The Nihil Rule

https://cplaction.com/wp-content/uploads/unmasking-teacher-standards.pdf Following up on BLC's letter and the Minnesota District's report , Allen Quist (former 3-term Minnesota state legislator and retired professor from Bethany Lutheran College) has written a six-page memo reacting to the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) standards. Read the whole thing. I'll leave you with the closing paragraph The newly adopted Standards for Effective Practice are a smokescreen for indoctrination into the beliefs of cultural Marxism... Colleges that wish to maintain their academic integrity must refuse to teach the PELSB standards and establish their own certification based on academic integrity. They should inform the public they are genuine institutions of higher learning devoted to academic excellence and have not been bullied into becoming pawns of the political left. Private schools at all levels need to demonstrate that they remain cities set...

Rev. Dr. Michael Berg is a professor a Wisconsin Lutheran College and a co-host of the podcast Let the Bird Fly . Last year at about this time he gave a presentation on Critical Theory at the 2023 WELS National Conference on Lutheran Leadership, which you can view here .  I'm engaging this content (a year late) because it's clear this presentation was not a flash in the pan.  He's been taking it on a road tour having presented at  Hillsdale  and at various WELS district conferences. Let's go! Introduction (first 13 minutes) Berg's introduction from Heraclitus to John to Descartes and Kant is fair, as far as I understand those individuals. I feel that Berg begins by soft-pedaling Derrida. Ultimately, he reaches the correct conclusion that Derrida is attacking the Christian worldview, but it takes him awhile to get there. Just to be clear, this is Derrida's view of Scripture: 'For me, there is no such thing as "religion." Within what one calls relig...

  Legislation_Report_0923.pdf (welsmn.org) The Minnesota District of the WELS, Legislation Committee put out a report in September covering various legislation issues affecting the district. Now, note the Minnesota district spans Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri.  All the bad news revolves around Minnesota - approving an abortion rights bill, stripping parents of their legal rights if they refuse 'gender-affirming care' for their children, and protecting pedophiles (sorry, 'minor-attracted people') from being discriminated against if they seek employment in a preschool, day-care center or other facilities serving children. Minnesota sucks. But the fourth bullet is relevant to last week's post : new teacher licensing standards have been approved, including: The new standards for teacher licensure that were proposed by the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB) were mostly approved by two administrative law judges in December of 2022 and a...

 A few things coming out of the WLHS treasure trove: - Black History Month shenanigans confirmed: While lacking in detail and downplaying the significance, the minutes from March 14, 2023 confirm the event occurred: A Board member shared a concern related to a school assembly that occurred on Tuesday, March 13th. Overall, the assembly was well done and recognized the extensive work done by the students. There was a small portion of the presentation where a board member shared a concern. The administration apologized for not reviewing the controversial portion of the presentation. The administration will work to ensure the historical context is provided and that this will not happen again We discussed this issue back in February. I am genuinely curious on the historical context of "superman dat hoe" !  - Evidence that t he board at WLHS does extend divine calls . This exercise of headship would be granted to women if the bylaws are modified: And some speculation: after...

I'm late to the party on this one, due to personal and professional commitments. On November 27, Bethany Lutheran College sent out a  Communication Update Letter 2023 . Amidst sundry bits of information there are two key pieces of information communicated. First, the cutting of several liberal arts and language programs: "Sadly, beginning in the Fall 2024 semester, due to low enrollment and cost considerations, Bethany will discontinue the following programs of study: American Studies major and minor, History major and minor, Social Studies major and minor, Theatre major and minor, and the Philosophy and Global and Cross-Cultural Studies minors." "In addition, due to low course enrollments, the Regents resolved to discontinue the teaching of Latin and Norwegian," This is really unfortunate for a liberal arts school. BLC is training future pastors and teachers. I understand enrollments are low, but this decision seemed to be focused on outcomes as opposed to what...

My Christian life: Breaking barriers in Milwaukee and beyond – FORWARD IN CHRIST Dr. Joan Prince is on the front cover of this month's Forward in Christ magazine with a feature article written by Dr. Ken Fisher. The same duo that encouraged us to examine the presence and role of whiteness  in a presentation that appears to have violated our doctrinal statement on man and woman roles , Dr. Prince has a number of woke credentials having brought mandatory anti-bias and anti-racist to UW-Milwaukee in her tenure as Vice Chancellor and continues her relationship with the UW system with her appointment to the Board of Regents for the University of Wisconsin, and her association with  Gloria Ladson-Billings , the mother of critical pedagogy and culturally relevant teaching ("the other CRT"). Dr. Ken Fisher  presided at a worship service  that told students that it is not enough to not be racist, we must be active anti-racists, and made questionable pairings of Scripture wit...

The Family Bible Commentary by Rev. Dr. Adam Koontz - Ad Crucem The first volume of Dr. Koontz' Family Bible Commentary dropped a few weeks back and I'd like to provide my review of the book. The book is print on demand but the production quality is exceptional. Sam Novak did an excellent job with the layout and making it feel like a classic text given the constraints of the print on demand media. The commentary is based on the NKJV translation of the Bible. The book is published under a very liberal license (Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivates 4.0 Interational) which allows for free sharing and utilization of the text in a non-commercial manner. While this doesn't maximize potential profitability this does allow pastors to freely incorporate material into their Bible studies and people to share the insights from Koontz without fears of a copyright claim. An excellent example of doing things for the good of the Gospel instead of personl gain. This volume covers the Gosp...

I stumbled across a treasure trove of documents apparently related to Wisconsin Lutheran High School (WLHS) accreditation and found hard confirmation of rumblings that WLHS was attempting to liberalize their bylaws to allow for women as delegates and board members. For my non-WELS viewers: in the WELS we have historically held to a Biblical, but in the world's eyes,  strict view on headship . This precludes women from voting (which we interpret as exercising authority over men) and typically from serving in leadership roles within the Church like council and elders. And typically, this precludes a woman being a school principal. I have to use the caveat 'typical' because there are congregations that have things good 'on paper' but the practice deviates into what, strictly, would violate our view of headship. And the governance-by-consensus model is in my opinion a thinly veiled attempt to circumvent proper headship. The story is told in a  compilation of meeting mi...

"We read the Bible like TikTok when we should be binging like Netflix" Rev Dr. Adam Koontz - "Secularism and the Martyrs" -  On the Line