The Nihil Rule

  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...

Year C - Advent - A Real Christmas on Vimeo This post brought to you by the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren. Take one minute and watch the teaser video for the current WELS-ordained sermon series "A Real Christmas." Pay attention to the signals we are sending. The scene opens with two children of differing race interacting with an Advent calendar. The words on the screen speak to guilt over not creating a 'perfect' Christmas. An almost faceless mother (we presume, based on the wedding band) a few shades darker is reading a Bible to her kids. Now let me be clear - I have no issue with interracial marriage or adoption. Both are free, but very serious choices for the Christian to make after careful and prayerful consideration that God's will be done. What I take issue with is the projection of values that our synod leaders criticize us for lacking, namely WELS Congregational Services is the same entity that distributes the WELS statistical summary...

  I read Taboo, so you don't have to. "[T]here's something I need to tell you about transgender people, something that deserves 110% of your attention, especially if you are a follower of God who loves the entire world. The experience of gender dysphoria is so agonizing that, according to the America Academy of Pediatrics, 42 percent of trans teenagers have attempted to kill themselves. Forty-two percent! And not just thought about it, but actually tried it. That means 42 percent of those precious souls have grabbed a razor blade or a bottle of pills or a gun and attempted to escape the brutal battle in their brains. The daily struggle of gender dysphoria is so heavy that trans teens will try to end their lives three times more often than their non-trans friends. I need you to understand that. Before you minimize this with some crude joke like, 'well, I'm identifying as a unicorn today,' before you post some snarky meme, remember those kids are killing themselv...

  MLC is at it again - or was at it again: I stumbled on a 2022 Open Learning seminar entitled " Ministering in an Age of Diversity " which ticks all the wrong boxes. Six presentations and at least four of them are deemed worthy of the title Woke in the WELS . Let's dig in! The first presentation is entitled "Theory to Practice: Navigating Through Today's Curriculum" by Dr. Kari Muente . We start out with a woke woke wordsalad par excellence : ...it is a continual practice and it is important that we are constantly reflecting on that practice and growing and as our WELS classrooms do become more academically culturally socially emotionally and linguistically diverse it is our responsibility to then go beyond just best practices but engage in evidence-based instruction and curriculum that ensures that all of our students have equal access to the curriculum... Around the 23 minute mark we are introduced to five philosophies of education ranging from perenniali...