me about a non-WELS situation - "Nothing happened!" I had an eye-witness there when "nothing happened."

Here are various accounts of abuse at WELS prep schools, colleges, and Mequon.

The leaders of WELS are bullies, sadistic bullies. They love being bullies and they enjoy stories of others being physically attacked. The idea is simple - a minority controls everything and gets what it wants. Their people can do nothing wrong and the rest can do nothing right.

Two recent efforts to end the tyranny ended in the groups being disbanded - Issues in WELS and Intrepid Lutheran. The Intrepid Lutheran founder, Steve Spencer, was the first to leave the group. Some might call him a Judas Goat rather than an Intrepid Lutheran. He did not like GA hazing at all (Mequon). 

The bullies who haze endanger lives, but they also break down people. The staffmembers who approve of hazing get their kicks from it. They think they are tough because they support each other. 

This is how it works. A young man was physically assaulted by a student when visiting a campus the first time. He complained to the right person - and he was marked for ejection - not right away, but when something could be rigged. WELS bullies love to do that and call Holy Hell down on their victim, laughing about it. They are furious when the tactic does not work, but they never stop. They can conjure up another event to rage about, and no one will question their honesty (even if they do).

There is precious little Gospel in WELS. The sect is all Law, very special Law. The Law is enforced by the bullies against the rest. But they are so sanctimonious. WELS is so pure, so good, so beyond anyone's comprehension. There is nowhere else to go, except the ELS, which is Purgatory. 

The bullies are 100% Antinomian. They whine about anything they imagine to be a slight and they treat everyone like dirt. WELS is a great place to learn how to be a total hypocrite. 

The stink-eye is their opening shot. Someone who tells a WELS secret, like one of the murders or something even worse, will get the stink-eye from the entire clan. That is why I protect names, because there is no escaping the penalty of telling the truth. Stink-eye is Round 1, and Extending the Left Foot of Fellow is Round 2. 

There have been good WELS pastors, but they keep to themselves and are kept in the boondocks.

As the Columbus WELS circuit proved, there is no problem in the sect with:

• Pastoral adultery
• Pastoral alcoholism
• Pastoral false doctrine

Telling the truth is an unforgiveable sin.

This Post Is For People Enslaved by WELS

By chance I received a book called the Wheat Flour Messiah, about a hyper-Pietist who preached righteousness while leaving "Jesus babies" behind wherever he roamed in Sweden. He founded Bishop's Hill, not far from Moline, Illinois, where I was born.

The book reminded me of Martin Stephan, CFW Walther, and WELS. The fault of Pietism has always been confusing sanctification with justification, and making sanctification (good works) the requirement for justification (forgiveness of sin).

The hyper-Pietists are not just in WELS. In NW Arkansas, the Babtists make WELS look positively mainline. They send out the stink-eye without even knowing somebody, and their shunning is DefCon 1, the highest level of readiness.

WELS has the additional burden of the German Disease - alcoholism. Germans never accepted alcohol as a sin, and most make it a virtue. Cousin Peter would ask me, "Do you know what we call beer?" No, what? "Liquid bread!" WELS calls beer "synod vitamins."

 Let's put it all together - alcoholism, false doctrine, treating staff like dirt, suing people for telling the truth, and always being bailed out by Church and Change.

Therefore, alcoholism is not a problem for WELS and drunks are very much admired for being out of control. The original starting point was Northwestern College in Watertown, where students who were minors were provided with as much as they wanted. The takeover by Martin Luther College changed nothing, and that merger was cited as advantageous for eliminating the grossness of NWC.

I could easily name famous DUIs in WELS and those who considered that nothing. No one considers what being caught once means for routine drunk driving. Maybe I am overly sensitive because two teens in my church were slaughtered by drunk drivers who survived those two accidents.

An alcoholic synod is one where stupidity and irritability go hand-in-hand. Drunks may start out smart but they fog their brains over time, and they get a lot more touchy from withdrawal symptoms.

Right and wrong are turned upside-down. Just as alcoholics stay squiffed most of the say and try to act sober, a hyper-Pietist sect will act much holier-than-thou while engaged in the same things they denounce.

 Gutsche even had WELS on his resume, and he was buried like a saint.

