Aardvark Listed

Aardvark has listed Ichabod among the Lutheran blogs. Here is a list of over 200 Lutheran blogs:

Lutheran Blogs

Now Ecclesiastes would say "There is no end to writing blogs."

FIC Errs, Publishes Worthwhile Article

It must have been a Monday morning decision. WELS' magazine, which used to have Lutheran in its title, published a good article by Paul Prange, President of MLS.

Converted by the Word

I can imagine Gurgel's reaction:

"What do you mean, publishing something worthwhile? We never do that. Our Church Growth people will be converted back to Luther's doctrine if you keep this up. We may lose Paul Kelm and Floyd Stolzenburg!"

"I am sorry, sir. It won't happen again."

Secretary: "President Gurgel. Lawrence Otto Olson, D. Min., Fuller Seminary, is on the phone. And is he mad!"

Gurgel: "See what you've done."

WELS AnswerMan Leaves Them Laughing Again

Q: Having been in fellowship with LCMS for decades prior to splitting in early 1960, does WELS accept the 3 volume book of Francis Pieper "Christian Dogmatics" along with the Book of Concord as being consistent with their confessional teachings?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A: No dogmatics texts including our own are placed on the level of the confessions. Neither are the writings of Luther. The confessions are the collective statements of the church. Pieper's dogmatics set is his private writing. The LCMS has never adopted it, as they did the Brief Statement.

We use Pieper's dogmatics and it is doctrinally sound, but there are some very poorly-worded statements in the section on church and ministry which are very difficult to understand in an acceptable sense. Pieper himself contradicts these statements in other writings of his.

End of AnswerMan Quotation

Sigh. Whenever I need something good to write about, WELS AnswerMan delivers a soft pitch across the plate.

The Wisconsin Synod is very much like the Latter-day Saints. People think the Mormon Bible is the Book of Mormon, but Mormons ignore that for Doctrine and Covenants and other strange writings.

A Wisconsin Synod pastor will claim they have a quia subscription to the Book of Concord, but that is another deception. Their own publications set the standards for many different Wisconsin Synod declarations, all in error. There is an essay claiming WELS is not bound by the Book of Concord, either in Our Great Heritage or the Wauwatosa set. Note that both sets are pure self-glorification. They cannot get Hoenecke published slow enough, but they have six thick volumes of their worst effluent bound and sold as confessional treasures. I owned both sets earlier, but I used them for kindling. They were so dry.

Their real position is that WELS alone determines the meaning of Scripture, apart from any other authority, statement, or book. Their fanaticism for the NIV, UOJ, the Church Growth Movement, and marketing the Gospel reveals their devotion to Lutheran orthodoxy.

No, Pieper's Dogmatics is not the last word in Lutheran orthodoxy. (Could AnswerMan observe the rules of journalism, capitalize the book title and use italics?) I would not call the set an official document of Missouri, unlike OGH and Wauwatosa for WELS, but it is hardly "private." CPH published Pieper, translated it, and still makes money from it. I had a German set that was built to last for centuries, like the Walther sermon books in German.

Pieper is way cool for Bronze Age Missourians and some ELS people today. I fear WELS has not forgiven Francis for leaving the synod and joining Missouri. His brother August stayed in the sect and apparently disagreed with Francis on church and ministry issues. I find these repristination people mega-boring, so I am not about to unravel the history of all this.

I do not mean to pick on these sincere men. I do find it disgusting that so many leaders today are willing to trace their doctrine all the way back - one generation earlier and stop there, ignoring Luther, Chemnitz, and the giants of the Lutheran Reformation. That is precisely why the so-called conservative Lutheran bodies are following ELCA around with their tongues hanging out.

Missouri, the ELS, WELS, and the mini-micros have their machine gunners ready for anyone who questions forgiveness without faith (Universal Objective Justification). They cannot defend their false doctrine. They are like Keystone Kops running around whenever they try. But they are still ready at the trigger, to fire away and make people fear their wrath. That is an tragic inheritance from Walther/Pieper worship.

Brug Action Confirms Ichabod Predictions

Seminary professor John Brug's material, posted at the Michigan Lutheran Seminary website, confirms an earlier Ichabodian prediction.

The traditionalists are lining up against the proposal to close Sem. The odd name (Sem, or Michigan Lutheran Seminary) reflects its origin as the pastoral training school for the Michigan Synod that eventually joined the Joint Synod of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, and Other States (Nebraska).

There has been talk about the Michigan District, WELS, taking over MLS and funding the school. That was supposed to be an action blessed by The Love Shack, 2929 N. Mayfield Road. MLS recognizes that this action would be doomed to failure. Far fewer people would support an aging campus during a time when the auto industry in Michigan is in worse shape than WELS.

Millions have been spent on three campuses (MLS, Luther Prep, MLC) and all are destined to close, due to the leadership genius of President-in-Waiting Wayne Mueller. The answer so far has been - Have Another Fund-Raising Campaign!

It would have been better to take all the Schwan money and name the school system after his business, with various buildings having his name or his relatives' names on them. A marketing theme could have tied the frozen food business with the Wisconsin Synod:
The Marvin Schwan Frozen Food Schools. Many are cold, but few are frozen.

Means of Grace, Si! Church Growth Movement, No!

Ichabod will become bi-lingual, to comply with the rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Someone asked why I was against the church growing? I have to commend the late, liberal Donald McGavran. He was able to change church language so that people could make his pompous declarations beyond criticism.

McGavran solemnly declared, "God wants His church to grow."

This particular sentiment is nowhere in the Scriptures, but the slogan has much in common with Pentecostal language. For instance, the Holy Spirit had a conversation with John Lawrenz, published on the Internet. John recited it for an interview. John wanted to stay in the Ukraine, but the Holy Spirit told him, "John, I want you in Asia." They went back and forth a little, as good friends should and do, but the Holy Spirit won. After all, how can anyone argue with God?

Pentecostals have that advantage. They walk up to someone and say, "The Holy Spirit told me you should leave the ministry." More likely, they tell everyone but the victim. Doubtless, the Holy Spirit told him to be discreet.

McGavran got everyone to think that anyone against his thriving business was against God. He and his apostle C. Peter Wagner (a Pentecostal) recruited all the world mission executives first, then the American mission executives, so all the denomination bosses went to Fuller Seminary. That is why the Mission/Vision statements of LCMS, WELS, and the Assemblies of God all sounded exactly alike. The statements came from the same source, Fuller Seminary.

I have a high regard for the Holy Spirit, but I am not God's counselor (Romans 8). According to the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit works only through the Word and never apart from the Word. That Word is found in two basic forms: the invisible Word of teaching and preaching; the visible Word of Holy Baptism, Holy Communion, and Absolution. We also list ordination as a sacrament in the Book of Concord. Chemnitz has a fine discussion about sacraments in his Examination.

If people want to be Spirit-filled, they should remain close to the Means of Grace (John 15). Then they will see the fruits of the Gospel. They will never receive or experience forgiveness apart from God's appointed Means of Grace. Despising the Means of Grace, a convenient term for the Gospel in its various forms, is opposition to God's Word.

God's will is accomplished only through His Word. People should let go of their slogans and marketing theories (all of which have failed) and listen to the Word, then apply it.

 Pete Wagner, mentor to Otten's favorite WELS pastor,
anticipated the dawn of the expert who is wrong about everything
and remains in a highly paid business, like
Karl Rove, Paul McCain, and Larry Olson.

Gay Schmeling? Luther Would Have Approved!

