KDs are designed/developed/inspired/mused/auto-suggested/indigested to make folks think; an especially uncommon experience among Democrats, Republicans, and jingoistic mainline denominationalists who continue to discourage dissent with their ever-threatening thought police.
Even pastors who never enrolled along
with conscious not-just-navel-gazing pewsitters are wondering collectively,
“What the anything but heaven is going on in that seminary between those
stadiums for the Yankees and Phillies?”
Dang, that was a mouthful; and that’s
because there’s a really bad taste coming from the mother of all American
seminaries.
If you haven’t read about the
Barnes-Keller fiasco in the NYC metro area reverberating throughout their
kingdoms, google it before continuing.
Whoa.
Now let’s all sing together, “Blest be
the tie that unwinds…And they’ll know we aren’t Christians by our…”
O.K., this is just another
hypocritical reason why Gandhi’s heirs keep lamenting, “I would have become a
Christian if it weren’t for, you know, uh, sigh, uh, Christians.”
You can read all about it, again, in
cyberspace or via www.churchandworld.com,
www.layman.org,
and lots of other religious rags that love to take deserving shots at PTS; but you won’t hear anything about it
by clicking on www.pcusa.org because that denomination continues
in the delusion that PTS is
still one of its seminaries and under its unrecognizably Christian and
irretrievably apostate under current management thumb.
Psst.
For as long as I can remember and I am
only a year younger than my administrative assistant, PTS has had a legal strategy locked away
and ready to incarnate if/when the franchise makes any move on it by moving
from voluntarily pretended submission to mandatory compliance with the whackos
in Louisville and their supporting cast by some kinda denominational decision.
Before going any further, I am
indebted to PTS
or, at least, the one in my kodachromed memories; for even I of Pauline
sarcasm/cynicism long occasionally for the way things never were or
maybe were but are no more.
I harbor treasured mentoring memories
of Sweazey, McCord, Macleod, Dowey, Metzger and Hoagie Haven, Story, Beeners,
the Dynamic Duo of Lapsley and Hanson, Felmeth, Mig, Shaull, Hilt, and so many
others while puffing Punches and Romeos on the deck; and when I was an
important high steepler in KC and WSNC, I raised millions, literally, by
tapping one of the most generous guys in the Midwest for their money-making
board and…
But after McCord and Gillespie, it’s
been so embarrassing to even admit connections that I’ve had to exercise
“creative neglect” and historical amnesia toward/about it so my Christian friends
don’t think worse of me than they already do with some kinda guilt by…
Really, unless you think an elephant
is a mouse with glandular problems or have overdosed on St. John’s Wort, you
know PTS has
become a poster child for Europeanized syncretistic-to-the-max theological
education; recalling a comic warning shared by McCord many times: “Did you hear
about the two pastors talking at a cocktail party? One says, ‘I don’t know who I am or what I
believe or where I’m going?’ The other
says, ‘Don’t worry! The Presbyterian
Church is going through the same thing!’”
Selah.
But you know all of that; and if you
don’t, you’re still feeding its coffer like a mindless drone though it hasn’t
needed anyone’s $ since McCord and Templeton.
Actually, the preceding is not why I’m
writing.
I’m writing to provide some
perspective on how “the deep state” at PTS understands this little tiff.
It’ll pass.
That’s their perspective.
Just like forgetting who won last
year’s Final Four or Stanley Cup, it’ll pass.
I’ll never forget when I sat with my
favorite P of PTS and
we talked about some seminarians that were protesting, uh, whatever
rather vigorously. He took a long calm
draw on his Churchill and confided, “It happens every spring. Student unrest. Then summer comes. Some graduate and leave. Some finish up on Greek and Hebrew. Some study somewhere else. Some take field education assignments and
internships. Then fall comes, a new
class comes to replace the class that just left for a 33% turnover, and everybody
gets back to work again. Then along
comes spring and we repeat history. It’s
cyclical, Robert.”
That, mes amis et alumni - Oops! Sorry!
Weren’t that many back then; though I hear, mirroring the franchise,
that it’s now split right down the middle by gender as well as ideology
masquerading as theology - is why PTS and
its real players ain’t losin’ any sleep over Barnes and Keller.