WELS made such a fuss out of any suggestion of unionism -  while leaders were studying at Fuller, Willow Creek, and Trinity Divinity. WELS worked with ELCA on many projects, decades ago, and lied about it. Everyone was afraid to admit the truth in a perfect but abusive sect. Discussing that among clergy was cause for alarm and revenge. Publishing about Church Growth and  ELCA! - unthinkable.

GA - HB - Secret Mequon Initiation Rites

Let's stop and ponder the significance of a ministerium where every single pastor (a few exceptions) will engage in lying and deceit with their precious initiation rite - called GA in the past, HB or something else now. How many times has it been "eliminated" as Church and Change was? The innocent need to know that blatant lies from WELS mean - We are doing this our way and you will not open your stupid trap about it again!

WELS is no less rainbow than ELCA, and they know it.

WELS - Paleo-Woke

People are starting to notice the attributes of the Woke Generation - where youth and adults jump on anyone who has said or even suggested something on the banned list.

The Woke are humorless, quick to accuse, eager to shun, and impossible to placate with the truth. The shun-list is never revised because there is no forgiveness for breaking the rules.

The Woke in American society are simply the hyper-Pietists without religion.

WELS has been practicing this sanctimony all along, and they are good at it. The trouble is, they drive people away and rejoice in their iniquity.

The in-bred leaders take care of themselves and their kin, but they have squandered their assets so foolishly that nothing is left to keep the circus going another generation.

How To Recognize an Abusive Cutl

Women do not preach or teach men,
except at WELS conventions under Mark Schroeder.
WELS has suspended for the moment -
women consecrating Holy Communion.

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Message from reader - "Good article!! Add me to the list of the victims united with Ichabod! No one else in the synod stands up for the victims!!"

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First List of Lutheran Crimes

Second List of Lutheran Crimes


Those raised within the cult cannot see the marks of the beast clearly. In fact, many aspects of the cult draw the victims closer from a fear of being excluded and shunned.

The constant spying - also known in the Bill Gothard abusive cult - always keeps people worried about who knows what and who is reporting it.

Some of the marks of cult are:

• The leadership is dictatorial in imposing strict rules, showing savage disapproval if their rules are broken. But the leaders break those rules all the time. In WELS, they were always talking about "fellowship principles" while attending Fuller Seminary and rewarding those who also went.
• Hysterical denial and lying when the obvious is pointed out. No one ever went to Fuller Seminary, including Valleskey and Bivens, even though both bragged about it, However, if someone else said they went to Fuller Seminary, retaliation followed.
• Those who begin to see the light are driven away from the congregation or synod in a series of nasty, dirty little tricks. But, when people quit in disgust, the same are drawn back in with a superficial show of affection and forgiveness. The cult wants everyone back, as long as each target has a broken will and a new, servile attitude.
• Dogma is rigid but changed when certain people decide that can be done. The old attitudes are a matter of boasting until the new set of rules is imposed without notice. Love the KJV and hate the new translations? Then hate the KJV and love the new translations. Questioning the new translation became cause for excommunication in the WELS.
• Contradictory dogmas are taught at the same time, depending on whether the cult is including or excluding. For example, one future WELS DP would be passing out brochures on "fellowship in externals" being wrong, but the current DP is saying, "No, we are FOR fellowship in externals." When one pastor learned for the first time that his DP was on the board of Lutheran World Relief, he almost cried. "I grew up in WELS and never knew that." 
• Secrecy is the key approach to every single matter. Therefore, it is a sin simply to be curious about the truth or to seek it out. "How dare you investigate on your own!" - I was told. 
• No scandal or crime is bad enough to be revealed to everyone else. Because of this secrecy, the criminals are protected while the leakers are searched out and stopped. The evidence has to be erased because "you are hurting brethren and sistern in the faith." Cistern is the operative pun.
• Therefore, no one knows anything, even if a DP is in court on felony charges against young girls in his congregation, the DMB chairman is in court over his vicar's felonies, or someone's spouse has been murdered.
• But - pay close attention to this - if the cult is offended, any lie, slander, or fiction aimed against the offender is just desserts, payment due with double interest, 
• This is how any abusive cult - like WELS or Bob Jones or any IFB church - deals with the truth starting to emerge. "Where did you hear (or read) this?" No matter what the answer is, the response is a volcano of vilification filled with the official "facts" that seem to be everywhere. Hardly anyone persists after hearing how evil, brain-damaged, dishonest, hated, senile, or stupid that source is.
• Note that Missouri, the Little Sect, and WELS play a game with Herman Otten and Christian News. The abusive sects have minders that encourage Otten to spike any story about their crimes. But if word gets out through persistent CN authors, then Otten and CN are given the volcano of vilification treatment.
• Publishing in CN is a heinous sin, unless the synod leaders do it. Then they "cannot help it, because Otten copies everything."
• Finally, because everyone becomes accustomed to these marks of an abusive cult, children and youth of both sexes are sexually abused, just as women are - and no one cares. No one dares report it. The targets do not have the emotional strength to get out of the situation on their own and find themselves re-victimized if they try to end the situation. They welcomed the sex! They seduced the poor fellow - a teacher, pastor, or prominent layman! WELS is advanced enough to have predatory lesbian teachers too. 
• But nothing ever happened. 
• I don't know anything about it.
• Who told you?