No, that is not my opinion.

A professor of women's studies has solemnly declared that Luther would have approved of gay Schmeling, the ELCA pastor disciplined for having a male partner.

An article about this can be found at

The American Spectator

Could this be another reason why LCMS and WELS members, peeking in the window at various pan-Lutheran conferences, no longer want to fund the ELCA disciples? Sure, gay Schmeling is being mildly disciplined, but various overlapping networks will protect and defend him. Nothing has really happened.

WELS Votes via the Offering Plate

Today, the WELS News bulletin insert gave the bar charts through June.

Michigan District: $890,289 down $99,681 from 2006 which is a $20,601 greater deficit from May ($79,080). So Michigan continues to fade.

Synod: $8,880,447 down $175,660 from 2006 but which is $121,920 more positive than the May deficit ($297,580). The synod appeal seems to be working a little bit in somewhere.

Only January and April (Easter) were on a par with 2006 with April somewhat greater (not in Michigan) for the synod totals...

Come on, Wayne, poke Michigan in the eye again. That really motivates giving.

Martin Luther Nursing Home and Live Bait Shop

Someone is sure that Martin Luther College (WELS) will continue forever, even without the preps feeding students into the school.

With both preps still in operation, MLC is already in desperate shape. The school has dropped below survival levels in its student population. Tuition = income = salaries. The synod has deliberately cut the subsidy, has no real endowment for the school, and is eliminating the feeder system for the school. Long ago, Fuller alumnus Norm Berg cut out the need for MLC by eliminating the parochial school from mission church budgets.

MLC is two colleges in one, pastoral and teacher training, but the enrollment is dropping from news of its future demise.

MLC may have trouble making it as a nursing home, so I propose selling live bait as well. Southern Minnesota is great for hunting and fishing. The lawns are a natural habitat for night-crawlers.

MLC might have survived by joining the online college revolution. My old community college asked me about my expertise in online teaching and web design. They already have large online classes, modeled after the University of Phoenix, somewhat larger with 300,000 students. UOP had enough cash to buy naming rights for the new stadium in Glendale, $7 million a year for 20 years, a small part of their budget. UOP began in 1976. MLC is older than dirt.

Couldn't the Church Growth Principles of Dr. Lawrence Otto Olson be applied to MLC? He wrote a dissertation on the topic. Sure, his own congregation never grew, but that is no problem for Church Growth fanatics.

Download Google Earth and put in the coordinates for MLC, Bethany Lutheran College, and Wisconsin Lutheran College. All three are close together. Two of them are lavishly funded by Schwan money. MLC is the exception. The college may hobble along from another fund drive and wait for a new synodical president to be their Dr. Kevorkian.

The Betrayers Betrayed - MLS

Closing the schools in WELS is clearly a Church Growth program. Not that the Church Growth leaders cause any real growth in the Kingdom. They just yak about it all the time. Church Growth is an ideology, a set of shallow doctrines, and an agenda.

President-in-waiting Wayne Mueller has always been a Church Growth advocate, even while denying it. How delicious it must be to deny Church Growth in The Northwestern Lutheran while promoting Church Growth in the synod.

I remember John Brug covering for David Valleskey on the subject of Church Growth. Now he wants the preps to stay open.

Paul Kuske started a Church Growth operation in Columbus, Ohio, in his capacity as VP of the district. To run this destructive cause he had Floyd Luther Stolzenburg, recently forced to resign from the LCMS ministerium (and never a member of WELS, by the way).

Now Brug and Kuske want to snatch MLS from the jaws of the Church Growth gurus!

WELS is a genius at management, I must say. They have been Management-By-Objective-zombies for at least 20 years, but Drucker wanted to encourage leadership wisdom, not synodical stupidity. The Brug report listed the large sums of money recently borrowed for MLS and Luther Prep. Wayne Mueller would close both schools, making them worthless, while still owing for such things as new boilers, science rooms, and dorms. The college would close, too, so that would make all the money spent on Martin Luther College another rat-hole. They recently reworked the heating system, perhaps in conjunction with New Ulm's steam tunnel project.

Now everyone is tongue-clucking. WELS wanted to move from small potatoes to the Big Time with Church Growth. All those who studied at Fuller, who bowed their heads at Willow Creek, who agreed by being silent, who shunned pastors that knew better - all those betrayers of the Gospel are being betrayed now. WELS will not be small potatoes. WELS will be tater tots.

The Catholic Momentum

I enjoy the encouraging messages sent. I mean the positive messages from normal people, but also the insanely angry messages sent under various false names. The second group motivates me the most, because, as my Grandpappy used to say, "When the arrow hits the mark, feathers will fly."

Various people pretend to be offended that I had a Catholic education, just like Martin Luther and the faculty of Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne. Look at the faculty list at Ft. Wayne. They live close to Notre Dame so they finished their Ph.D. work there. John Johnson, once the buddy of Herman Otten while serving as president of Concordia, St. Louis, had a doctorate from the Jesuits at St. Louis University. What the complainers miss is my lack of obedience to His Holiness, the Antichrist.

Faithful Lutheran pastors owe it to their congregations to be well read in heterodoxy without falling prey to it. That requires constant study while ignoring Holy Mother Synod most of the time.

The marginally literate have trouble distinguishing between hearing someone and following someone. Thus it is easy to find out who has studied at Fuller Seminary and Willow Creek because they blab about the same things with the same vocabulary. Waldo Werning had "Church Growth Eyes" in the subtitle of one of his moronic books. Did he study at Fuller? Yes, he admitted it and also denied it. Those who defend Fuller doctrine are predictably alumni (Frosty Bivens, David Valleskey, Lawrence Otto Olson, Wally Oelhaven, Fred Adrian, Kent Hunter). Those who follow have previously heard that new gospel, preached by angels of marketing (Galatians 1:8).

How Roman Catholic are the synods today? The best measure is to look at what they are doing. ELCA and the old Synodical Conference synods (WELS-ELS-LCMS) have:
1. Adopted the three-year lectionary from Rome.
2. Killed the traditional names of Sundays wherever possible.
3. Changed the liturgical colors to be more gay-friendly.
4. Competed to see which Roman Catholic customs they can incorporate.
5. Obsessed over the title bishop and Rome's claim to apostolic succession.
6. Longed for acceptance by Rome, even while called defective and wounded.

Many pastors have followed these trends because their peers were running off the cliff ahead of them. The Gadarene swine episode was not meant to be prescriptive, I might add. One pastor asked me to make my sermons fit the Roman cycle. I said, "Why not switch back to the historic pericopes?" The publishing houses make it easy to follow the worn path.

Lutheran worship can be solemn and liturgical without genuflecting toward Rome.

WELS Seminary Professor John Brug Supports MLS

WELS Seminary Professor John Brug, who grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, has published a report in favor of Michigan Lutheran Seminary.

The PDF file can be found here:

Michigan Lutheran Seminary
along with additional material on the topic.

So far the synod's (Wayne Mueller's) answer has been that there is only one solution for the incompentence shown at the leadership levels - close the preps.

Everyone else seems to think otherwise. The district presidents and various assemblies oppose the closing of the preps, which will also close the college.

The booby-hatch pronouncements of the synod leaders have gutted the system, forcing tuition up by 30%, thus reducing the students and the tuition income. Now the whole system is tottering toward collapse while the booby-hatch leaders tell them - Have another Junk for Jesus Rummage Sale. Flogging will continue until morale improves.

