The Nihil Rule

Christian Worship: Hymnal, Hymn 453 Once again, the WELS is gunning for the title of "Laughingstock of Confessional Lutheranism." Hymn 453 in our new hymnal is composed by one Sylvia Dunstan; a woman who calls herself a pastor, deceived by means of ordination by the United Church of Canada. Not only was she a woman claiming to be a Pastor, but she was also a lesbian . The  United Church of Canada 's page on "What We Believe" leads off with "The Bible is the shared standard for our faith, but members are not required to adhere to any particular creed or formulation of doctrine." In that light, verse 2's "He lives again / In all your galilees" takes on a chilling tone of relativism: "Your Galilee is not my Galilee - perhaps you think He lives, but in my Galilee it's his memory that lives on..." (And on a day that sleepy Joe Biden woke up long enough to declare a " trans day of visibility ," no less!) Why is the WELS ...

"In an earlier time, the idea that language is incapable of mapping reality would have been considered nonsense, if not a form of mental illness. In fact, it is a form of mental illness" - Neil Postman, Building a Bridge to the 18th Century In retrospect, I was too kind of Dr. Michael Berg in my original critique of his presentation " Critical Theory: The Good ,The Bad, and the Absurd " in the "run" example. Allow me to quote my original critique: "Berg's thought experiment with the word 'run' is not indicative of a problem with language it is indicative of different people with different experiences. This, to my understanding, is a different problem than Derrida's proposed instability: were Derrida correct, this would be a universal problem extra nos. Berg's example is something different, showing that different brains with different experiences will make different initial associations. In the natural and fair use of language, we ...

The dean and the members of the theological faculty of the University of Jena greet the saintly reader in the Lord. "A double calamity as befallen our age in the form of an overabundance of literary production. In the first place, the frightful maliciousness of the writing wears out most readers, and the pens of many are so contentious that they scarcely understand their own writing.... From this results a twofold detriment to the state of public letters. First, the earth is buried by such a flood of useless new books that nothing as become more worthless, nothing more contemptible, nothing more despicable than the very book which were at one time of the greatest value. In fact, the same thing has most deservedly happened to this generation as befell the mad people of Athens under the tutelage of Thales. For just as he, in the brightness of the noonday sun, lit a torch in the midst of a raving mob of people and explained that he was looking for men, so today each piles up books fo...

"Justice is turned back, And righteousness stands afar off; For truth is fallen in the street, And equity cannot enter."  -Isa 59:14

Universality and ethnicity in Paul’s churches - Dr, Koontz (madpxm.com) Continuing on the thought of last weeks post, "why does this section of scripture matter" ...  Quoting Dr. Koontz once again: Likewise the worship practices of the Corinthians are to be brought into harmony with universal church practice (1 Cor. 14:26-36). Women were speaking “in the churches,” but Paul commands silence for women in the churches so that they are not participating in the public proclamation and overriding the necessity for submission (1 Cor. 14:34). The command to silence harmonizes with the command to wear a head covering in that Paul seeks to inculcate a universal practice of female submission to men “in all the churches.” The distinctive for our purposes is the Pauline reminder that “in all the churches” or “in all the churches of the saints” something is the case.  So we don't just snip out the headcoverings pericope as a standalone doctrine, but we see how the practice of head cov...

WLHS saw LPS posting cringe and said " here, hold my beer! " A perusal of Myles' Instagram  reveals a woman who regularly drops profanity and curates books on gay sex and race activism. I'm not sure how this aligns with the Christian values a WELS High School should be pouring into their students, but it sure does align with WLHS' Black History Month , chapel sermons on antiracism , and WLHS President Ken Fisher's desire to have us examine the presence and role of "whiteness" . As soon as a questioning reply appeared on the WLHS Facebook page, the post was locked down to restrict comments and some pertinent details were removed, including direct links to Ms. Myle's Instagram and references to her "woke" credentials.

Universality and ethnicity in Paul’s churches - Dr, Koontz (madpxm.com) This article is an excerpt from Dr. Koontz' PhD thesis which I am really interested in digesting when it becomes available. I'm sure we've seen many glimpses of it in the  Against the Stream: Paul's Missionary Gospel in Hard Times  lecture series. But I want to focus in today on head coverings and cultural relevance. Quoting the good Doctor: There is a uniformity on which Paul insists in certain distinct cases, especially among the Corinthians whom he finds to be so often arrogantly distinctive in their practices. After explaining the rationale for how and why women should cover their heads (1 Cor. 11:2-15), Paul explains that should anyone object to this practice and find it unacceptable, there are two other factors that should be considered. First, “we have no such practice,” that is the apostolic group for which Paul is speaking does not inculcate a practice of women being bareheaded. Not coincid...