Live your life in
such a manner that your pastor won't have to lie at your funeral or lead the
handful attending in, "Ding! Dong! The...is dead!"
Did you hear
about the obituary in Texas back in February written by a daughter about her
daddy?
The obit was so
popular that it crashed the funeral home's website.
It goes,
"_____ passed away on January 30, 2017 which was 29 years longer than
expected and much longer
than he deserved."
Later, the
daughter explained, "I told the truth...For someone that knew him and
family members that knew him, and to see something on there was a complete lie,
would've been an insult to everyone that he did bad things to and there were a
lot of them."
Sic.
I wonder if
that'll start a trend at our local favorite funeral home.
Probably not.
People prefer
fake news.
Just ask Colonel
Jessup and...
Anyway, in a
people-are-strange-Jim-Morrison kinda way, that obit made me think about an
American funeral.
Acknowledging
America has always been divided and only God's grace has allowed us to hang
around longer than expected and
much longer than we've deserved, we seem more divided than ever before.
Half the country
idolizes Trump and half the country still thinks Obama is God's other son.
Many
prognosticators contend America has passed the tipping point.
Hello, Rome!
For example, Dan Pope,
one of my favorite pastors in town at Open Bible Church where I recommend
folks emigrate who hate me for Christ's sake, gave Barna Trends 2017 to me at
Starbucks on February 15 which isn't important except to say we're trying to
leavenate that joint as much as possible because Jesus said to take the gospel
into the world and Starbucks is about as worldly as you can get these days.
The Barna Group
provides current and accurate information, in bite-sized pieces, to facilitate
effective decision-making. Barna
Trends is an annual guide to the latest cultural, religious, and
political trends that help us to understand what the heaven isn't going on.
Parenthetically,
for those who think it leans one way over the other in reporting "the
facts, ma'am, just the facts," its research stats, commentaries, and
conclusions are often quoted across the ideological spectrum by major
media outlets like CNN, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, Fox, Chicago
Tribune, Huffington Post, NY Times, LA Times, and the BDR that seems to have
stopped publishing my stuff now that it's changed editors again.
Among the most
disturbing trends in this latest volume is 72% of Americans - cutting across
race, faith, left, right, up, down, rich, poor lines - think America is going
to anywhere but heaven.
Founder Barna
himself concludes, "Voters are perhaps as upset with themselves as they
are with the system...They know something substantial must be done, but either
they don't know what that prescription is or they don't have the courage to
pursue it...Many resonate with the sense that America has lost its mojo."
Ya think?
While I may be
wrong, I think the church and politicians are mostly to blame.
Democrats and
Republicans care more about their respective partying than America's health and welfare.
America's church
betrays institutional loyalty to its pathetically peculiar denominations over
Biblically Christocentric ecumenism.
Neither blush
when they say, in effect, "Come,
let us show ya'll how we can't get together for anyone's sake...not to
mention God's."
Though it's not
PC and rather crude, I've reached a simple conclusion.
America is
stupid.
America's churches
are stupid.
Gump is right:
"Stupid is as stupid does."
Kurt Vonnegut in Palm Sunday comes to mind:
"An Indianapolis cousin of mine, who was also a high school classmate, did
very badly at the University of Michigan while I did badly at Cornell.
His father asked him what the trouble was, and he made what I consider an
admirable reply: 'Don't you know, Father? I'm dumb.' It was the
truth."
America and her churches,
politicians, educators, pastors, pewsitters, merchants, entertainers,
media types, lawyers, judges and all of the below look so stupid because
they have turned their backs on the only One who can save us.
Jesus.
We've heard it
before and we must hear it again because it's the only truth that can deliver
us from all of the fake news being barfed up by today's Democrats, Republicans,
denominations, so many incredulously secularized pastors and other politicians:
"The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has
been found difficult and left untried" (G.K. Chesterton).
Samuel records
the truth: "God blesses those who bless Him."
The answer is so
simply straightforward.
Only really,
really, really stupid people can't see...Him.
After the last KD
that unsettled denominational jingoists mindlessly longing for the way things
never were or maybe were but are no more, I want to thank Billy Ward for
sending this clip that is really sarcastic.