ELCA Membership Tanking

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 19, 2007

ELCA Membership Drops 1.6 Percent to 4.8 Million in 2006 07-130-FI/LA*

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) had 4,774,203 baptized members in 10,470 congregations at the end of 2006, according to the Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary. Those figures represent decreases of 76,573 baptized members and 79 congregations since 2005.

The secretary's comparison of congregational statistics for 2005 and 2006 noted that confirmed membership in the ELCA declined in 2006 by 56,546 to 3,580,402.

In the past 16 years the ELCA lost approximately 466,000 baptized members from the 5,240,739 members reported in 1990, Almen said. More than two-thirds of the decline occurred between 2002 and 2006, with a combined decrease of 325,674 baptized
members, according to annual reports from congregations compiled by the ELCA Office of the Secretary.

Parochial reports showed the loss was because of a decrease in the number of new members, the disbanding of 40 congregations, and "roll cleaning" in many remaining congregations, Almen said. Roll cleaning resulted in a loss of 202,246 members in 2006 and a loss of 208,436 members in 2005. Those reductions occur when
long-inactive members, who indicate no interest in continued participation, are removed from the rolls of congregations, he explained.

Nineteen congregations with a combined baptized membership of 7,196 withdrew from the ELCA in 2006. One congregation with membership of 104 was removed.

The average number of people in worship on Sundays decreased slightly in 2006. A total 1,408,682 or 29.50 percent of all baptized ELCA members participated in worship each week. That percentage fluctuated in the ELCA between 30 and 31 percent in recent years.

The last time a gain of ELCA membership occurred was in 1991, with a net gain of 4,438 baptized members that year, Almen reported.

Baptisms, affirmations of faith and transfers from other Lutheran congregations accounted for fewer new members in 2006 than they did in 2005. There were 66,166 baptisms of children in 2006 -- down 1,486 from 67,652 in 2005. There were 52,357
affirmations of faith in 2006, compared to 53,961 in 2005. There were 71,110 transfers from Lutheran congregations in 2006 -- down 5,408 from 76,518 in 2005.

Adult baptisms decreased by 359 -- from 6,764 in 2005 to 6,405 in 2006. accessions from non-Lutheran congregations declined 1,003 -- from 17,794 in 2005 to 16,791 in 2006.

There were 1,513 fewer deaths of ELCA members -- 47,210 in 2005 to 45,697 in 2006. There were 3,176 fewer transfers to other Lutheran congregations -- from 53,429 in 2005 to 50,253 in 2006.

The average number of baptized members per congregation decreased in 2006 by four people to 459, and the average confirmed membership decreased by three people to 345.

For 2006, 3.15 percent of ELCA baptized members were identified as persons of color or persons whose primary language is not English, essentially unchanged from 2005, according to Almen.

-- -- --
A table summarizing annual statistics compiled by the ELCA Office of the Secretary is at http://www.ELCA.org/news/table.html on the Web.

* The Rev. Lowell G. Almen is secretary of the ELCA.

Synod Minders

Every event has synod minders. They are the loyalists who show up uninvited to snoop around whenever Lutherans might think on their own.

I attended a conservative Lutheran meeting with Al Barry shortly after he was elected. He made it sound as if it was a hardship to address the people who worked so hard to get him elected. In the back row were about 10 minders. Synod minders pounce on people for getting to close to the real issues. They report who is at the meeting.

The late Jack Preus said WELS had a regular KGB operation. Missouri was and is no different. The same is true of the smaller sects. Family ties make it easy to meddle with other congregations. The temptation is seldom resisted now.

There are many "secret" email lists. I explored one ELS pastor's website and got into the main directory, with a page not linked on the website. The page gave directions for getting the key to encrypted emails at the next ELS gathering.

If an email list is large enough, synod minders populate it. They pretend to be friendly to the cause so they can forward mail to the bosses at the Love Shack (WELS), the Little Sect on the Prairie (ELS), or Almost-ELCA (Missouri Synod).

Sometimes people cannot figure out whether a minder is deliberately gumming up everything or just felony stupid. Either way, the minder is helping out the synod. He may have to unbutton the last few buttons of his shirt to let his gut precede him into the room, but he is close with the bosses. Abused and neglected children, when they grow up, need that kind of attention.

Why Are Lutherans Poping, Semi-Poping, and Demi-Semi-Poping?

One reader wonders why Catholicism is so attractive to Lutheran pastors?

1. Poping means joining Rome, even becoming a priest, as Richard Neuhaus did.
2. Semi-poping means joining Eastern Orthodoxy: tastes great, less fulfilling.
3. Demi-semi-poping is my term for walking the tightrope between the Lutheran Church and popery.

The cause is three-fold.
A. Lutherans have lost their nerve. The leaders no longer believe in Luther's doctrine and the Book of Concord, the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace. Many leaders bow to Fuller Seminary and Willow Creek, leaving others to think the answer is becoming a lapdog for the Antichrist.
B. Seminary faculty members delight in promoting their cause among their students, watching with pride when their students make the switch they are afraid to make.
C. Rome never stops its massive propaganda efforts.

Worship training centers at Notre Dame, so the football school has influenced as many denominations to obey Rome as Fuller has in the opposite direction. This is a real life example of Wayne Mueller's quotation from Luther (which he distorted and abused for his nefarious purpose). The crypto-papists stab their church in the back to save it from the Fuller monster. In fact, Fuller and Rome are two versions of the same false doctrine.

The new fever about Apostolic Succession is a good example of the Roman yeast at work. The crypto-papists can talk about Apostolic Succession and publish their papers without being too obvious about their longing to return to Holy Mother Rome. Some of the other discussions, such as the term bishop, are excellent ways to promote the agenda. They can point members toward Rome without naming the Holy Father, their leader. If everyone can keep yakking about non-essentials, the lack of doctrinal education can do its damage in time.

Peeking Through the Window - Lutheran Animal Farm

Orwell's Animal Farm is an allegorical satire of Stalinism, and the book describes other totalitarian regimes as well - the ELS, WELS, ELCA, and the micro-mini sects.

Readers may remember the climax of the book, where a farm animal peeks through the window and cannot distinguish the farm animals from the people who have been declared the enemy.

I call one Lutheran pastor Snowball because he was driven away by the WELS Stalinists and pilloried for leaving WELS.

Back to the main point - the various Lutheran sects run each other down while working with one another. ELCA represents the evil human population in the book. Sermons and resolutions address ELCA's apostasy. The typical WELS members and pastors think ELCA is profoundly inferior to WELS. They would be shocked at how much WELS works with ELCA on religious projects and then lies about it.

The apostate leaders in each synod look out for one another, defend one another, and promote one another into positions of influence. They necessarily look up to ELCA as the ideal in apostasy. That is how ELCA pulls Missouri, WELS, and the rest down along its trajectory.

What do the Big Four have in common?
1. They attend Fuller Seminary together.
2. They promote Church Growth together.
3. They favor women's ordination, with varying degrees of advocacy.
4. They want Roman Catholic leaders to teach them.
5. They work on religious projects together.

Incest Meant Nothing To These Pastors

I know a number of pastors who managed to overlook a case of incest. A prominent layman got his own daughter pregnant. She was committed to a series of facilities. Like Chinatown, the father/grandfather took over the care of his daughter/granddaughter.

The facts enrage the pastors who cover up these crimes. They are so blinded by guilt disguised as rage that they will say anything.

Before we throw stones at the conduct of the Church of Rome, we need to backwash our own Lutheran sewers.

Watch for continued coverage in the Lutheran press about the Los Angeles settlement, continued silence about Lutheran crimes.

