Check out the post by Mollie over at Augsburg 1530 summarizing last week's Board for Communication Services meeting. Basically, the Board decided to do nothing. Yep, absolutely nothing! So much for that opportunity to right a grave injustice! So much for the Board itself exercising its given authority!It would appear that the Board swallowed Mr. Strand's latest version of the reasons for canceling Issues, Etc. and firing Mr. Jeff Schwarz and Rev. Todd Wilken (a *called* pastor, by the way. See Pr. Preus' reflections on that.) And now Mr. Tom Kuchta, Treasurer, is implicated? With Mollie, I find that quite hard to believe. I also know that Mr. Kuchta has been an ardent supporter of Issues, Etc.
The sadness continues, and the real questions - especially "Why?" - still linger in the air, because the Board apparently passed up a great opportunity to come clean for folks in the LCMS and beyond. Lord, have mercy!
7 comments:
Not too surprising, though. The institution, in whatever form, protects itself. Plus, if the BCS had done anything, I'm sure the CCM would've overturned it. Churches can be reformed; institutions cannot. Their sole motivation is to grow & acquire more power & more influence & more wealth. So, don't bother getting any overtures prepared to the next convention on this matter, for Kieschnick will simply disallow them or sweep them into an omnibus resolution.
Resistance is futile. You will be revitalized & set Ablaze.
As Brent Kuhlmann always says, Embrace the Death & pray TLH 260.
revgeorge,
You are exactly right! In fact, shortly after I posted on this, I had a very similar thought: "Institutions don't do what's right; they just want to protect themselves!"
Ah, the wise words of my seminary classmate and long-time friend, Brent Kuhlman! A very wise man indeed!
I like your reference to the LCMess Borg collective. ;-) Try this one: "You will be missionalized. Your theological and confessional distinctiveness will be added to our own. You will be assimilated."
Kieschnick will simply disallow them or sweep them into an omnibus resolution. Resistance is futile. You will be revitalized & set Ablaze.
Not at all. I disagree. Resistance is by no means futile. Kieschnick (52%) is very beatable.
Charles,
The resistance is futile thing was kind of a joke. Both a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy & Star Trek nod. :)
And while Kieschnick is beatable, I still don't hold out any messianic hope in any confessional candidate. The synod will still be divided if John Wohlrabe or Matt Harrison gets elected as prez. And while I have more hope that they will take a pastoral approach to the divisions in synod, I still don't see how the divisions will be dealt with except through sheer political power.
The fact remains that if we aren't already mostly united in doctrine & practice, we won't be any better off if our guy's in charge. I mean, is it really all that much better if our guy's in charge wielding political power against the other side than if the other side is wielding political power against us?
That being said, I think we still resist & do all that we can do. I just place no hope in the institution itself. The Lord will still have His church no matter what happens to the LC-MS. And I'm pretty sure we agree on that.
Someone once said that trying to steer [a specific congregation] was like trying to steer the Titanic. Same goes for Synod.
The Lord of the Church will be the Lord of the Church, no matter what we do or not do. We look to Him to lead us. We also work for unity in doctrine and practice. Where does this begin? On the convention floor? No. In confirmation classes. In the classrooms of our schools. In our day-to-day contact with the people. This is where we need to begin, so that in a few years, the unity will start being seen on the convention floor. Assimilation works both ways--we don't have to be Ablaze! to be assimilated.
Is it bad that when I saw this I started thinking "Man, the LCMS needs to get rid of the BCS and go to a playoff system"?
I think I got my blogs mixed in my head.
That being said - yes, there will be division in the LCMS for a while - but as long as decent folks are protected and allowed to teach, we can live with that and teach. I'm not worried about what the Synod will do for me, I just want to make sure that it doesn't do anything *to* me.
I believe George is quite correct. Even if a "good guy," such as Harrison or Wohlrabe, should be elected, resistance really IS futile. Remember, folks, it's still the same corrupt system and institution--and institutions seek only one thing: self-preservation. One man cannot make that much of a difference. Pretend - and this would be my dream - that the next conservo-confessio-candidate can enter office with the hope and desire and objective of being merely a one-term president. He would have to cut and slash so much of the bureaucracy that fancies itself as "ministry." However, once that conservo-confessio-candidate gets into office, the siren voices of "another term" to do "more good" (even if it would be more slashing and burning of bureacratic faux-ministries) would simply be far too overpowering. No rope of good intentions can lash our conservo-confessio-candidate to the mast tightly enough to resist that siren song, I'm afraid, especially in our system that is given so much more to corporation mindsets and political "strategery" than to simple being "Church."
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