The trials of Lutheranism

We joined Upper Arlington Lutheran Church on Palm Sunday 1976--35 years ago, and 26 years after my baptism on Palm Sunday 1950. At that time its synod was the American Lutheran Church, but polity meant little to us. (For us it was confirmation. Those who are already Lutheran join by letter of transfer.) At the journal First Things there is a good summary (and book review) of what has been happening the last 40 years in both Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA, created by a merger of the Lutheran Church in America and American Lutheran Church in 1988).

Article | First Things

And here's a comment by a reader which summarizes what was going on at the congregational level. We've lost members at UALC, but our vote was about 99% to leave. The devastation would have been disastrous if it had been 80-20 or 70-30. Many congregations were never given an opportunity to vote--it's very risky for a pastor to not be "rostered" especially if he's still paying off his college loans, because where will his next job come from? New synods take awhile to grow and start calling pastors.

It took 20 years but the activists in the ELCA finally got their wish. By a slight margin two summers ago in Minneapolis they allowed for the installation of actively homosexual clergy, even though in many states they are not allowed to be married.

Many of us thought that with a change of that importance they should have called for a two-thirds majority, of course that is the requirement that they required of our congregation to leave the ELCA. If that would have been the only problem.

We were very concerned about their latest positions on abortion as well as statements that are clearly anti-Israel. Furthermore, we have no logical basis from which to exclude either members or clergy who wish to practice polygamy or take under-age brides. The structure of the ELCA from the first moment was too weak, there was not enough restraining power in the Bishops to slow down precipitous actions. The large group of lay persons and clergy were going about their business trying to bring Christ to the world. But a detemined minority were determined to gain power whatever the cost.

We were in trouble no matter what the decision. Our congregation voted 80%/20% to leave the ELCA, and many of that 20% have left. We would have had many more losses had the vote been reversed, as many would have left for a more traditional church, if any be left. We have joined the LCMC, for the moment along with hundreds of other former ELCA churches. I feel adrift, like someone has just pulled some really sneaky, nasty trick on me and my fellow church members. All this time we thought we were trying to make our church a joyful and welcoming place where folks could hear about Jesus and find some comfort from the troubles of the world. I could use some comforting right now.

One commenter on this entry mentioned he'd given up on the Lutherans and had become a Roman Catholic. Yes, there is a strong desire for leadership, especially for those who love tradition, liturgy and theology. However, now that he's there, he'll probably find out that all that Martin Luther objected to is still in place--the priesthood of ordained clergy over the priesthood of all believers, the insertion of church tradition between the believer and God as mediator instead of Christ as the mediator, veneration (worship) of saints, indulgences, a works not grace operation, and on and on.

Did You Know--women and pornography addiction

“The more pornography women use, the more likely they are to be victims of non-consensual sex,” said Mary Anne Layden, professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College in Boston. “The earlier the male starts using pornography, the more likely they are to be the perpetrators of non-consensual sex.”

More women lured to pornography addiction - Washington Times

May 1--Remember those who died

From Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy

May Day began as a holiday for socialists and labor union activists, not just communists. But over time, the date was taken over by the Soviet Union and other communist regimes and used as a propaganda tool to prop up their regimes. I suggest that we instead use it as a day to commemorate those regimes’ millions of victims. The authoritative Black Book of Communism estimates the total at 80 to 100 million dead, greater than that caused by all other twentieth century tyrannies combined. We appropriately have a Holocaust Memorial Day. It is equally appropriate to commemorate the victims of the twentieth century’s other great totalitarian tyranny. And May Day is the most fitting day to do so. I suggest that May Day be turned into Victims of Communism Day....

Somin wrote that on May 1, 2007, and here's today's entry.
The labor unions in the U.S. are really ratching up their violence and lies; we have a socialist/crony capitalist in the White House; we have a president who is cozy with Islamist extremists and then when he encourages their subjects to rebel, abandons them. It's playbook communism.

Did You Know--General Motors

"There are some 13,000 porn films made in the United States generating near $100 billion per year. General Motors owns DirectTV, which distributes over 40 million streams of porn into American homes every month. AT&T and GM rake in approximately 80 percent of all porn dollars."

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/charlie-sheen-or-the-empire-of1/page-2/#ixzz1L2nL23Gl

And now through the bail out, we the people own General Motors. The payback then, will be through porn profits?