Discussion about Roman Catholic doctrine? That would impede their cooperative efforts with the Antichrist, the Chief Apostate.

Typical Good, Faithful Pastors

I am not talking about the pastors who spend all their time and energy in politics, playing the game of their Father Below.

There are many faithful Lutheran pastors, trying to teach God's Word and shepherd their flocks in the midst of apostasy around them. There is no good solution since other groups are similar or worse. ELCA, of course, is beyond the beyond, as the Irish-American author Frank McCourt says.

These pastors are not well paid. They may be appreciated in their congregations. Probably everyone hears the prosperity gospel of this age, so the congregation feels God has abandoned them. Their synods take them for granted until another once-in-a-lifetime-giving-opportunity comes along.

Many labor in those areas where Lutherans are not as dense as at headquarters. Perhaps most of the population is indifferent, Roman Catholic, Jewish, or Baptist. In the South, a Lutheran is just another Roman Catholic, a wine-bibber or worse. The politician-pastors grab for the easy calls, the prestige positions.

I met one of these truly humble pastors the other day. I just want to salute him and all those like him. God knows who they are. Walther said something like this - They were scorned in their lifetime, but now they shine like the sun.

Bad Boy, Bad Boy Trouble in Paradise

My favorite ELS Blog went silent since May and now is gone. Only the URL remains:

Whatcha Gonna Do When They Come for You?

I was tempted to write another parody, but the original lyrics by The Inner Circle are beyond parody:

Why did you have to act so mean?
Don't you know you're a human being,
Born of a mother with the love of a father,
Reflections come and reflections go
I know sometimes - you want to let go, hey, hey, hey
I know sometimes - you want to let go, wohh!

Bad boys bad boys
Watcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do
when they come for you
Bad boys, bad boys
Watcha gonna do, watcha gonna do
when they come for you.

I am not sure who ELS Bad Boy is. I have no contact with the blogger and he has no contact with me. My guess is: The new group is forming so they want something less fun and more serious.

Meanwhile, the LCMS has declared fellowship with the AALC. Ergo, the AALC is now in fellowship with WELS, ELCA, and the ELS. Oh yes, they all work together on becoming more apostate according to the example set by Archbishop Hanson of the ELCA. The other Lutheran groups will follow his cloven hoof-prints anywhere.

Sounds Familiar to Me

The big news today is the Los Angeles clergy abuse case. The current sum to be awarded to victims of homosexual priests will be about $660 million. Mrs. Ichabod suggested that $666 million would be more appropriate. Most of these cases are not pedophile or heterosexual crimes. The vast majority involve teen-aged boys, the gay ideal since classical Greek times.

Here is a snippet from one news story:

Former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating in 2003 resigned from the US Catholic Bishops' National Review Board after describing Mahony and other bishops as behaving like a "criminal enterprise" following a "code of silence."

"To resist grand jury subpoenas, to suppress the names of offending clerics, to deny, to obfuscate, to explain away; that is the model of a criminal organization, not my church," Keating stated in his resignation letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory, the head of the US bishops' conference.

Sound familiar? The Code of Silence goes far beyond the Catholic Church and the Mafia. Ask a WELS district pope about the murder in Milwaukee or Phoenix, the abusive vicar in Grand Rapids, the known criminal courted by WELS. Ask the DP about WELS denying any knowledge of these matters when asked in court. The denial was perjury, a felony. Wait until he denounces the Catholic Church as a criminal enterprise and he thanks God (once again) for keeping WELS so pure, so orthodox, and so honest. Ask about the WELS cover-ups. He will say: "Where did you get this from?" or "I don't know anything about what you are saying."

Did you read about the WELS vicar and the DP in state prison in your favorite tabloid? No? Perhaps the synodical officials lean on the editor to suppress bad news in their own backyard. Watch for the LA story to appear while nothing is said about the fetid swamp called "conservative Lutheranism."

If you dare to move from asking about these criminal cover-ups to demanding action, you will be well and thoroughly beaten up. While the rapists and murderers are defended by official silence, you will be slandered from pillar to post - by the same officials. Consider it a compliment.

Ditto: all the synods, big and small.

ELCA does expose heterosexual offenders and even wrote about their massive $40 million case of homosexual clergy abuse (one man). The same cover-up process is at work. When one LCA pastor told me about the previous minister being found in the parsonage with another woman (in flagrante delicto, if you went to a prep), I told him, "In the future, they will celebrate if it was a woman." He roared with laughter. Now it's true.

One WELS pastor walked out on his wife and five children, Sunday morning, to leave with his mistress. Later he was welcomed back into fellowship and a call. (It's not like he criticized the synod, which is really serious.) When a neighboring pastor asked how this could happen, he was told sharply, "It's none of your business." The Ten Commandments are the Nine Suggestions. The glory has departed.

By the Time I Get to Phoenix - Composed During LCMS Vote

We were flying back from North Carolina to Phoenix, during the LCMS vote for synodical president. I composed this parody during the flight, with apologies to Glenn Campbell.

By the Time I Get to Phoenix

By the time I get to Phoenix they’ll be voting
They’ll start the vote Kieschnick winning on the floor
He laughed when he read the news
which had him losing
Cause he’s fixed so many votes like this before. (voice cracking)

By the time I make Albuquerque he’ll be winking
He’ll prob’ly stop for prayer and give God a call
But He'll just hear that prayer keep on nagging
Jesus is not First in Jerry's call.

By the time I make Oklahoma they’ll be drinking
They’ll lift their beer and curse CN out loud
And they’ll cry just to think God’d really leave them
Tho’ time and time He tried to tell them so.
Mo. just didn’t know God would really go.

Gay Schmeling Needs To Go Straight - ELCA

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 5, 2007

ELCA Committee on Appeals Rules in Atlanta Discipline Case
07-123-JB

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Committee on Appeals of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) ruled July 2 in favor of an appeal by the Rev. Ronald B. Warren, bishop of the ELCA Southeastern Synod, Atlanta, who sought removal of Bradley
E. Schmeling, Atlanta, from the official clergy roster of the ELCA. The appeals committee ruled that Schmeling was to be removed immediately from the roster, upholding the determination by a disciplinary hearing committee that Schmeling was in
violation of the ELCA policy regarding the sexual conduct of its pastors.

Decisions of the Committee on Appeals are not made public by the ELCA churchwide organization. According to the ELCA Constitution, Bylaws and Continuing Resolutions, summaries of decisions are to be reported to the next ELCA Churchwide
Assembly, the church's highest legislative authority, which will be here at Navy Pier Aug. 6-11. In this case, the decision of the Committee on Appeals was released July 5 by Warren and posted on the synod's Web site, and it was released at a July 5 news conference at St. John Lutheran Church, Atlanta, the congregation Schmeling has served since 2000.

In the ELCA policy document "Vision and Expectations: Ordained Ministers in the ELCA," it states: "Single ordained ministers are expected to live a chaste life. Married ordained ministers are expected to live in fidelity to their spouses,
giving expression to sexual intimacy within a marriage relationship that is mutual, chaste, and faithful. Ordained ministers who are homosexual in their self-understanding are expected to abstain from homosexual sexual relationships."

Warren filed formal charges in 2006 against Schmeling after Schmeling reported to Warren that he was in a committed relationship with another man, a violation of the ELCA's clergy standards. Seven members of the 12-member discipline hearing
committee, which met Jan. 18-24 in Atlanta, voted to remove Schmeling from the ELCA clergy roster and stayed the effective date of his removal until Aug. 15. That committee issued its opinion Feb. 7.

