Of course, their own motives are loving, and if they spent as much time praying about this as they say, all of us
confessional guys would have boils and blind eyes by now. If they can't use "love" at least 10 time on a page, the
proof reader probably kicks the article back for correction. And their getting involved in the electioneering and
politicking of Synodical Conventions is just "what we should all be doing as God's people." The mean-spirited
and unloving confessionals and conservatives are engaged in "hyper-politicalization," while we pure-at-heart
liberals are just doing the loving thing by voting against "a caring closed communion practice" such as the early church and genuine Lutherans have practiced as a concern for souls.
Loving liberals are trying to "influence our life together well into the 21st century" by promoting their candidates, but the wicked confessionals are playing dirty politics by trying to tell people what the candidates stand for and how their doctrinal positions will determine how they will perform in office. No one in Forward will admit to trying to avenge a political loss of the presidency of the Synod as an overriding motivation. They are just too pure in heart.
The ugly confessionals are "regressive" and "repressive." If this is so, how did we get into the shape we are in. Conservatives are either overly kind, hopeful or stupid. Stupidity is seen on all sides on occasion, but the confessional guys are just as bright as the liberals. Perhaps there is a bit too much hope in them that the Word will work on the hearts of those who differ from the Scriptures and the Confessions. They keep talking and dialoging and debating in a gentlemanly fashion with the Forward types, hoping that their hearts have not hardened to the Truth.
By an obvious miracle the conservatives get a man like Dr. Barry into office, and he has had to take patiently much hateful abuse and scorn from his Forward-leaning coworkers at the Purple Palace; and he just kept on doing his thing for the church, though it must have hurt a great deal. But being overly kind is conservatives' sickness. Confessional people don't want the Forward gang to call them "reactionary" or "extreme." Maybe it is time to quit worrying about what Forward and the 102 Michigan Methodist Wannabes think. Confessionals need someone in office who will be "ruthless," and deserve the appellation. They are going to call them bad names anyway. Why not earn them?
The Forward herd longs for the good old days of the '60s and early '70s when all was love and peace as they led Missouri out of the 16th century into the 20th. Those who were in the Seminary at St. Louis in those heady days of ecumenical optimism heard the esteem-building plaudits heaped on them by their soon to be Seminary in Exile profs. But they were without integrity and, as they say in Texas, gutless. They would not tell the church what they were teaching. Their ambiguous language deceived the church for a long time.
Now the Forward bulls are bellowing that THEY are the "evangelical and confessional" ones. Remember, gentle reader, what finally issues from bulls after the bellowing is over. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Where are those who claimed to the Evangelical Lutherans in Mission, ELIM, today? They are over in the organization that calls itself Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The only words that are truly descriptive are that they are "in America." They have given the "Evangel" (Justification by grace for Christ's sake through faith) away to the Roman Catholics. They have given "Lutheran" ("This is My body.") to the Reformed. As a multi-billion dollar corporation fast going in the hole they are dubiously entitled to the term "church." They are "in America," and that is the only truth in their name.
Arnold Schwartzeneger's promise, "I'll be back" was ELIM's promise. It has come true with the Forward crew. The Terminator's mission was to change the future. So with those who did not walkout of the Missouri Synod back in the '70s. They are now an aging liberal light, leading with a flickering flame a young but expanding cadre of activist pastors caught up in the Church Growth Movement. By pretending to be "confessional and evangelical" they have beguiled the greedy and covetous young and impatiert pastors and lay people who want to see results in the church as they do on their jobs. "Use what works to fill the pews" the Church Growth Initiative gurus fire. "Give them what they want" and "meet their felt needs." "Use drama, entertainment, rock and roll music to get them in. Don't use a confession of sins or an old creed. Don't have communion often or say they can't come when you do. Do something new and exciting." Never mind, sheep ready for the shearing, that Christ said to grow the church with the Word and Sacraments. Forward's pre-post-modernism and the Loving Michigan/Texas/California Growthers' post-modernism mating can do it better.