Working up a tax storm in Illinois -- George F. Will

Illinois, Obama's home, continues to punish its residents.

A study by the Illinois Policy Institute, a market-oriented think tank, concludes that between 1991 and 2009, Illinois lost more than 1.2 million residents — more than one every 10 minutes — to other states. Between 1995 and 2007, the total net income leaving Illinois was $23.5 billion. The five states receiving most refugees from Illinois were Florida, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona and Texas. Two are Illinois’ neighbors, three have warm weather, two — Florida and Texas — have no income tax. In January, a lame-duck session of Illinois’ legislature — including 18 Democrats who were defeated in November — raised the personal income tax 67 percent and the corporate tax almost 50 percent. This and the increase — from 3 percent to 5 percent — in the tax on small businesses make Illinois, as the Wall Street Journal says, “one of the most expensive places in the world to conduct business.”

Working up a tax storm in Illinois - The Washington Post

Did You Know--OAA

27 states had old age programs before the passage of the Social Security Act in 1935. They were known as OAA, Old Age Assistance. However, they were restricted to the poor and were temporary which SS isn't. Working Paper, Cohen

Fake Statue of Liberty stamp is sort of a symbol of our problems

We always end up with one and two cent stamps to add to the old stamps after the price increase, so this time at the post office I bought "forever" stamps commemorating the Civil War, 1861.

I'm glad I didn't buy the fake Lady Liberty stamps. The Post Office used an image of the face of a half size replica of the Statue of Libery of resin and styrofoam in Las Vegas instead of the real Statue of Liberty. Apparently its a stock Getty photo, and no one noticed it until 3 billion were printed.

Somehow, it sort of makes me think of other things going on in this country.

Project Home Again

Here's a man who used his wealth for good before Obama could destroy it. Project Home Again is a nonprofit, housing development organization created by The Leonard and Louise Riggio Foundation shortly after Hurricane Katrina to build high-quality, energy-efficient homes for low and moderate-income NOLAns. The city and federal government bogged down in various plans to make it smaller, greener, more chocolate, more market friendly--and more bound up in red tape. Meanwhile, Riggio, founder of Barnes & Noble, just rolled up his sleeves. Project Home should have 100 houses by the end of summer.

Project Home Again

The Fed, Fannie and Fred

"[Tim Geithner, Ben Bernanke and Barney Frank] are calling to raise the debt ceiling. This will assist them with perpetuating the biggest legal government scam in history [financial institution bailouts of over $12 trillion]. Meanwhile, responsible middle class Americans are barely making it, as their investments are devalued and government expands, finding more ways to collect money from them to support its Ponzi scheme.

This is not capitalism gone amuck, as Barney Frank claims. The government bailing out private banks is not capitalism but quasi-socialism. There is a simple solution to fix this: the banks must be held accountable. There should be a way to sue the banks that originate the irresponsible investments and loans, even if they transfer their risky ventures to other banks. Nor should they be bailed out when they fail. For every bank that fails, another one that is more financially responsible is ready to step up and take its place. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are quasi-governmental lending agencies, so suing them would only hurt the taxpayers. They were responsible for the highest rates of foreclosures. They have grossly failed, and represent government at its worst, so the only solution is to eliminate them." Rachel Alexander

The Biggest Legalized Theft of Middle Class American Wealth - Page 1 - Rachel Alexander - Townhall Conservative

Obama's Millionaire Obsession

President Obama's always been wealthier than we are, even in childhood, and unlike us probably didn't begin in the bottom quintile as a young man, having attended pricy private schools and colleges and then marrying a woman of some means and social connections from Chicago. However, he loves to play the wealth envy card, doesn't he?

With less than 19 months left before the next presidential election, Barack Obama has kicked off his campaign, doing coast-to-coast "town hall" meetings last week. At the top of President Obama's re-election strategy is what appears to be a personal jihad against America's "millionaires and billionaires," many of whom, he seems to think, are—there's no other word for it—un-American. So naturally the place he picked to pitch an assault on the wealthy was the Silicon Valley headquarters of Facebook, a place filled with millionaires and billionaires.

Since he never could acquire wealth on his own efforts, or was never allowed to given his parents' and grandparents' socialist beliefs, he now has to try to strip and demean others who have achieved.