In separate filings in March, Warren and Schmeling both appealed the decision of the discipline hearing committee.

The 12-member Committee on Appeals met here June 9-10 to consider the appeals. That committee voted 10-1, with one abstention, to remove Schmeling from the clergy roster. It voted 10-2 to reverse the discipline hearing committee's decision to
stay the effective date of Schmeling's removal from the roster until Aug. 15, and it voted 10-2 to remove Schmeling from the clergy roster on July 2.

The Committee on Appeals noted that the ELCA Constitution states that "the decision of the discipline hearing committee shall be final on the day it is issued by the committee," and that "nowhere in ELCA Constitution, Bylaws and Continuing
Resolutions is a discipline hearing committee authorized to stay its own decision."

"In this regard, the Committee on Appeals determines that the effective date of Pastor Schmeling's removal from the clergy roster of the ELCA ... should have been Feb. 7, 2007," the Committee on Appeals said.

The discipline hearing committee's written opinion said most of its members were concerned about certain language in ELCA clergy policy documents, and it made some specific suggestions for change. That opinion suggested synod assemblies ask the ELCA Churchwide Assembly to consider proposals for change.

The Committee on Appeals said its role, as well as that of a discipline hearing committee, is to serve as a judicial body, and that legislative authority to change policies is the responsibility of the ELCA Churchwide Assembly and the ELCA Church Council, which serves as the church's board of directors.

"Nothing in the ELCA Constitution, Bylaws and Continuing Resolutions allows a discipline hearing committee to make any particular recommendations to the egislative bodies of this church, urging them to take a specific policy action. By doing so in this case, the discipline hearing committee exceeded the authority granted to it by the ELCA Constitution," the Committee on Appeals said.

Responses to the Appeals Committee decision
In response to the decision, Warren posted a pastoral letter July 5 on the ELCA Southeastern Synod Web site. "My decision to seek Pastor Schmeling's removal from te ministry of this church was difficult because of my deep respect for the pastor and the congregation at St. John's, but the policy of this church is clear," he wote. "It was my responsibility as bishop of this synod to enforce the established standards of this church, particularly after the 2005 Churchwide Assembly decided that the church would not create a process for possible exceptions to existing behavior expectations for pastors. As this church continues prayerfully to consider the issue of clergy who are gay or lesbian and in committed relationships, both the synod and I will continue to work on finding ways to live together faithfully in the midst of our disagreements."

Schmeling and the St. John Lutheran Church congregation shared the news of the Committee on Appeals on July 3, Warren wrote. Warren said he and Schmeling talked by phone July 5. They agreed that Warren and synod staff will meet with the congregation council's executive committee and the St. John congregation in the coming weeks.

"Please remember all of us who are involved in this difficult and challenging process in your intercessory prayers," Warren's statement concluded.

"I'm deeply disappointed by the decision, although I'm not surprised," Shmeling said in a July 5 news release in response to the appeals committee ecision. "Change has always proven difficult for the church. I continue to hope that the church will be centered in God's message of love, compassion, and justice, rather than in the enforcement of discriminatory policies. The church can only resist the Holy Spirit for so long. In the meantime, I plan to continue to follow my call in ministry at St. John's and to pray for the day when all God's children are equally welcomed into the Lutheran church," he said.

John Ballew, president of St. John Lutheran Church, said in the congregation's news release: "We are going to go to (the) Churchwide Assembly in August, to witness to our ELCA the costs of this decision, based on an absurd policy. This is not just
about us and our wonderful pastor; this is about all those called to minister to God's people, who lead exemplary lives, who provide a model for faithful, loving companionship with each other and with Christ."
---
The written decision of the ELCA Committee on Appeals is available from the ELCA Southeastern Synod at http://www.ELCA-ses.org/Hearing.htm on the Web.

Be sure to view this site:
Extraordinary Candidacy Project

Is Everything Church Growth?

An anonymous person has asked if everything is Church Growth. The same person seems to favor CCM, sometimes called Charismatic Church Music.

Two trends are happening at the same time. ELCA has led the way in working with Roman Catholics. My favorite ELCA photo is one with a Roman Catholic priest who was sharing a building with a very attractive ELCA female pastor. He was beaming at the prospects of the working relationship. The LCA, then ELCA pursued the Church of Rome, only to be declared defective by the Antichrist.

The ELS had its Lutheran/Roman Catholic religious service at Bethany, Mankato. WELS had its lectureship by priests and Archbishop Weakland at Wisconsin Lutheran College. Weakland, in deep trouble for pursuing a young man, was quoted as saying children initiated sex with adults. Rome could not wait to dump him, but WELS said, "Now there is the keynote speaker we need!" Damage Central later claimed that he only spoke at a private luncheon at WLC. Ha. The college heavily promoted this as a community-wide event. I had the brochure at one time. Several priests were also on the schedule.

In the next 20 years a surprising number of Lutheran-trained pastors will either be Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox. One mini-micro bishop is already calling himself The Right Reverend So-and-So.

WELS is the most heavily invested in Church Growth. They are so besotted with Fuller doctrine that no clergy can escape being injected with all the marketing hooplah of the Devil's Playground. Some of this has slopped over into the ELS.

Missouri and ELCA have their Church Growth factions and those who resist Fuller Seminary.

Lutherans ought to learn their own confessional hymns before they start aping the Evangelical/Pentecostal wing of Christianity. Mequon and Bethany both celebrated Paul Gerhardt recently, but both seminaries spit on his memory with their adoration of unionistic doctrine, compromise with the Reformed. Gerhardt paid a heavy price for refusal to go along with any form of union.

Starbuck's - Facing the Awful Truth

From time to time I order a mocha at Starbuck's (Barnes and Noble) while checking on some new book titles. They used to ask, "Do you want whipped cream?" Several times I have answered with a smile, "That is not whipped cream. That is white stuff." They had to agree each time. Now they do not ask me.

Today I was drinking a mocha straight up when I heard the manager ask a customer, "Do you want whipped topping?" I thought, "Finally, truth in packaging."

This morning I learned that Reddi-Whip was originally owned by the Capone gang. It was the first aerosol food product. I have similar feelings about Reddi-Whip, coffee creamers that make my stomach flip, and margarine slopped on the table as "butter." More than once I have said, "I ordered real butter." More than one young waitress has has shot back, "That is butter." Butter glistens with little specks of water, but margarine has the complexion of Glidden paint: plastic, solid, deadly. Someday people will realize that the factory oil industry (shortening, margarine, etc.) was a massive and dangerous fraud.

All this is directly related to the fake Lutheran doctrine that has been marketed for the last three decades or so. Every step has taken various Lutheran bodies farther away from their confessional roots. Now they are so lost that the apostate leaders act with impugnity while insulting the intelligence and faith of their members.

I wonder how proud the founders of the ELS would be to realize that the entire Bethany Lutheran Seminary faculty marched in a religious procession with a Roman Catholic ex-bishop. Apparently Erling Teigen arranged this disgusting display. The local newspaper bragged about the ex-bishop's creditentials but the Bethany yearbook hid them. At the time, Rolf Preus (briefly in the ELS) announced, "Erling doesn't have an ecumenical bone in his body, and Greg Jackson knows it."

I always wonder how these ELS pastors mind-read from a distance. This must be a power given to them when they enter the sacred precincts of Rivendell. Rolf was able to discern my brain-waves from a distance and report them infallibly on SpenerQuest. Did Erling defend Rolf so publicly? I must have missed that pronouncement.