Here's a summary
of what was said during worship at the first public meeting of Blackhawk
Presbyterians for Fidelity hosted by Senior Pastor Bill Ward and Rockford, Illinois'
Westminster Presbyterian Church.
@#$%
Preface to Message
After being
baptized in a German Lutheran Church in New York City while my dad was fighting
in another worldly war, my mom, a Welsh Presbyterian, won another worldly war
and we joined the First Presbyterian Church of Nanticoke, Pennsylvania.
That’s where I was forced to memorize
John 3:16 and given my first KJV Bible that remains on my desk to this day.
I was introduced to Jesus as Lord and
Savior in a Presbyterian Church.
My favorite home pastor of all time,
The Rev. Harold F. Mante, nurtured my call to ordained ministry; and I think
I’m still the only one of his confirmands that ever went on to ordination from
the First Presbyterian Church of Forty Fort, Pennsylvania.
He took me to a seminary in New Jersey
when I was in 8th grade to get it all started; and he smiled when I
told a professor, “I’ll be coming here some day. I just want you to be prepared.”
My call as an undershepherd to
the Good Shepherd was nurtured and supported by Presbyterian churches.
My bills for college, seminary,
graduate schools, and every worthless degree collecting dust in my basement
were paid by Presbyterian churches.
Only a few years after being ordained
- I think it was 1978 - I visited Hans Evans in a hospital in Coatesville,
Pennsylvania. The renowned pastor of the
Coatesville Presbyterian Church was dying of cancer.
During our last moments together, I
confessed, “Dr. Evans, I think I’ve made a mistake by being ordained in our
denomination. It seems to be
irretrievably apostate under current management.”
Yes, that conclusion was reached that
long ago.
He said, “Son, stay in the
Presbyterian Church. It’s the best
mission field open to us today; and remember, the difference between coal and
diamonds is pressure.”
Contextualized by our Lord’s high
priestly prayer and Bonhoeffer and King and so many others, I have never felt
comfortable in running away from houses burning to the ground; but rather
running into them to save as many as God enables me to save.
Matthew 10:16 is my life’s verse as an
undershepherd.
So I have remained in Presbyterian
churches.
While I believe denominationalism is a
sin and against God’s will because I believe He came to unite us and enable
overcoming of the human for the divine and remain convinced that I will never
leave one stinking denomination for another stinking denomination because they
all stink, I cannot see myself in any other denomination other than
Presbyterian because I’ve spent so many years learning how to navigate through
our increasing stench.
It has not been easy.
I have watched the increasing insult
to God’s holiness in so many ways antithetical to Jesus by the book.
I have said good-bye to so many
friends who have rationalized their exits as not leaving the denomination but
the denomination leaving them.
I have…
If I have to explain that to you, you
are ignorant, deceived, apathetic, defiant, or co-conspiratorial with the dark
side.
But, today, I am praising God for this
first inaugural meeting of Blackhawk Presbyterians for Fidelity.
This is not a resistance movement or
rebellion or shadow presbytery or gathering of reckless schismatics scorning
institutionally mindless and gutless drones.
BPF has only one goal, prayer, and
ambition.
We want to honor Jesus by the book, bring
salvation to as many as possible, encourage selfless and sacrificial service as
gratitude for confident living in the assurance of eternal life by grace
through faith in Jesus, and no longer play footsies with the devil and those
under its…
Please pray with me: You have prepared
us for these days, O God, and we want to be faithful to You in all things at
all times in all places with all people; and so I pray you will take this
sin-stained life of mine, redeemed only by grace through faith in Jesus, and
work a miracle so the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart may be
acceptable in Your sight and to the glory, laud, and honor of Jesus alone in
whose name I pray. Amen.
@#$%
Jude’s Answer to Today’s Infidelities
“Blackhawk
Presbyterians for Fidelity” was launched on November 11, 2016 in Rockford,
Illinois during a gathering of PCUSA pastors who remain committed to praying
and laboring to be faithful to over two thousand years of Biblical,
confessional, constitutional, historical, traditional, and common sense
Christianity.
BPF identifies, encourages, and equips
faithful sisters and brothers for worship, work, and witness.