Henninger: Obama's Millionaire Obsession - WSJ.com

Conservative Christians have always given more generously than liberal Christians who prefer to take hand outs from local, state and federal governments, then pass it on to the poor in various "good works." However, even the wealthy give more than their "fair share."

It is an eternal question whether the deductibility of such spending means the charitable activity by these people is bogus and driven only by self-regard. One man's answer: Eliminate the charitable deduction, drop—or flatten—the top tax rate and total giving will rise, not fall. Giving is what Americans do, at all income levels.

Did You Know--driver's license and registration

63 percent of cited/stopped drivers in Arizona have no license, no insurance and no registration for the vehicle. Of that 63 percent, 97 percent are illegal aliens. From Secondhand Soapbox, via Homeland Security and FBI reports.

I don't know how that compares to Ohio, where we have so many acceptable documents for the BMV, including an Offenders Release Card or a credit card, that really, you just have no excuse not to have a driver's license!

Slavery in Brazil

This morning on Catholic radio I was listening to a report about slavery in Brazil. Workers are lured by promises of jobs, but after they arrive in remote agricultural areas thousands of miles from home and family, they are told they have to pay off their transportation debt.

It occurred to me that before our President offered their President Dilma Rousseff (a Marxist in her youth, and daughter of a Bulgarian Communist) money for off shore, deep ocean drilling for oil and gas (which we then will purchase from them) he should have inquired about this problem. When I checked it on the internet, our own State Department which has an anti-trafficking section reported both sex slavery of women, boys and girls as well as labor slavery:

Brazil is a source country for men, women, girls, and boys trafficked within the country and transnationally for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation, as well as a source country for men and boys trafficked internally for forced labor. The Brazilian Federal Police estimate that 250,000 to 400,000 children are exploited in domestic prostitution, in resort and tourist areas, along highways, and in Amazonian mining brothels. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009

In his speech to the Brazilian people on March 20, 2011, he praised their diversity, the beauty of their country and our similar backgrounds, but failed to note that slavery hasn't ended in Brazil since it is documented both by the U.S. State Department and the Roman Catholic Church, two of the most powerful organizations in the world.

When you think about it, the journeys of the United States of America and Brazil began in similar ways. Our lands are rich with God’s creation, home to ancient and indigenous peoples. From overseas, the Americas were discovered by men who sought a New World, and settled by pioneers who pushed westward, across vast frontiers. We became colonies claimed by distant crowns, but soon declared our independence. We then welcomed waves of immigrants to our shores, and eventually after a long struggle, we cleansed the stain of slavery from our land. Transcript

So even if we ignore the idiocy and hypocrisy of sending our industry south to Brazil and the fact that if there is an accident similar to the one he dithered about in May, we still are doing business with a slave holding country with a Marxist president!

Record rainfall this April

Or not.  According to the Dispatch, Columbus will need about an inch more rain in the coming week to break the record, 7.08 inches, which was set when Grover Cleveland was beginning his second term in the White House in 1893. But it's the wettest since we've lived in our condo (bought in 2001), because we've discovered a spring under the street in front of our house which never bothered us before.  Even on dry days, we drive on wet pavement.

Our condo complex is surrounded on 3 sides (if an oval has a side) by a creek.  We've just had hardwood floors installed on our lower level -- so I hope this isn't the first year since 1977 that the creek rises to meet the houses.  Flooding urban creeks often happen because thing clog up the drains further down stream--like furniture, lawn clippings, logs, etc.  I've seen it happen even in areas that aren't near open water.

It was a lot of work, and very expensive.  Rain, rain, go away.

Did You Know--School Uniforms

18% of public schools require uniforms and 55% have an enforced strict dress code.

Sustainability and Google

Sustainability, the word -- About 46,000,000 results in Google until you click to page 11 then it changes to 59,500,000 results, 100 more than 10 minutes ago! Websites include EPA, non-profits, corporations, associations of professionals like architects, engineers and builders, schools, universities, blogs, state and city governments (Cleveland has an office of sustainability), entertainers, auditors (Deloitte), conference organizers and just anyone with his hand out for  government money or a fast buck. Never as a word meant so much to so many, but basically means wealth transfer.  It's the "greenwashing" of America. And that is "green" as in money and class envy, and green as in environmentalism.  If the purpose is political, it is to kill capitalism; if it's corporate, it's to grow capitalism; and if it's personal, it's spiritual.