The brave ELS leaders went into damage-control mode, a skill they have improved through practice. The ex-bishop was married, as if that made him a Lutheran. He was no longer a bishop. Was he no longer a Roman Catholic? As any student of Roman doctrine knows, the bishop could repent, dump his wife, and become an active priest again. The priesthood is an indelible character - a priest forever.

I had a reliable witness at that tragic service at Bethany. The seminary faculty marched in with the ex-bishop. The service was religious, dedicating the Ylvisaker building. (Wouldn't he be honored! He was just about the only theologian in the ELS and they associate his name with a Roman Catholic speaker.) Oh yes, the Roman Catholic was the featured speaker that day. Damange Control Central said that the religious service stopped being religious when he spoke. Perhaps an altar boy rang the mass bells, creating a miraculous transubstantiation. The appearance of a unionistic religious service remained, but the substance (ding-a-ling) was changed into a secular gathering.

Thus we have the Lutheran Church today. They call it Lutheran orthodoxy but it is really whipped topping - full of air and heaven knows what ingredients.

Teigen Fizzles at Historical Wit

Norm Teigen's Ad Hominem Argumentation

Norm Teigen, ELS, has decided to leave no thought unpublished. I really thought the ELS confined itself to whispering campaigns, but no, Teigen commits the typical ELS line to the blogosphere. Here it is verbatim:

Other bloggers
While my blog was not up, I spent time reading other blogs. There is a Lutheran Blog Directory that consists of many interesting sites. Give it a try.

There is another blog that I read, although I will probably give it up rather soon. The writer spends much time in condemning Lutheran groups of which he is not a member. He portrays himself as an informed insider about matters within the Wisconsin Synod.

Earlier this week the blogger, whom I call 'The Bloviator', said that he would not join the Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

He persists in demeaning the leaders of both the Wisconsin Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Synod.

I think that this man has probably been in and out of a number of synods and is an angry person.

I was recently reading about John Winthrop, the leader of the Massachusetts Colony. Winthrop was a fair and honest man. Two of his problems were Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams. We know these two persons from studying freedom of religion in history.

Williams was a pain for Winthrop. He was constantly making trouble. Finally Williams moved out of Massachusetts into Rhode Island. Williams was so worried about associating with sinful people that he finally concluded that the only person with whom he could commune was his own wife.

The Bloviator reminds me of Williams. He has found so much evil in the various Lutheran synods that he finds himself alone. Alone and on the internet.

It's lonely to be in the right and all alone.

Now we know what ELS members do instead of dealing with doctrine. One time, ELS Pastor Kincaid Smith phoned, with ELS Pastor Paul Schneider on the line. Kincaid led the charge sneering that he agreed with a pastor (at some meeting), to wit, "Greg Jackson has no credibility anymore." I asked, "If I have no credibility, why are two ELS pastors phoning me long distance? If I had no credibility, you wouldn't care what I published." That silenced Kincaid for a moment. He also sneered, "You don't have a friend in the world." I wondered how Kincaid could determine the number of my friends from a distance of 1500 miles and no contact. Perhaps the Holy Spirit told him. I find that many former charismatics never lose their complex about being in the direct line of the Apostles.

When I happened on Teigen's blog today, I immediately thought, "He sounds just like Kincaid." The ELS is so tiny that everything bounces around, like sounds in a tiled bathroom. Every tenor thinks he is Caruso. Thus the ELS and its non-theologians. If a man is tossed from his LCMS seminary after a bad vicarage, he can strut around the ELS.

I have had a number of anonymous comments posted on Ichabod. Comments are moderated, so I can reject them. One individual has become more and more outraged that I did not publish his unsigned comments. My policy has been to publish intelligent, thoughtful comments, whether they agree with me or not, signed or not. Hysterical name-calling (much worse than the example above) is rejected.

I have had many intersting experiences with writing. Kincaid Smith, who often published in Christian News, phoned me to tell me to stop publishing in CN. WELS made constant efforts to keep me from quoting them verbatim.

To meet Teigen's high standards of publishing:
1. I should have stayed in a synod that no longer exists, cheering on their pro-abortion, Leftist, anti-Trinitarian doctrine.
2. I should never question the false doctrine of church leaders, even though that is the substance of the Book of Concord, affirming the positive and rejecting distortions of the Gospel.
3. I should be silent about felons in the ministry, church workers who murder their spouses, married vicars who have affairs with minor girls, and those who cover up for them.
4. I should make as many ad hominem remarks as I wish, hinting at but never naming my target, to avoid violating the Eighth Commandment.

My only defense against Norm's tirade is to quote my favorite author:

"Let him therefore who is concerned about his life not be taken in by the friendliness of heretics to agree with their doctrine. Neither let him be offended at my faults, who am a teacher, but let him consider the doctrine itself."
[Origen, Homily 7, on Ezekiel]
Martin Chemnitz, Examination of the Council of Trent, trans., Fred Kramer, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1971, I, p. 154.

If someone says something unpleasant in the Lutheran Church, whatever sect, the point is refuted by a personal attack against the speaker or writer. If that is not ruthless enough, they attack the individual's family members as well. Is it not true that Rolf Preus' son could not finish at Bethany Lutheran Seminary, a school endowed by his grandfather with a priceless selection of rare Lutheran orthodox books? Robert and Jack Preus made Bethany Seminary famous. It took the pharoah much longer to know not Joseph (Exodus 1:8)

If someone is a blatant false teacher, his apostate buddies jump in and say,
"No, he is a nice guy."
"I graduated with him."
"I drank a lot of beer with him."

All three refutations are non sequiturs. They have nothing to do with the issue.

ELS pastors would have everyone think they have arrived in Rivendell. As tiny as the group is, the ELS still has sects and divisions. One is called "The Teigenites."

Conclusion - The Ten Commandments

This (I say) it is profitable and necessary always to teach to the young people, to admonish them and to remind them of it, that they may be brought up not only with blows and compulsion, like cattle, but in the fear and reverence of God. For where this is considered and laid to heart that these things are not human trifles, but the commandments of the Divine Majesty, who insists upon them with such earnestness, is angry with, and punishes those who despise them, and, on the other hand, abundantly rewards those who keep them, there will be a spontaneous impulse and a desire gladly to do the will of God. Therefore it is not in vain that it is commanded in the Old Testament to write the Ten Commandments on all walls and corners, yes, even on the garments, not for the sake of merely having them written in these places and making a show of them, as did the Jews, but that we might have our eyes constantly fixed upon them, and have them always in our memory, and that we might practise them in all our actions and ways, and every one make them his daily exercise in all cases, in every business and transaction, as though they were written in every place wherever he would look, yea, wherever he walks or stands. Thus there would be occasion enough, both at home in our own house and abroad with our neighbors, to practise the Ten Commandments, that no one need run far for them.

From this it again appears how highly these Ten Commandments are to be exalted and extolled above all estates, commandments, and works which are taught and practised aside from them. For here we can boast and say: Let all the wise and saints step forth and produce, if they can, a [single] work like these commandments, upon which God insists with such earnestness, and which He enjoins with His greatest wrath and punishment, and, be. sides, adds such glorious promises that He will pour out upon us all good things and blessings. Therefore they should be taught above all others, and be esteemed precious and dear, as the highest treasure given by God. (The Ten Commandments, #330f, The Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

When the Supreme Court was deciding upon whether a state supreme court could have a monument to the Ten Commandments in a public area, no one seemed to notice that the US Supreme Court Building has always had Moses and the Ten Commandments carved in marble on its building. There is also a statue of Martin Luther in Washington DC - in a public place.