If a woman on the staff objects to sexual harassment,
including x-rated conversations
and an x-rated photo thrust at her,
the pastors and their robots sue her in court.

Abusive Behavior in the WELS/ELS Sect

This graphic illustrates typical LCMS-WELS-ELS deception.
Stephan was under house arrest for adultery and financial questions
when he was allowed to leave with his sex cult.
Stephan was always a Pietist and so were the members of the Walther circle.
Walther's mob robbed Stephan and kidnapped him, leaving him to die in Illinois.

WELS controls the ELS, so one might as well consider the two dying sects together. The Church of the Lutheran Confession (sic) is simply another, more corrupt, more immoral, more incestuous version of WELS. The LCMS follows to some extent, the worst abusers running the show while sub-groups try to exist on their own.

Clergy and laity driven out by the ELS, WELS, or CLC (sic) should consider themselves blessed, like the early Christians who escaped Jerusalem before the Roman armies surrounded the Holy City.

Those who go back to the abusers, hoping for approval, make a big mistake. They like to have their so-called Prodigals come back, as long as they are broken, subdued, and eager to worship Holy Mother Sect. The harshest critics make the best fuel for roasting the next set of dissenters.

If someone stays away, the long reach of the abusers never remains quiet. Relatives? Friends? Employers? New church body? They need to punish the escapees, just as the Mormons murdered those who tried to back.

ELS clergy call Mequon The Sausage Factory
for its identical products,
according to Jay Webber.

Secrecy and Spying
In an abusive sect, everything is a secret. I used to get so many secret letters in WELS that I had a rubber stamp made that said Burn This Letter! in red. No one wanted to be known for having a negative thought about WELS. Bill Gothard used the same tactic in his cult. Dealing with the facts is negativity, and negativity is from Satan.

Spying goes well with secrecy. Everything is everyone's business, so false friends make a practice of being buddies to keep track of someone who may stray from the plantation. They often encourage dissent and back away to let their target take the blame, the heat, and the Left Foot of Fellowship. Richard Jungkuntz did that to his fellow "martyr" Gehrke, and John Seifert practiced the technique on many pastors.

One layman told me how he was coaxed to bring his problems about Martin Luther College's feminist policies to various leaders. At two different meetings he was sandbagged by the person who urged him to come forward and complain. At the second one, he told the minister, "Are you going to stick with me and support me? Promise. I cannot take another experience like the last one." The second pastor promised all the way to the meeting, then turned on the fellow with savage, personal criticism.
Laity who have done to same to pastors.

If you want a friend in WELS, get a dog.

The people who do this think they are very clever, and they smirk because synod officials are behind them. However, they are really cowardly, wicked deceivers who eventually pay the price for their betrayal of the Word. Still, they leave a lot of broken, wounded victims behind.

"Do not tell on the brothers,
or they will beat you like a rented mule."

The Law and Anti-Law
The dominant UOJ dogma in WELS includes a heavy dose of Antinomianism and legalism. The Antinomianism is easy - "Everyone is forgiven all past, present, and future sins - without faith." Q.E.D. - the Ten Commandments are tossed out the window.

If a pastor is an adulterer, or homosexual, or alcoholic, that is fine, because he knows he is a sinner and knows he is already forgiven. The WELS clergy and their clones have a sheaf of excuses for false doctrine, including a "Luther quote" that justifies doing nothing about it.