And did you know, sustainability is displacing diversity as the campus craze du jour?

Diversity authorizes double standards in admissions and hiring, breeds a campus culture of hypocrisy, mismatches students to educational opportunities, fosters ethnic resentments, elevates group identity over individual achievement, and trivializes the curriculum. Of course, those punishments were something that had to be accepted in the spirit of atoning for the original sin of racism.

But for its part, sustainability has the logic of a stampede. We all must run in the same direction for fear of some rumored and largely invisible threat. The real threat is the stampede itself. Sustainability numbers among its advocates some scrupulous scientists and quite a few sober facilities managers who simply want to trim utility bills. But in the main, sustainability is the triumph of hypothesis over evidence. Peter Wood, Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 3, 2010

Bolivia : Law of the Rights of Mother Earth

Or you could call it, "Let's pass more laws against capitalism and all first world countries." Ley de Derechos de La Madre Tierra, Law of the Rights of Mother Earth.

Bolivia is set to pass the world's first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as "blessings" and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry.

The country, which has been pilloried by the US and Britain in the UN climate talks for demanding steep carbon emission cuts, will establish 11 new rights for nature. They include: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered

Bolivia enshrines natural world's rights with equal status for Mother Earth | Environment | The Guardian

Lawyer Quits Firm in Rift Over DOMA

It's what lawyers do--unless the gay and lesbian lobby doesn't like it. Terrorists, serial killers, rapists, scammers, child molesters, wife beaters--they all get their day in court with lawyers defending them who may intensely dislike them. But apparently not the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which is federal law and which Obama (another campaign promise broken) has decided shouldn't be.

Paul Clement, who worked for more than three years as U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush, said he was leaving the Washington, D.C., office of King & Spalding LLP because he disagreed with the firm's decision to no longer represent a group of House lawmakers hoping to fend off a constitutional challenge to the Defense of Marriage Act. . .

Big law firms often handle politically sensitive matters but rarely face public criticism for it. House Democrats, gay and lesbian organizations and other advocacy groups attacked the firm for agreeing to defend the law.

Lawyer Quits Firm in Rift Over Marriage Act - WSJ.com

Greatest play in baseball--April 25, 1976

Rick Monday, Chicago Cubs outfielder, saves the flag from protestors attempting to burn it 35 years ago.

Did You Know--how 13 million people became unhealthy

When the blood pressure threshold that established the diagnosis of hypertension was lowered from 160 to 140 mm Hg systolic and from 100 to 90 mm Hg diastolic, 13 million previously healthy persons were transformed into patients requiring medication. JAMA, April 6, 2011, review of "Overdiagnosed."

The Tool for Agenda 21 (global government)

"But how can they possibly bring about the global political, economic, social and religious transformation they desire? The tool employed must be so potent and pervasive that it reaches into every area of society, from local community groups to sovereign governments and multinational corporations. It must have the power to enforce binding international agreements, exert stringent controls over human activities and yet still be acceptable to the general population. It must become so entrenched in legislation and business practice that its necessity is barely questioned.

Such a tool exists. They have been carefully shaping and nurturing its progress for decades. It is known as the doctrine of Sustainable Development. We are all aware of need to address environmental problems such as water and air pollution, and dwindling natural resources, but Sustainable Development is exerting draconian controls and influence far beyond those required for effective environmental management."

The Green Agenda - Sustainable Development

Lest you think this is a right wing conspiracy theory, it isn't. All of their material with mission statement, goals, guidelines, etc. have been published--some go back as far as the 70s, but it really got rolling in 1992. They are on-line, and they aren't shy about their plans. Local mayors, boards of education and pastors of churches (believing for some reason this is what God intended when he put Adam in charge) are signing on to diminish the sovereignty of the United States, so it isn't just Washington DC. You aren't being consulted at any level.

"The task of mobilizing and technically supporting Local Agenda 21 planning in these communities has been led by the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) and national associations of local government. Now, with the further support of the International Development Research Centre and the United Nations Environment Programme, ICLEI is able to present the first worldwide documentation of Local Agenda 21 planning approaches, methods, and tools in this Local Agenda 21 Planning Guide."