Essentially, that’s BPF’s raison
d’etre; or as Ricky would say, it’s the purpose driving women and men of
faith who want to remain faithfully in a denomination increasingly
unrecognizably Christian (Doug Forsberg) and irretrievably apostate under
current management (RRK).
Anyone in the PCUSA who can’t see that
reminds me of Curly crying to Moe, “I can’t see!” Moe asks, “What’s wrong?” Curly answers, ‘Nyuk! Nyuk!
I’ve got my eyes closed.”
You know the Biblical metaphors on
that; and if we have to explain that to you, as bikers like to say, you wouldn’t
understand anyway.
Rockford street preacher William
Taylor says, “We can’t fix what we won’t face.”
It’s time to confess our denomination
is infected with a spiritual disease undermining, inhibiting, and threatening
our theological heritage.
It’s time to face what must be fixed
for a faithful future.
Though written to 1st
century Christians, Jude’s letter “to those who are loved by God, called to
salvation, and kept safe by Jesus” is contemporary to 21st century
mainline denominations like the PCUSA that have lost His way, truth, and life.
Jude identifies infidelities and
prescribes fidelity.
Let’s see the perilous
parallels and positive opportunity.
Jude: “Beloved, though I was very
eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write
appealing to you to contend for the faith…For certain people have crept in
unnoticed…unGodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and
deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Whoa.
That’s familiar.
While the remnant in our denomination
in general and Blackhawk Presbytery in particular – women and men of faith who
still believe in Jesus by the book - want to celebrate confident living in the
assurance of eternal life by grace through faith in Jesus and express our
gratitude in loving Him by loving like Him with grace, mercy, forgiveness,
charity, universal invitation, hearty welcome, indiscriminate inclusion, and agape
with no respect to color, class, or culture, the reality is unGodly people
according to over two thousand years of Biblical, confessional, constitutional,
historical, traditional, and common sense Christianity have slithered into
leadership as pastors and elders.
How did it happen?
CPMs, COMs, EPs, GPs, SCs, and other
presbyters like me and maybe you did not do their job to insure
candidates for ordination and installation understood their ordination
promises.
That omission has generated a majority
of presbyters who either didn’t understand their ordination promises, lied at
ordination to get a job that kinda suited them except for the Christology, or
changed their minds after ordination and lack the intellectual and spiritual
veracity to quit.
Unconverted clergy have birthed
unconvinced laity resulting in Pharisaical reincarnations substituting polity,
organizational order, and human traditions for the commandments of God as
enfleshed in Jesus and explained in Holy Scripture.
The result in Jude’s words is a church
of both the 1st and 21st centuries polluted by
“…ungodliness…grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful
desires…loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage…scoffers,
following their own unGodly passions…causing divisions…worldly people…devoid of
the Spirit…”
Simply, the PCUSA, like the recipients
of Jude’s letter and its sister denominations today, has been corrupted by
leaders who approach salvation, the sanctity of all human life, marriage,
lifestyles, charity, and everything important to our Lord and expected of
anyone daring to claim Him as Savior with pseudo-profession substituting the
egocentric for the Biblically Christocentric: “We know that’s what Jesus and
the Bible say, but we think…”
Jude’s prescription for what’s ailing
the church is fidelity: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most
holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God,
waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life…have
mercy…save others…”
We are to be different from them.
Yes, it’s Biblical.
We are to be different from them.
Yes, there are children of light as
opposed to…
The faithful don’t dance with the
devil or demonically impressed, oppressed, or possessed.
The faithful shatter the sound of
silence and say the church has lost
His way, truth, and life.
The faithful are awake; looking up,
standing up, speaking up, and acting up for Jesus.
The faithful salt, shine, and
leavenate.
The faithful remember a prophetic
meeting in the parlor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, Aurora many years ago
when Craig and Bill admitted, “We have lost; and now we must protect our
people from them.”
The faithful know better than to get
into tinkling contests with skunks.
The faithful know trying to be
rational with the irrational is illogical.
The faithful know the birds will end
up going where there is food.
Therefore, the faithful, a remnant in
a dying unrecognizably Christian denomination irretrievably apostate under
current management, pray and labor together to encourage and equip anyone still
believing in Jesus by the book.
So what does that mean?