If you register any kind of protest against any of this behavior, no matter how politely and deferentially it was offered up, with meek and contrite words, the response will be:

1. Silence. The letter or email is not even acknowledged.
2. Verbal abuse - "You did not sit down and exercise Matthew 18, explaining my sins to me."
3. False defense - "You have slandered me, violating the Eighth Commandment."
4. Personal attacks - "You never did fit in. You hated GA." (The secretive hazing ritual at Mequon features all kinds of deception, emotional and physical abuse, which helps to mold them into identical sausages, products of the Sausage Factory.)
5. Letter barrage - Various officials send nasty letters that quote some horrible thing expressed by mail and uses that to launch into tirades, clear threats, or implied punishments.
6. Whispering campaign - It soon becomes apparent that some people have spread anonymous ill reports among friends and church members. This escalates into slow, steady shunning and final ejection.
7. Absolution via family or Fuller. Certain families can do anything they want. Lacking the lucky DNA, someone can enjoy the same benefits by going to Fuller Seminary and loving it.
8. Let Herman do it - Although the sects hate Herman Otten and Christian News, both are handy for carrying out the work of shunning, which he is happy to advance.

The imaginary and unwritten laws are far more important than the Ten Commandments. This approach is incredibly useful in handling people. The moment toes are stepped on, the shrieking begins. For instance, I asked about women teaching men, women leading cell groups at St. Paul's, German Village. I was told (and this always comes from a friend, who is ordered to do so) that I violated a sacred principle. I identified the parish! I thought, "What a crock."

One college student got off the bus at Mequon and was sexually assaulted by one of the seminarians, who grabbed him...details to be assumed. I have the verbatim account and also verified it with the family. When he complained to seminary officials, he was told. "You are too sensitive." Although he went to seminary, they made sure he never finished. Likewise, the father of one homosexual made sure a pastor was driven out of the ministry for preaching against it - and you think ELCA is bad?

WELS Pastor Dave Wendt offered to gang rape a blogger,
because she is a liberal. Did he ever face charges for the threat?

Mark Jeske offered a lame, sanitized version of the threat
for his gullible readers.

Abusive Cults Have Their Own Language
Bill Gothard used "defrauding" and other mysterious terms to link the Bible to his special mindset. He manipulated people by making his desires innocent and wholesome while condemning them for objecting. Thirty-two women lodged complaints against him at the end and he was forced out - "Nobody knew," as Mark Schroeder is fond of saying.

Special words make people feel elite and above the crowd. Only some know the true meaning of GA (now called HB - get the joke? - no more GA). The in-crowd can reference GA and let that pass over the heads of laity.

The clergy, whose warped behavior often starts in prep school, have plenty of special terms, such as the physical abuse they hand out for anyone who "tells." The truth cannot be tolerated, so they gang up on anyone who tells the truth. If word of their abuse reaches the officials, the abuse is doubled. The school officials know and approve, because their job is to produce unthinking slaves to row the ship so they can enjoy the Captain's Quarters and the Officers' Mess.

Did anyone vote for Church and Change to take over WELS?
Here is one C and C founder installing another one.
Co-inky-dink?
When I posted this, one WELS official wanted to know, "Who told?"

WELS-ELS-CLC (sic)-LCMS: Cults Switch Dogma
Once upon a time, the Lutheran groups had the liturgy, creeds, sermons, hymns, and an interest in Luther's doctrine. They liked the KJV and used it at all services.

Now all of that has flipped, but no one has confessed how they changed it and turned vice into virtue. A few vintage WELS members recall the Gausewitz catechism (justification by faith) and the KJV being good. After all, the KJV is a revision of the Tyndale, and Tyndale modeled his translation after Luther's. Tyndale took the trouble of studying with Luther and Melanchthon.

Vintage Lutherans are left isolated, bewildered, scorned, and abused.

We met one cult member in the hospital. He was friends with Erin Joy. He said to me, "Erin has to learn she is not the center of the world." I said, "You tell her," and she grinned at me.

This cult member bragged to me that whenever they changed doctrine, which was fairly often, teachers were sent out to re-train the members.

Does that sound familiar? WELS has been trained in the New NIV for years now. Only one DP objected to the New NIV at the previous convention. The one following saw no objections at all. To avoid a ban on the NNIV, the convention blessed all translations. Mequon got its way and Mark Schroeder crumbled again. Or perhaps he was only pretending to object. That is good GA style. Play one side, the switch. Seifert and Buchholz are good at that.

