much grants. such WLCFS. very WELS. wow.

 

If you missed it, Gen. Mike Flynn on behalf of DOGE posted a list of Lutheran organizations who had received grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services, most of it going to Lutheran Immigration and Social Services (LIRS). However, at the very end of the list we find our own Wisconsin Lutheran Child & Family Services, one of the few organizations on the list to get less than a million in grant money.

We can find the award information online and read the abstract:

"Christian Family Solutions (CFS) is proposing a project that will serve youth ages 4 to 10 living in and around the Milwaukee area with a network of mental health care services. Through this program, we will provide day treatment services, train mental health providers and school staff, provide peer mentoring/support to families, provide consultation to professionals who work with these children, and advocate for the need for better care and early intervention services. The children we will serve are predominantly African American (91%), and nearly all (99%) come from low-income households. Our target youth struggle with disruptive behavior disorders, mood disorders, impulse-control, and a history of trauma, and exhibit behaviors that pose harm to themselves and others. Half of those we serve have some sort of intellectual dysfunction or learning challenge and many have an IEP at school. We chose this population because of the dramatic need in the city of Milwaukee, and also the lack of resources to meet that need. Students living in the neighborhoods we work in deal with violence, substance use, abuse, racism, and social unrest on a daily basis, but they have few options for treatment. There are no day treatment programs in the state of Wisconsin that serve children between the ages of 5 and 8, other than our program. Day treatment is important because it is where true healing occurs, offering more structured care than outpatient, and more therapeutic care than hospitalization, which is meant to stabilize only. We will increase our framework to treat these children with day treatment services, provide parent support, train and inform school staff, train mental health professionals, and advocate for early intervention services for young children. We expect to serve the following numbers of unduplicated children with this project: Year 1: 125 Year 2: 150 Year 3: 180 Year 4: 216 Year 5: 260 Total: 930 Goal 1: Increase the number of students receiving advanced trauma-informed care in the target community. Objectives: a) Facilitate a 20% increase in enrollment in pediatric trauma-informed day treatment counseling services per year; b) Demonstrate a significant decrease in psychological distress in 90% of students; c) Conduct 20 parent connections, support, family therapy, and coaching interactions per week with guardians of students in our program. Goal 2: Recruit and train additional mental health professionals that are equipped to treat children affected by trauma. Objectives: a) Recruit and supervise 30 additional counselors-in-training by the end of the 2027 school year; b) Train or re-certify 100% of program staff in a pediatric trauma care modality every year. Goal 3. Consult and educate additional professionals who interact with young children experiencing trauma. Objectives: a) Host 30 care team meetings per month with teachers, parents, doctors, caseworkers, and care navigators; b) Host 10 school trainings on trauma-informed care and prevention each year; c) Connect with 7 advocacy partners in the community per year of the grant term to create awareness for childhood mental illness and early intervention. Goal 4. Create a pathway to program sustainability. Objectives: a) Identify and implement 2 policies per year that make our program more efficient.; b) Connect with 2 collaborators per year that can potentially reduce costs or increase reimbursement and coverage."

Make of that what you will. Strictly speaking, nothing 'wrong', and certainly not the immigration shenanigans we see in other synods. While Synod President Schroeder is correct that the WELS does not fund it, we do have two pastors on the board of directors. And while it may be strictly correct to say "WELS has not applied for or nor received any grant from the federal government" it is certainly true that many of our congregations have utilized COVID grant money, and there were certainly encouragements from Synod to do so.

The other aspect is a question of how the work is performed. Your humble host participated in a webinar put on by WLCFS in May of 2024 aimed at women and mental health. I noted a number of concerning things including extoling secular forms of mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy with a tincture of Jesus to sanctify it, since "God was the original psychologist.... God gives us evidence based techniques... and medicine as tools". "Secular therapy is valuable... be a wise consumer." There was also mention that their video-based mindfulness program "is not meant to be a Bible study... it's meant to be a psychological service... It was originally designed as pre-evangelism." (I discussed the idea of pre-evangelism very early on in the blog and I encourage you to revisit it. Schroeder circa 2022 advocates for the idea; whereas Schroeder circa 2010 seems to oppose it.). There's also mention of "synod being very aware and concerned" about mental health issues being discussed during the webinar. So, there seems to be a bit of a disconnect, here.

To wrap things up: maybe you are starting to see a pattern here. Our synod especially as of late seems to want to take the means and methods of the world and apply a tincture of Jesus and just fit in. We see that in our synods' LGBTQ Bible Study; in Mike Novotny and other pastors leaving the use of preferred pronouns and attending homosexual weddings to 'Christian Freedom'; in our adoption of a statement on critical theory that is not very critical about the theory.  We have teachers at MLC adopting SEL, BLM, and leftist historical revision. We have teachers at WLHS adopting a female board of directors, antiracism, and promoting an "influencer" who curates books on gay sex and promotes race activism. We are looking a little too friendly with the world, which as our buddy James would tell us, is enmity with God (James 4:4).