This summary by Luther is another example of his eloquence about the Scriptures. His warnings have come to pass. Many young adults have no real knowledge of the Bible. Two young women stayed after my class (introduction to the university) to discuss Christianity and how to grow in the faith. We had a long discussion about Christianity and religious training. One woman said her training consisted of "being placed on a bus every Sunday and taken to Sunday School." She had no training and home and felt somewhat lost with three children and a husband. The easy route for parents leaves the adult children in ignorance. Another generation is in danger from the spiritual inertia of the grandparents.

Lutherans need to remember this lesson. Early training after Holy Baptism is necessary. The Book of Concord says, "The head of the household..." That places the father in the teaching office of the home.

Michigan Lutheran Seminary Brochure

A layman mailed me the Michigan Lutheran Seminary brochure. I found it sad, touching, and disturbing as well. Doubtless the Luther Prep situation is almost the same, but I have direct connections to MLS through our son. Besides, MLS will be closed immediately if Wayne Mueller still has the last word on the subject. Luther Prep is slated to go as well, but that will take a few more months.

Whenever MLS students wear their logo around Saginaw, residents ask them, "Are they really closing your school?" A residential school develops quite a spirit among its students, faculty, parents, and alumni. Each question must be painful to hear. Naturally, this funereal atmosphere keeps enrollments depressed and gifts on hold. Why would someone give to a school that is closing?

I was still in the Michigan District, WELS, when the DP and his loyal robots provided the district meeting with four different ways to close Northwestern College. All four were soundly defeated, even though they were presented as if an angel from heaven wrote them. Nevertheless, the same DP, Robert Mueller, showed up at the WELS convention and spoke in favor of closing NWC.

MLS anticipated the budget pressures against the school. This is clearly a case of Wayne Mueller and Company funding their missionaries all over the world, a huge budget for technology, needless magazines, and other frills, while saying, "We cannot afford two preps, or even one." The Church Growth people will turn Luther Prep into Marty's Live Bait Shop as soon as they can get the sign painted.

MLS had a plan to create self-support for their school, but the synod leaders aborted that by announcing the closing. According to the brochure, members of the synodical council were kept ignorant of these plans when the closing was being discussed and approved. I sense personal animosity and vindictiveness behind the plans to close MLS.

I wrote this before: Church Growth people hate schools. This is the fruit of Church Growth tolerated and supported. More than one Lutheran pastor has been mugged while opposing Church Growth. Too bad so many fellow pastors stood by and watched. Now no one is left with any fight.

From a distance, I interpret the sudden drop in national giving to a complete rejection of the Mueller/Gurgel regime. The closings I interpret as retaliation by Mueller, the way school boards threaten communities with the loss of their favorite programs if the millage is voted down. As Wayne wrote on his gaseous blog, "Does it hurt enough yet?"

Coveting - The Firstfruits of Church Growth

Thou shalt not covet...

Therefore we allow these commandments to remain in their ordinary meaning, that it is commanded, first, that we do not desire our neighbor's damage, nor even assist, nor give occasion for it, but gladly wish and leave him what he has, and, besides, advance and preserve for him what may be for his profit and service, as we should wish to be treated. Thus these commandments are especially directed against envy and miserable avarice, God wishing to remove all causes and sources whence arises everything by which we do injury to our neighbor, and therefore He expresses it in plain words: Thou shalt not covet, etc. For He would especially have the heart pure, although we shall never attain to that as long as we live here; so that this commandment will remain, like all the rest, one that will constantly accuse us and show how godly we are in the sight of God! (The Ten Commandments, #309f., The Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

Coveting is certainly the fountainhead or energy behind many violations of the Ten Commandments. How many murders began in coveting? How many destroyed marriages and families? Coveting is the most dangerous sin listed in the Commandments because one can engage in no outward activity or words and still be guilty of coveting. In addition, as Luther noted, coveting is especially tempting for the most pious and outwardly observant.

Since the Church Growth Movement is rooted in man's wisdom, marketing, and false doctrine, we should not be suprised to find Church Growth leaders champions of coveting. What do they desire from life? Not fidelity to the Scriptures. The more they violate their own confessions (whatever denomination), the more they appeal to the Old Adam, the more popular they become. Fidelity to marriage is also optional. Their large congregations wink at their ability to switch spouses or play the field.

More than one layman has told me about Church Growth pastors who announce to non-members, "Please consider me your pastor." Clearly the ministers do this to entice members from another congregation into theirs, or at the very least, these unethical men want to involve themselves in another minister's divine call. Church Growth pastors are not content to have their trotters in the trough. They want every trough to be their own as well.

Coveting, like mercy, is twice-blest. The covetous minister attracts covetous members, who long to be associated with the mall-like church everyone knows and admires. What better place to network for business?

Reformed Doctrine - Heavy Metal Poison

One person wisely commented that Reformed doctrine, from Zwingli and Calvin and the Pietists, is more dangerous than Romanism among Lutherans. Many are infected with Romanism at Ft. Wayne, sometimes in the name of Eastern Orthodoxy. I find papal fever in the plaintive wail of someone justifying the title bishop in his micro-mini sect: "If we want to call ourselves catholic..." I understand the context of the complaint, but I wonder if this is the time to embrace or be embraced by Patristic Fundamentalism:

Gimme that old time episcopacy
Gimme that old time episcopacy
Gimme that old time episcopacy
It's good enough for me.

It was good enough for Augie (Augustine)
It was good enough for Jerry (Jerome)
It was good enough for Connie (St. Constantine, or Constantine the Great)
And it's good enough for me.

Reformed doctrine is like mercury, a toxic heavy metal often used in mining and still used in dentists' offices. Mercury clings to gold and silver. Oh no, the dentist never says, "Would you like mercury in your mouth?" He says he will use the words silver or amalgam*. Silver is too hard to be used alone, so it is blended, amalgamated with mercury to make it maleable. Gold is ideal because it is the most maleable metal and is non-toxic besides. Gold is a bit spendy, as they say in New Ulm. (Spendy in New Ulm means pricey.)

Lutherans who study Reformed doctrine and methods (the two cannot be separated) become Reformed, Pietistic, and even Pentecostal. Mequon, the LCMS seminaries, and Bethany have produced Church Growth Enthusiasts of the worst callibre. This does not happen by accident. As Rogers and Hammerstein might have written, had they studied Lutheran theology:

You've Got to Be Carefully Taught

You've got to be taught to love Church Growth,
You've got to be taught to be an oaf,
It's got to be drummed in your dear little brain.
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to quickly flee
From Means of Grace and efficacy,
And people whose trust is in God's Word.
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
You earn an M.Div. and you graduate,
To hate all the Lutherans your teachers hate
You've got to be carefully taught.
You've got to be carefully taught.

Every single collapse of Lutheran doctrine (Prussian Church Union, Revivalism, American Lutheranism, Lutheran Pietism, Pentecostalism/Charismatic Movement, Church Growth) has happened because of Lutherans abandoning Biblical doctrine in favor of Reformed doctrine and those methods associated with the doctrine. Pietists believed in cell groups, not the worship service and the Means of Grace. Pentecostals believe in their own sweating-shrieking-spirit-baptism, not in the water/Spirit baptism of John 3.