Sorry, Baby Blue Eyes, he can and he will.

WELS Legacy of Nastiness Will Bury the Sect, With LCMS and ELS Following. Martin Stephan Lives

I deepened the background on the whiteboard to show Elton Stroh teaching
at Martin Luther College, WELS:
"Some of our traditional programs have become dated and uninviting."

I was thinking about the breezy denials about WELS being nasty and vindictive when anyone speaks up about an issue. These claims are found in comments on the WELS Documented Blog.

"Tut, tut. Not so, not so."

I can think of five pastors that I knew in the Michigan District WELS, with no scandal and no false teaching - all driven out by DP Seifert, who also did his best to get rid of the Intrepid Lutherans listing their names on that virtually suspended blog.

There are many more cases across WELS. Missouri has done the same thing, undercutting and hating pastors out of the ministry. Pope John the Malefactor, ELS, is the WD-40 of the Little Sect's slide into oblivion.

I changed the title to express the real reason for the syphilitic bishop's
fast exit from Dresden, taking his groupies, leaving most of his family behind.

Martin Stephan is their idol and example, because he demanded obedience and apologies - getting his disciples to enforce absolute submission, CFW Walther became the new pope by organizing a riot to rob and kidnap Bishop Stephan, the same man he made bishop in writing a few months before.

Every time a Jon Buchholz, John Seifert, Don Patterson, or Mark Jeske gets his way, another extended family is alienated from the Lutheran Church. The family members may exchange arsenic (WELS) for botulism (LCMS) or salmonella (ELS). They may become atheists or ELCA members. No one can erase the legacy, even if they deny it.

Becoming a WELS pastor means being subjected to group homosexual acts, as reported in various places and also relayed to me. One future LCMS pastor put a Michigan Lutheran Seminary student in the hospital for attacking him "that way." If someone takes all the data and puts it together, the various reports indicate a solid base of sodomy in the WELS clergy, no different from ELCA. The leaders and clergy know it. They talk about it among themselves. They know about the man/boy girlfriends moved around on the pastoral call list to supply the needs.

They know about the Mattress Room at Mequon and who was caught - both men being ordained anyway. And married. LBGTQ - alive and well in WELS.

And the pastors denying all this? They also say GA is "no more, closed down" - but now it is called HB. And so was Church and Change, "shut down, destroyed, tossed to the winds by Gurgle" - while Mark Jeske's C and C meeting was registering pastors for the next conference on the WELS websty!


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Job security - plagiarize a gay video at Martin Luther College
and post it to YouTube, claiming,
"We had no idea we were copying a gay video from Fire Island."
All received calls.

The Undercurrent of Homosexuality

http://ichabodthegloryhasdeparted.blogspot.com/2014/07/not-exactly-undercurrent-of-wels.html

http://pollutedwels.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-undercurrent-of-homosexuality.html

One anonymous brother recounts his experience with initiation at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary:

During our senior year of MLC, we (the seniors in pastor track) visited the seminary. Getting of the bus we were greeted by "our brothers" as we passed through the arch of seminary students we were all groped. Literally someone had grabbed my goods and at the end of that was a fat man in a speedo who bear hugged us. I complained in a letter. Never heard back. 

I had the same experience, except it was in the parking lot behind the dorm, not under the arch.

At MLC, there was a "tradition" in the mens' (sic) dorms that if it was your birthday, a group of about 15 or 20 guys would dog-pile on top of you, all of them completely naked. There were also naked, drunken parades through the dorm hallways, accompanied by guitars and drums.

The Seminary Chorus had a custom of guys surreptitiously groping each other during performances and concerts. Professor Tiefel once commended one of the members of the choir for his wide smile during a performance. After being told that the smile was a result of being groped throughout the concert, Tiefel just laughed. I quit the choir not long afterwards.

It always seemed to me that the worst offenders in this regard were guys who had been sent away to prep school at the age of fourteen. A psychologist could probably pinpoint the reasons why, but the experience seems to warp many of them in disgusting ways. In any case, just beneath the surface of these traditions and initiation rites in the WELS system is a strong and sinister undercurrent of homosexuality. 

I'm not saying that a large number of WELS pastors are homosexual, but I'm sure there are some who have been led into temptation by these activities. And even for those who haven't, it isn't a healthy thing to make light of sin.