The faithful will no longer exercise
the unwitting stewardship of fighting the dark forces of infidelity but will
rather unite with sisters and brothers to be faithful to Jesus by the book.
We will remain faithfully and ignore
or exercise creative neglect when it comes to the unfaithful; unless the
unfaithful dictate conformity to their infidelities.
A child of fidelity is BPF.
Perhaps no one has said it better for
us than Hans Kung in On Being a Christian: our agenda is “to discover
what Is permanent…originally meant, before it was covered with the dust
and debris of two thousand years…[of egocentric philosophy masquerading as
Biblical Christology]…This is not another gospel, but the same ancient gospel
rediscovered for today!”
Jude concludes with a glorious
doxology of ultimate victory in/through/for Him: “Now to Him who is able to
keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His
glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our
Lord, be glory majesty, dominion, and authority before all time and now and
forever. Amen.”
Jude never doubted the ultimate
outcome.
Neither does BPF and the many other
faithful movements in His Church.
Only a few missed the irony of the
Belvidere Area Chamber of Commerce holding its 102nd Annual Dinner
in Rockford on March 16, 2017.
If I have to explain that to you, you
wouldn’t understand anyway.
Actually, the Radisson did a great job
in hosting with a warm and welcoming staff, clean restrooms, and decent meal
that were complemented by a hired gun aka speaker who meant well.
Anyone who’s been reading www.koppdisclosure.com
or listening to worship broadcasts via www.bnnsradio.com or
showing up in the pews to honor God on Sundays knows I’ve been bantering and
moaning about fainthearted mainline denominationalists, pulpiteers, politicians,
jurists, educators, editorialists, entertainers, marketers, and other “public”
servants who can’t bring themselves to mention Jesus…publicly.
They forget His corporate warning from
Genesis through Revelation for nations, churches, marriages, families, and all
of the below: “Return to Me and I will restore you. If not, not.”
Jesus was direct and compelling in his
personal guarantee with a caution: “If you acknowledge Me, I will acknowledge
you. If not, not.”
In a glorious example of bravehearted
confidence in Jesus as Lord and Savior fueling courage to acknowledge Him and
maybe save the republic, Dr. Daniel Woestmann, Superintendent of School
District 100, and my favorite mayor of all time, Fred Brereton, prayed and
prophesied to the you-could-hear-a-pin-drop packed room.
Unlike most clergy and other
politicians who are so afraid of offending people who insult God’s holiness and
forget who birthed America with all of our blessings, Dr. Woestmann ended the
invocation “in the name of Jesus. Amen.”
After receiving the “Distinguished
Citizen Award” which recognizes uncommon service to the community and county,
Fred said, “As I was trying to figure out how to begin…, I was reminded of the
lesson taught by Maria in The Sound of Music, ‘Let’s start at the
beginning, a very good place to start.’”
Then he extolled his parents who kept
their baptismal promises: “I was raised with Jesus…by Jack and Shirley
Brereton.”
That’s when the chatty crowd really
hushed up…for good.
After briefly chronicling what he
learned in business and as the longest-serving mayor in Belvidere history, he
said, “Then God had a new purpose for my life.”
That’s when the assembly really,
really, really riveted to every one of his words.
“Jesus said,” he continued, “’Come,
follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’
And so I will spend the remainder of my life doing my best to respond to
the will of God…And so tonight, I humbly accept this recognition, returning all
of the honor and all of the glory to our Father who is in heaven.”
After an
obviously nervous introspection of less than two seconds that seemed like an
hour, the faithful cheered with “Amen’s!” and the clueless were, uh, and, uh,
remain clueless.
When Fred trusted my confidence and
prayed with me about his future about half way through his last term, I said,
“Fred, I am convinced you will do more to honor Jesus and help people than
you’ve ever done as mayor even though you are the most loved and respected
mayor in Belvidere and Boone County’s history.”
Fred keeps confirming that
discernment.
There’s a simmering debate in
Belvidere and Boone County.
Do we really want to be more like
Rockford or Chicago or Beloit or…?
Dan and Fred answered that question
for everyone everywhere.