Those converted from Lutheran orthodoxy to another religion have always masked their new doctrine while insisting that the true measure of genuine religion comes from baptism in the new authors. Find out what these people create for their reading lists and their doctrine will be revealed in a flash. Lutheran social activists were baptized in Walter Rauschenbusch, measuring everything by his set of filters. Thus we have the foundation for ELCA activism today. Even the same "parables" are used. Should we bind the wounds of the man robbed on the highway - or - make that highway safe? (The answer is obvious to them, because they cannot comprehend what the parable actually teaches. Besides, they also want to add a toll-both on the highway.)

Both the current cancers are Reformed in doctrine - Church Growth and Pentecostalism. Look at the required readings lists. Read the people they quote with such adoration in their lite books and kooky essays. They almost always reveal, at one time or another, a hatred for Lutheran doctrine, Lutheran hymns, the Creeds, and reliable translations.

*When the Church Growth liberals decided to close Northwestern College and merge it with Dr. Martin Luther College, they did not call it a closing or a merger. They called it Amalgamation. One wit called it the Anschluss. The German word was a better description. The liberals promised that the pastoral track would remain and not be watered down. As soon as the shot-gun marriage was forced, after years of resistance from all parties except the Love Shack bosses, the pastoral track was abandoned. One friend called up and said, "They lied to us." I asked, "Was this the first time? Stop drinking the Kool-Aid and face reality."

Eighth Commandment - The Forgotten Paragraph

All this has been said regarding secret sins. But where the sin is quite public so that the judge and everybody know it, you can without any sin avoid him and let him go, because he has brought himself into disgrace, and you may also publicly testify concerning him. For when a matter is public in the light of day, there can be no slandering or false judging or testifying; as, when we now reprove the Pope with his doctrine, which is publicly set forth in books and proclaimed in all the world. For where the sin is public, the reproof also must be public, that every one may learn to guard against it. (The Ten Commandments, #284The Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

This paragraph covers two matters. One is law-breaking. The other is doctrinal. Clearly, a district president, minister, or vicar who has been convicted by a jury and sent to prison would be identified and shunned under this rubric. However, the organizations cover up for these people so that the blue-haired ladies who give all the money do not have a stroke and cancel their pledges. ("Thank heavens," say the Tetzels, "for irrevocable gift trusts.") Therefore, we find actual criminals given the best possible PR, silence, encouraging others to follow their example.

The second part is passed over quickly in this passage but occupies all of Luther's writing. As someone mentioned years ago, Luther did not discover the Gospel. He did not become the first of his generation to teach the Gospel. His distinction was to teach the Gospel and declare what was contrary to the Gospel. The Antichrist could tolerate the Gospel alone, but he could not tolerate being called a false teacher. Luther did this throughout his writings and sermons. The Book of Concord is known for its antithetical statesments as well (Formula of Concord).

The false teachers today constantly run under the shelter of the Eighth Commandment. They are being slandered when their doctrine is questioned. One notable experience took place when I identified Paul Kelm endorsing a pan-Lutheran Church Growth conference. Frosty Bivens immediately stood up and said, "I want to defend Paul Kelm's good name." I wondered to myself, "What does that have to do with the truth?"

I was asked to prove Kelm's endorsement. I produced it in its original form. Bivens then said, "Maybe this was printed without his permission." Slick Brenner noted that this was not an isolated accident with Kelm. The Church Growth chorus always chimed in for each other and knew the DPs would always be their Amen Corner. Moreover, the Church Growth chorus is pan-Lutheran: their loyalty knows no bounds.

Yelling "Slander" falsely is itself a personal attack, and it is perversely evil. However, to counter by saying, "No you are a slanderer" is a gigantic waste of breath. Readers of Ichabod would be surprised at how nasty some Lutherans are in secret when they pose as mild and moderate in public.

Any attempt to deal with false doctrine will be met with demonic rage. If someone has published an error, such as Valleskey's disastrous We Believe, Therefore We Speak, his halleluia chorus for the Church Growth Movement, then his words are worthy of being dissected. I have published the verbatim quotations of these Fuller students many times. Oh my, how they howl in protest. "They were published out of context!" That encouraged me to quote even larger sections. The cries of injustice grew even louder, reaching the ears of their Father Below.

R. Schulz posted an excellent comment already. He is correct. The false teachers demand that their published errors be addressed privately, confusing the Eighth Commandment with Matthew 19. That does not work either. When I talked to various WELS pastors about what they were doing, a future DP told me, "You are so direct that it is causing great consternation."

WELS Pastor Stadler called me up in a fury because I published something against his published essay, called Heirs Together. I renamed it Errorists Together. He told me wrathfully that I should have "withstood him to his face." Very KingJamesish. It sounded well rehearsed. So I said, "Do you want to know what I think about your essay?" He said, "No."

When pastors went to Paul Kelm about his Church Growth fanaticism, nothing happened.

When ELS pastors had trouble with the sect's Public Ministry of the WELS document, they were defenestrated. I do not have the newest editions of the Book of Concord, but I suspect that the PMW is not there...yet.

Everyone benefits when doctrine is discussed and debated. The apostates knew what they were doing when they outlawed any form of dialogue about their errors. That is a sin against the Holy Spirit. The nasties are saying right now, "There he goes again." I have heard WELS pastors say, "The Holy Spirit put the circuit pastor in that office. Who am I to question his decisions?" Questioning any errorist in WELS is a confrontation with God Almighty. Count on it being something other than a still, small voice.

Eighth Commandment - A Price To Pay

Thou shalt not bear false witness.

Next, it extends very much further, if we are to apply it to spiritual jurisdiction or administration; here it is a common occurrence that every one bears false witness against his neighbor. For wherever there are godly preachers and Christians, they must bear the sentence before the world that they are called heretics, apostates, yea, seditious and desperately wicked miscreants. Besides, the Word of God must suffer in the most shameful and malicious manner, being persecuted, blasphemed, contradicted, perverted, and falsely cited and interpreted. But let this pass; for it is the way of the blind world that she condemns and persecutes the truth and the children of God, and yet esteems it no sin.(The Ten Commandments, #262, The Large Catechism, Book of Concord)

Martin Luther consistently taught a theology of the cross: the Word brings persecution. When people leave ELCA for a conservative Lutheran body, they are shocked by the way in which Lutherans pounce on other Lutherans. Seminarians used to be surprised after they got their first call. What they did as seminarians was lauded previously. So many would say, "I am so glad you are training to be a minister." Suddenly, a Scriptural sermon creates an earthquake.

Much of that has changed since Missouri, WELS, and the ELS began aping ELCA in filtering out candidates for the ministry. In the old days, seminarians were welcomed in all denominations if they had the basic qualifications. Then the wise guys realized that one must be very picky about the ultimate harvest. Pre-seminary interviews in the LCA allowed bad attitudes (pro-life, etc.) to come out in the open. No certification for seminary in the LCA/ELCA meant the road was blocked. The pan-Lutheran leadership gatherings let the backward synods catch on to the political value of blocking candidates.

So many stories could be told about the evil practices of today. Most of them would open old wounds in friends. Much of this comes from the top down - synod officials and seminary drones thinning out the competition. After, if intelligent and highly trained men entered the ministry with an independent spirit, what become of the addled politicians who run the show? Even the dumbest church official knows when his job is threatened. Usually, everything except abject submission threatens him.

The sad harvest of shame is this: faithful laity can hardly find shelter in an orthodox congregation. Their pastor must goose-step to the tune of "Beautiful Sunshine" (the start of McGavran's career at Fuller) or find themselves suddenly declared "out of fellowship."