The Nihil Rule

  Youth Rally Attendee Booklet 2024 (welsyouthrally.net) Your humble host is, as usual, fashionably late. The WELS International Youth Rally took place six months ago in Fort Collins, Colorado. The attendee booklet linked above has a number of advertisements in it, including the page shown above, advertising the chance to win one of three $100 Amazon gift cards in exchange for filling out a survey about sex.  The youth rally is aimed at 8th grade through exiting Senior students: the bulk of the attendees are minors. The data were collected by Conquerors through Christ, a WELS organization, funded in part by your congregations' congregational mission offering (CMO). Their  organization chart  shows them as a subsidiary of  WELS Congregational Services .  (Filed under 'Woke' because surveying and data collection is a key component of Social and Emotional Learning , which has taken the WELS by a storm. No doubt the data collected will inform a future Bible stu...

I read Taboo, so you don't have to. "With all sincerity, I can say that few things make me happier than seeing diversity in my church." I mean, the Bible tells us that the angels rejoice over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10). I would hope that is one of the few things that makes Mike happier than his congregational demographics. And Paul tells us his joy is fulfilled by having members of the church be like-minded, being of one accord (Philippians 2:2). Paul preached to diverse audiences in his missionary trips, but he never expresses a concern about the diversity of a particular community. Why does Mike derive happiness from skin color? I thought we were supposed to not judge by the color of a persons' skin but by the content of their character.

  I read Taboo, so you don't have to. "If you love diversity, you will adore eternity. If unrepentant racists were allowed into heaven, they would hate the VIP section" This is the *only time* I find Novotny using the word "unrepentant" and insinuating someone going to hell for their sin. He wouldn't dare use it in proximity to the lifestyle sins of the LGBTQ+, unwedded pregnancy or abortion. He also seems to pedestalize diversity, since apparently the VIP's are diverse... but more on that in next weeks' installment.

  For just over three years now (minus a summer off in 2023) I've been blogging twice a week, a quick hitter on Wednesdays and a more substantial post on Sunday. This has worked well; in fact I have at least a years' backlog of skeleton posts in draft that could be fleshed out.  My original intention with blogging was to dabble in writing and engage the creative side of my brain that often goes dormant, and I consider that a success. I'm going to tweak things in 2025. Many of my posts are "observe and report" with the occasional original content and going forward I'd like to stretch my brain by doing more long form original content, which takes time. What I'm thinking is a quick hitter each Wednesday and two Sunday posts a month, one along the lines of what you've come to expect and another hopefully longer form, creative post. Of course, if something "Woke in the WELS" caliber comes to my attention, it'll take pride of place and weekly p...

  Why the ESV Should Not Be Used At Christmas — Gottesdienst From a friend ... A nice article for Christmas day discussing how small changes in language can have large theological repercussions. Note that NIV11 suffers the same flaw as the ESV. Merry Christmas!

Professor Nichole LaGrow is Director of Non-Traditional Education and Professor of Education at Martin Luther College. Prior to joining MLC she was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay. She recently gave a presentation at the 2024 Peralta Online Equity Conference, entitled When Equity is Fundamental: Building a Program with Equity at its Center . This presentation was heralded by InFocus magazine  on page 33, much like Prof. Schwartz' presentation on antiracism and BLM . Let's dig in, shall we? We get off on the wrong foot in the introduction, when Professor LaGrow shares her preferred pronouns and her intersectionalities ( 2m56s ).  The use of preferred pronouns is an affront to our God. When Jesus was asked about divorce in Mark chapter 10, He did not appeal to the law of Moses, or the institution of marriage, but rather to the creation account in Genesis chapter 1: "male and female, He created them". The fundamental principle behind marriage ...

I read Taboo, so you don't have to. "Before you assume, 'I'm not racist,' let's not make racism a black-and-white, yes-or-no issue any more than jealousy, pride, or impatience. Racism, like any other sin, is on a spectrum that stretches from pure godlessness to absolute holiness, from Hitler/slave traders on one end to Jesus on the other. The question, therefore, isn't 'Am I racist like Hitler?' Instead, it's 'How racist am I these days? How often do I prejudge people from other ethnic backgrounds? Where and when do I show favoritism based on the color of one's skin or the sound of one's accent?' " It's a neat trick to try and say that sin isn't "black and white." If it's black, we have to repent. If it is white, we are in the clear. If it's grey - then we find ourselves in a perpetual 'struggle session' questioning our status. We've heard other WELS pastors and presenters echo sentiment...

"Grok, generate an image based on this blog post" It's four years old, but I would endorse reading the whole thing.  Recognizing Critical Theory | Stand Firm (standfirminfaith.com) . I'll focus on two pieces. The first is the narrative: "In broad terms, the narrative tends to work along the following lines. The Gospel is less about God saving sinners from eternal condemnation through the righteous life, substitutionary death, and glorious resurrection of his Son than it is about God’s solidarity with the oppressed and his demand for justice. God identifies with the poor, the victim, the minority, the immigrant. God picked a particular group, the Jews, liberating them from slavery. He sent his prophets to speak truth to power, offending exploiters and giving hope to the exploited. He came in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, as an impoverished peasant, a refugee threatened by a murderous king, an immigrant born to an unwed mother. He sought social justice. He refus...

I read Taboo, so you don't have to. "You shouldn't publicly share your views on gay marriage. You shouldn't try to convince gay non-Christians to stop living like they are. There is a time, after lots and lots of love and lots and lots of gospel, when you can talk to your LGBTQ+ friends who profess Christianity about their biblical sexuality" So we see why Mike Novotny gave us poor advice last week : he inverts the proper ordering of law and gospel. Speratus, help us out! The law reveals the guilt of sin and makes us conscience-stricken; but then the gospel enters in the sinful soul to quicken. Come to the cross, trust Christ, and live; the law no peace can ever give, no comfort and no blessing. You cannot profess Christianity while living in active unrepentant sin. We have to be shown our sin before we recognize our need for a Savior. The WELS statement on human sexuality , Third Article, point 6, identifies this correctly:  We cannot accept that a Christian with...