As I recall
– it’s a recollection because I tossed all of his books after reading them for
academics of no consequence because, as Tony often says, there’s nothing more
funny than a smart guy saying such incredibly stupid things – Bertrand Russell
wrote his essay “Why I Am Not a Christian” because he believed the
soteriological claims and social ethics of Jesus are senseless.
Back in the early 70s when I had to
pretend my professors’ syllabi were worth the paper used to print them, I did
the usual brown-nosing thing, tilted my head in profound pseudo-attention,
puffed on my pipe which really improved my grades in Europe, and waxed
eloquently in saying nothing like a recent President because scholarships often
depended upon the aforementioned.
Of course, when you think about it,
Christianity does sound senseless in a lot of ways.
Really, “In the beginning, God
created…”
That means God was before the
beginning.
Then there’s this from Jesus –
Emmanuel or “God with skin on” which is another mindblower – “I am the alpha
and the omega…”
Whoa.
That means He was before the beginning
and after the end.
I can’t begin to tell you how many
bottles of Excedrin that compelled.
O.K., while I prefer to believe I’m
not related to a tadpole though looking at the behavior of some people begs the
question and makes those Planet of the Apes movies seem reasonable, I’m
one of those guys who doesn’t take the bait on those creationism versus
evolution debates that keeps freshman philosophy and religion classes going
when professors run out of notes and have to fill out the hour.
While I’m sure I’ll be wished dead –
that’s how Democrats and Republicans and progressives and traditionalists and
mainline denominationalists and other fundamentalists have taught us to
discourage dissent – I think God could have done it by evolution or just, you
know, kinda willed it.
I’m Lutheran in that
regard; letting God be God and doing whatever the heaven that He wants/wills to
do.
Bruce Ennis, a really smart guy from
MIT who said really smart things, said just before I presided at his funeral
back in the early 80s, “If this Someone, whom I call God, has the power to
grant life on earth, simple logic would dictate that He could also grant life
elsewhere, which I call heaven…To any intelligent and perceptive human being
exposed daily, as he is, to the beautiful miracles of this earth, and realizing
that only some Power greater than he could produce such miracles, it must seem
that an atheist has a low degree of intelligence, coupled with an abysmal lack
of perceptivity, a deplorably egotistical self-esteem, and an unseemly
arrogance.”
Kinda like Russell.
Or as somebody once said, “To believe
that everything on earth and in the universe just happened without God
as Creator is akin to believing there was a big explosion in the print shop and
the dictionary just happened/appeared when the dust settled.”
Tony is right.
Really smart people often say really
stupid things.
But, admittedly, Christianity can seem
so senseless at times.
If it weren’t for God being God and
doing Godly kinda things which is why we refer to Him as almighty or capable of
doing whatever the heaven that He wants/wills to do, nothing this side or that
side of whatever would make any sense.
It only makes sense because God is
sovereign.
God.
Get it/Him?
God!!!
And the Bible keeps reminding us that
He loves us, came in Jesus to prove it, and we’ll live happily ever after if we
accept that/Him.
That really makes no sense.
God loves us even though we break
every behavioral rule that He gave to us from Genesis through Revelation.
God loves us even though we keep
crucifying Him in government, courtroom, classroom, commerce, media,
entertainment, and even churches that increasingly ignore or defy Him and
pretend He never meant what He so clearly and conclusively communicated in
Jesus by the book about the sanctity of all human life, marriage, lifestyle,
mercy, forgiveness, unconditional love, and…other stuff so obviously more
important to Him than us.
It doesn’t make sense that God keeps
loving us when we have this anything but heavenly repeated history of not
loving Him back.
Truth is we are no heavenly good
without Him.
So as we look at all of the things
that smart jerks like Russell say prove Christianity is senseless – eternal
life and loving enemies and miracles and incarnation and resurrection and all
the rest – I think, and I may be wrong, the most senseless thing about
Christianity is God just keeps on loving us and wanting us to be His in time
and forever and keeps inviting us and welcoming us and including us when we
return to Him when we’re so bent on doing things that are no heaven good by
commission or omission.
The only thing that makes Christianity
sensible is God.
God says He is gracious.
Grace- filled.
He provides what we don’t deserve –
confident living in the assurance of eternal life by grace through faith in
Jesus – and doesn’t decree what we deserve which is anything but heavenly.