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Shattered Pulpit Blog

AnonymousSeptember 26, 2014 at 11:08 PM

I was abused for many years by my father, a WELS pastor. I was too young at the time to do anything, but be the "good girl" and do whatever was asked of me. Many years later when I did tell my"secrets", the DP, along with others, turned it all around and made it become my wrongdoing. Please do NOT give into them. You are the victim and the WELS is doing everything it can to turn it around and placing the blame on you. I pray that you talk to those who believe you and your safe pastor and reconsider your plan to stop writing your blog! You have opened the eyes of many people: people who DO believe you. The hierarchy of the WELS is trying to cover up anything which reflects negatively on them. You have many people praying for you. God is on your side and He will continue to be there for you. I will continue to keep you in my prayers. May God be with you and give you strength to accept His help!

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Note how the pastors retaliated against the victim, with the help of the DP.

Jane's Story: WELS Sexual Harassment

Written by "Jane"

When I accepted the Executive Assistant position at a contemporary WELS church, there were many things I expected, but sexual harassment was not one of them. In addition to the harassment, I witnessed my supervisor and "spiritual leader" demean other women (including members of the church), drink on the job, plagiarize sermons and act in the very manner you would not expect from a "called servant of The Lord".

I almost immediately observed the pastor's casualness, lack of boundaries, and what I perceived as downright laziness at times. His standards and expectations for my position as the assistant seemed to exceed his own standards as the pastor. 

Shortly after starting my position, I received a text message sometime after midnight from my supervisor telling me I should have sex with my husband. We never requested counseling or advice in this realm so his inappropriateness was rather strange at best to us. We strived to take words and actions in the best possible way. I was subjected to many routine "lapses in judgement" by my spiritual leader. Including an incident of him showing me a video that depicted nude male genitals while alone in his office.Is there ever a correct context for a supervisor to show anything like this to his married employee? (I will discuss this more at another time).

As he pushed the boundaries and inappropriateness, my conscience began to nag at me. Through even the darkest days, I allowed myself to believe that these behaviors were normal. Yet I began to feel torn between my loyalty to the church and the moral issues at hand.

I spent many nights awake and hovered over my bible in tears. There was something very wrong about what was going on at that church. I've seen it all first hand and, yet, felt obligated to keep it all a secret. It was the kind of secret that absolutely tormented me, but I thought I was doing the right thing at the time (just another lie we are led to believe as victims).

After months of utter frustration the hostile work environment began to take a toll on me and my husband. I prayerfully considered if perhaps this was an unhealthy situation for me to be in. So I gave my notice and was told to tell members of the congregation that I "wasn't a good fit" when I left my position. It was unbearable to work with a man that continued to ignore, scream, belittle, degrade and humiliate me. I left this job feeling worthless and far less confident than when I started (which was previously at a Fortune 100 company).

I suffered in silence while working at that church. I fell into a deep darkness from all that I experienced and witnessed there and its leadership. Shortly after I left the position my depression began to spiral. We maintained membership at this "relevant" church because of the relationships that we had formed with other Christians and did not want to neglect our spiritual life. The final straw was when an assault rifle was used as a sermon prop.

We decided it was best to seek the counsel of a trusted pastor since the leadership at this church either outright condoned or failed to supervise its employees and their behavior. We were convicted to resolve all this in a Christ centered way. Our hope was to see positive changes and healing for all. 

How many times does a synod president attend a
congregational meeting to cut a deal with the district president?
Mark Schroeder did, and Ski got another call.

My husband and I have continued to fight an endless battle for justice in the synod and to see that this doesn't happen to someone else. We've patiently been in contact with top synod leaders. We've encountered roadblocks, never ending circles and have witnessed inconsistencies throughout the disciplinary processes within the synod. By the Grace of God, we've encountered wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ to share in our burden. Unfortunately, we've also encountered timid leaders and those hesitant to publicly speak for the truth. People seem to selectively choose which commandments and passages to throw at you while ignoring others.

The journey has been incredibly lonely and frustrating since we were asked to remain silent and be patient. We are exhausted and completely astonished that after everything was brought into the light this man continues to be a pastor and counsel members. We will continue to persevere with others until positive changes are made in this synod so that all victims of abuse are protected rather than the perpetrators.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, (‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭3‬ ESV)

Jeff Schone went from being an awful pastor
to being an awful administrative bully at Martin Luther College:
zero tolerance for confessional students, who are driven out.

