The Nihil Rule

" Nothing will induce me to reveal how my friend Dr. Ransom got hold of the script which is translated in the following pages..."   A Cosmic Find in The Screwtape Letters

  The Boniface Option - A Strategy for Christian Counteroffensive in a Post-Christian Nation - Adrew Isker Dear Lutherans: Yes, justification is the doctrine on which the Church stands and falls. Yes, the primary end of Christianity is the forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation of souls. But we are not to be so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good. Recall, the greatest commandment is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind" but the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself". We love our neighbors when we expose the lies and the framework that modern industrial society (which enables 'fake and gay') has created for us to sustain a consumer environment. For the pearl-clutchers hung up on a 'winsome witness' - are you going to allow modern society to frame your witness? God forbit it! No, rather, we must fight the frame of the world and present Christ as He truly is: unwilling to snuff the smoldering wick, but

"Then they demolished the pillar of Baal, and destroyed the temple of Baal, and made it a latrine to this day" (2 Kings 10:27). Good king Hezekiah turned idol shrines into toilets.

To round out the MLC arc of "Woke in the WELS" we will be taking a look at a presentation by Professor Peter Bangaz at MLC. The presentation is entitled "The Lutheran Middle" and riffs off the title of a fairly well-known book by a well-loved Seminary Professor, Daniel M. Deutschlander, "The Narrow Lutheran Middle." As you might imagine the book talks about the tension in many theological principles, and how we as Lutherans navigate them. The presentation from Professor Bangaz attempts to find his own Lutheran middle in the area of social studies. The presentation  can be found here (mlc-wels.edu)  and should it become memory-holed I will update the link with an archived copy. My critique will not be exhaustive but focus on the areas of my expertise.  Starting with "Real-life Scenarios" on Slide 4: "President Gurgel received e-mails accusing MLC of teaching CRT." Well, of course when you proudly publish blurbs in your colleges' mag

  This is not a chance quote. The WELS promoted it shortly after Hein's presentation at the WELS synod convention. And it was brought up again in this months' WELS Connection which was recorded months in advance. If, "So that we may obtain this faith, the ministry of teaching the Gospel and administering the sacraments was instituted" (AC V) it would sure seem to me that fewer Pastors overseeing fewer Divine Services would be less ministry. Unless they define 'ministry' as something other than Word and Sacrament (the question to ask: what are you administering? If it isn't word and sacrament, it isn't ministry as defined in AC V). This would seem to reveal a deficient view of the  Office of the Holy Ministry . Of course, our sainted Dr. Hoenecke correctly identifies the OHM as the pastorate, full stop. The English editors of his dogmatics, of course had to try and deflect  by appeals to later authority. Remember, too, we are in a midst of the  WELS 1

  The above excerpt came from Page 33 of Martin Luther College's  InFocus  magazine, Fall 2020 edition. You can find it online  here  - the same issue where we found Prof. Schwartz writing in support of BLM, White Privilege and Anti-Racism . So what is Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) and why is it a problem? Social-Emotional Learning is "composed of psychological and social work–based interventions on children performed by teachers and other non-professionals (in psychology and social work) in uncontrolled, non-therapeutic spaces in order to teach them “right” and “wrong” answers to socially and emotionally relevant circumstances." ( James Lindsay, New Discourses ) "the intentional implementation of Social-Emotional Learning in schools should be a felony and involve the relevant administrators going to prison. Some states in the United States, such as North Carolina, seemed to preemptively anticipate this potential issue with the implementation of SEL and proactively

Apologies for the abrupt stand-down in May. There was a memorial at the WELS Synod Convention  requesting that the Conference of Presidents write a pastoral brief on Critical Theory and Social Justice, and I was politely asked - in the interest of advancing the memorial - to 'lay low' for a few months. I gladly obliged.  The memorial was debated on the floor late Wednesday afternoon and then tabled until  Thursday morning  at the convention. On Thursday morning the memorial was retracted and replaced by a revision with softened  language . The revised version was approved, requesting the CoP to create a pastoral brief discussing justice and critical theories. The LCMS convention occurred the same week on the opposite shore of Lake Michigan. There were a number of overtures offered regarding critical theory and social justice (overtures 11-04 thorough 11-09 in the workbook ). None of them made it out of committee.  So maybe we're not just 'Woke in the WELS'. Maybe w