Forward wants to change the future alright. They quote Luther about the housemaid serving God better than a priest, but in blatant contradiction intimate that women have been limited in their "allowable" roles in the church. What roles have the women in the LCMS been not allowed to fill? Pastor is about the only one I can think of. There are women Elders in Hawaii, at least, contrary to the Scriptural position and that of the Synod. Will Forward admit to the church before the convention that it is FOR WOMEN PASTORS? I doubt it. They are as courageous as their former seminary professors. Dr. John J. Johnson of "Celebrate" infamy would not say that women pastors were against the Scriptures and Confessions in De Soto, TX. He only said we need to study if these texts forbade them. A simple, "I think the Bible teaches that women should be pastors" would have been forthright and honest. If the Forward conventicle can't come up with a clear answer, maybe they are stupider than we confessionals. But then, again, this is politics. Don't expect straight answers, because these fellows are not stupid. They are like that fox, Herod.
Oh, did you hear their claim that the confessionals have "non-Missouri views on the authority of the pastoral office?" Is this the only "non-Missouri" doctrine these deep thinkers don't like? As a pastor who knows lots of other pastors, - confessional pastors, clueless pastors and liberal pastors - I respect those who use the Keys to lock and unlock sins. I choke on sight of those who hold the Keys to the Executive Office (with wet bar) that looks more like IBM than St. Paul. Forgiving and retaining sin is the authority, not the ability to command a staff of assistants, secretaries, dramatists, musicians and money changers that so many Growthers think determines success. I've heard popular pastors of growing churches make speeches with 23 illustrations, but no Law and no Gospel. But I knew how to overcome the blues, relieve the stress of Christmas and how to find a good plumber. Real practical. But my soul was empty. Where did these guys' authority get exercised? Not in the pulpit, that's for sure. And what better place to see the proper authority of the Pastoral Office? If the Forward clergy ever had to say "no"or "sin" to a parishioner, it would probably cause post traumatic syndrome. But they are "loving."
The Romanizing tendencies of the confessional men are well documented, I suppose. But where did I learn about chasubles? From the liturgical renewal liberals of the '60s and '70s. Where did I first smell the pungent aroma of incense in worship? At Herb Lindermann's church in Ft. Wayne. He was not a contributor to Lutheran News! Clerical collars. Genuflecting? The sign of the cross, that horrid anti-catechism practice? Ah ha! They did it before any of these new confessional guys did. Now they accuse them of Romanizing tendencies. Oh, brother!
And when did I first hear about private confession and absolution? At the sem from one of my very liberal, and later outed, homosexual classmates who ended up in ELIM. Now, tell me, Mr. Forward Follower, where are the hundreds of pastors who have set up confessional booths in their churches? Where are the pastors who have forced members to go to confession before communion? And where is it in the Bible and the Confessions that says that Christians ought to confess and receive absolution from their pastor as from Christ? Well, what do you know? There it is in Matthew 9 and Luke 7. There it is in the Book of Concord. Why, Lutherans at that time even used Confession and Absolution more than the Roman Catholics? It's right there. I'll be switched. Forward claims to be "confessional," and yet they are knocking the teachings of the Confessions.
Oh, in closing, did you notice the e-mail address of the Forward gaggle? BishopList@XXX. (I'm not going to give it to you since I don't believe in promoting porn on the Internet) Now my nasty and suspicious confessional mind makes me think that these honest and upright liberals are waving the Roman Catholic hate flag in front of the layfolk for ulterior political reasons. "Vote for Forward's candidates, we're antiCatholic. The confessionals are pro Rome." But these are the same people who want to commune Roman Catholics at Lutheran altars. These are the same folks whose blood brothers in the ELCA are almost in bed... make that in communion... with the Roman Catholics. But my nasty and suspicious mind is wrong again: Bishop and List are the names of people who work with Forward. Hasn't God got a great sense of humor to arrange things like this?
If you Forward guys were to ever get control of the LCMS again, I'll bet you my Elert's "Eucharist and Church Fellowship" against your never used "Triglotta" that LCMS moves so fast toward Rome that it will cause tectonic movement of a postdeluvian scale. You will all be seeking ordination by an Episcopalian or Roman Bishop, so you can be in the Apostolic line touchy feely-wise, even though you are spiritually and doctrinally ashamed of the Apostle's doctrine as expressed in the three common creeds and the Book of Concord.
Of course, there will be the inevitable "Me tooism" of running after the Reformed of Willow Creek stripe. Can't let the R/RCA (formally the ELCA) and Lutheran One World Federation get too far ahead. How will you look in your Geneva gowns and miters? Not so good? Guess you will have to opt for an $800 suit and Robert Schuller hairpiece. Your organization will grow faster then. And that is what the Michigan Methodist Wannabes really want. Whatever works.