---

WELS Teacher Arrested - Why Not Issue a Call to Don Patterson's District?

Traeder, Taylor D Schofield, WI St Matthew Lutheran School Grades 6-8, Athletic Director,
Principal Apprentice

Only in ELCA - Or WELS - Missouri, ELS, and CLC (sic) - If We Are Going To Be Honest

HOLY SMOKE! Sex offender William Prante, pictured yesterday,
has St. Peter's Church in an uproar.

PORN-AGAIN PERV

By Matthew Nestel

May 7, 2008 | 9:09am

Outraged parishioners have abandoned a Manhattan Lutheran church – after their pastor vowed to keep a convicted kiddie-porn collector on staff.

“The families were horrified,” said Brooklyn Criminal Court Judge John Wilson, who attended St. Peter’s Church at the Citicorp Center in Midtown with his wife and young son until learning last October that its receptionist was a registered sex offender. “It’s truly disappointing that someone in a position of authority would think so little of protecting children.”

But the Rev. Amandus Derr said that by keeping William Prante on the job, the church is fulfilling its Christian mission of rehabilitating sinners, while protecting kids by barring Prante from being alone in St. Peter’s with anyone else.

Prante, however, regularly sees children at the church as part of his job.

Prante, 61, pleaded guilty in 2004 to a Louisiana child-porn charge after authorities found more than 700 sexually explicit images of children, including girls who appeared younger than age 5, at his home.

Prante, who downloaded the porn onto his work computer during his past job as an arts group’s education director, served two years in prison.

“The best day of my life was the day of my arrest because I could get healthy,” Prante told The Post yesterday.

After his release, he moved to New York – registering as a low-risk sex offender – and started hanging around St. Peter’s, where a friend is the organist.

But when the church finance director – who was unaware of Prante’s crime – hired him last year, a parish council member uncovered news stories about him and complained to church officials before ultimately resigning.

Derr then felt compelled to tell his congregation, and did so following a Sunday service with Prante’s permission.

“That day was particularly heinous,” said a parishioner and mother of a young child, one of more than a dozen congregants who stopped attending St. Peter’s afterward.

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http://www.nycago.org/Organs/NYC/html/StPeterLuth.html

St. Peter Lutheran Church (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) 619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street New York, N.Y. 10022 http://www.saintpeters.org Organ Specifications: 619 Lexington Avenue at 54th Street (since 1903): Present building (since 1977) ► II/43 Johannes Klais Orgelbau (1977) First building (1903-c.1970) ► III/17 M.P. Möller, Inc., Op. 7626 (1948) • II/5 Welte Organ Co. (ca.1912) – Sunday School room ► III/32 Eifert & Stoehr (1905) 474 Lexington Avenue at 45th Street (c.1871-1903): • George Jardine & Son (1872) See also the Continuo Organ in the Chapel.

St. Peter's Church (c.1871-1903)   Since its founding on June 2, 1862, as the Deutsche Evangelische Lutherische Sanct Petri-Kirche by a group of German immigrants, St. Peter's has faithfully served the midtown Manhattan area. Worship services in the German language began in a loft above a feed and grocery store at the corner of 49th Street and Lexington Avenue. By the 1890s, it became apparent that English services were required. During its first ten years, parish growth required several moves to larger quarters, eventually purchasing the former Lexington Avenue Presbyterian Church at the corner of 45th Street and Lexington Avenue. St. Peter's remained at this location until being uprooted by the construction of Grand Central Terminal.     St. Peter's Church (1903-1970) The building was sold to the New York Central Railroad in 1903 for $200,000, with the proceeds going toward the construction of a new Gothic-style church at 54th Street and Lexington Avenue. The new church was dedicated on May 14, 1905, and was typical of Lutheran church design of the time. Carved wooden sculptures, altar and pulpit dominated the chancel with a mural of the Sermon on the Mount above the altar, and glorious stained glass windows pictured scenes from the life of Jesus. In the balcony was space for a three-manual organ, the choir and the overflow crowds. By the 1920s, German services no longer predominated and English was adopted for morning worship. In 1925 the legal name of the parish was changed to "Saint Peter's Lutheran Church of Manhattan." By 1960, congregations in New York City were dwindling and St. Peter's was no exception. Rather than flee to the suburbs, the congregation of St. Peter's decided to affirm human life amidst the skyscrapers and develop a ministry that would serve more than just a Sunday congregation. A renewal of liturgical life unfolded and new programs in jazz, drama and the arts were developed. John Garcia Gensel joined the staff as the first pastor to the jazz community. In 1970, the First National City Bank (later known as Citibank) purchased the property for $9 million and agreed to build a new church next to its 59-story office tower. Hugh Stubbins & Associates designed both the tower and church, and Vignelli Associates designed the church interior. Stubbins described the church as two hands held up in prayer with light coming in between them." Consecrated in 1977, the church is a flexible space allowing for a great variety of expressions of worship through liturgy, song, sermon, dance, music and poetry.

How Long Have the Scandals Been Covered Up?

No GA anymore? Here is the new pope - Paul Krueger.
He was MLC student body president, meaning he is a hard drinker.
The secret hazing ritual has a new name.

Lilliam Armstrong, author of the Shattered Pulpit blog, wrote me that WELS people were being very nasty to her about telling the truth. During the day another woman told me of a pastor's closely guarded computer, because it was loaded with adult and child pornography.

Let's look at the foundation - GA - now has a new name - Herzliche Bruderschaft - even though hardly any Mequon student can pronounce or grasp German.



WELS is so used to lying that they deceive people about the most basic things that all the clergy know to be truth. This is consistent with cult behavior - and why the abusive sect has kept its secrets fairly well until now.

They can say there is no GA, because it is now HB - notice a change in each letter. So clever. No wonder the Germans lost two world wars. "Dah G becomes an H and dah A becomes a B. Let's make up a new German name no one can remember."

Is HB any different from GA? No. And it starts next week. If you want the Mequon graduates to be somewhere near normal, end GA-HB. Better yet - end the deceptive practices.

I promised a summary of WELS scandals. I will get to that in the morning. There is an important WELS conference to promote.

Abusive Narcissists Attractred To Mark Driscoll

I Photoshopped a Mark Driscoll prophesy several years ago.
Now it is coming true.

 A recent outpouring of accounts by former church members of Mars Hill, Seattle's own homegrown megachurch, are painting a picture, both fascinating and horrifying, of outrageous and psychologically damaging behavior that's been happening inside the church for many years.

Women's Training Day at one of Mars Hill's Seattle meetinghouses. Photo: Mars Hill Church

There are emerging stories of sensational kangaroo courts and "sex demon" trials, like something out of the Salem witch hunts of the 1600s. Even more devastating to individual members are the ways in which they are shamed, taught to blame themselves and each other when they see problems, and to formally shun people who step out of favor with church leaders. Shunnings, both formal and informal, have caused the outcast to spend years in isolation, cut off from friends, sometimes suffering deep clinical depression, nightmares, disillusionment and shattered faith.

More at the link directly below:

http://crosscut.com/2014/07/16/religion/121033/inside-mars-hills-big-meltdown/?page=single

Tim Glende and Ski went to a
Mark Driscoll conference some years ago,
hiding the facts in the church bulletin,
making it appear to be a WELS pastoral conference.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Driscoll_(pastor)

Recovering Mark Driscoll True Believer

Mark Driscoll's disciples
show the same contempt for women.
They posted these photos with sex-tart Katy Perry on their Facebook Accounts.

I predict the same conclusion for WELS celebrity shrinkers as Mark Driscoll is now experiencing. Glende has already ruined one congregation, turning a thriving campus church into foreclosed property with only a few members. Sure, Church and Change let him vamoose before his precious coffee bar church was built, but the stench of failure was already in the air when he packed his bag faster than Jonah. But it was Mark Jeske--rather than a whale--who vomited him on the shores of Dead Horse Bay.

Church and Change has bailed out Ski three times in a row. Like Glende, he had to change districts so everyone would forget what happened in the last place. Like Glende, he worked for Mark Jeske.

Are they like Mark Driscoll?

1. When an attorney proved that they were plagiarizing Craig Groeschel, that Glende lied about it, they excommunicated him.
2. When the husband of their victim spoke against their behavior and Ski's return to the pastorate, four staff members sued him in court.
3. Do they shun and shame anyone who questions their power grabs?
4. Did the District Pope threaten any pastor who doubted their divine status?