Whenever I encounter a Lutheran identifying himself as "confessional", I go catatonic.
What does that mean? It does not mean the person believes in JBFA, it usually means the person believes the opposite; it usually means the person is a Universal Objective Justification adherent, i.e. a Huberite.
Take the case for example of "Lutheran" bloggers in the Internet. You will often read about them going on and on about the ancient traditions of the church discussing finer points of detail and so on. In fact, such people careless about whether or not UOJ is true or false. Often they think this is a minor point of disagreement. So they go to war on the liturgy, they go to war on lots of peripheral issues, they go fighting about what is minor -- always considering that the major issue is done deal already. They consider the doctrine of justification as something that can be set aside, because they think they got this down pat right.
You see when you become a UOJer everything becomes boring, you need something to get excited about.
So what is happening in Lutheranism is something I have seen before in Charismanic Evangelicalism. When I was in it, the "in" word was "Reformed" so and so. That prefixing of identifying one's self with such a label is a way of getting traction, a way of getting an audience, you might say. It is a way of saying - look man, I am cool.
So when I read folk in Lutherdom saying "I am confessional" etc etc blah blah, often the cynical side of me comes out, I do a lot of LOLing. Because my friend, what some really mean by that is that they are really "synodical", meaning they are a follower of their synod and their synod's extra Biblical pronouncements.
The word "confessional" has been polluted. What matters if you ask me is not what the label one tacks on to oneself, what matters is what really the person believes and teaches and confesses. The label worths nothing.
When you think justification is no longer an issue, my theory is that you will fight for something else.
LPC
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Mourning with you
UPDATED:
About 80% of the readers of this blog come from U. S. A.
Dear friends, my heart goes out to you. Like you I am also in pains I feel the hurt with what just happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
My prayers go out to those who have been directly affected by this tragedy.
This is Christmas, it is in general a sweet time for children. This is a terrible tragedy for those parents who lost their kids in this senseless act.
UPDATED:
TURN OFF THE NEWS.......
"Morgan Freeman's" brilliant take on what happened yesterday :
"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.
It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed
people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.
CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.
You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."
________
Apparently Freeman denies ever saying this in his Facebook. I wish he had said it because there is more truth to the above critique than we care to admit. We should give credit to whoever hacked into his account - he might as well, come out and own up to it because there is some brilliant insight in that piece.
LPC
About 80% of the readers of this blog come from U. S. A.
Dear friends, my heart goes out to you. Like you I am also in pains I feel the hurt with what just happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
My prayers go out to those who have been directly affected by this tragedy.
This is Christmas, it is in general a sweet time for children. This is a terrible tragedy for those parents who lost their kids in this senseless act.
UPDATED:
"Morgan Freeman's" brilliant take on what happened yesterday :
"You want to know why. This may sound cynical, but here's why.
It's because of the way the media reports it. Flip on the news and watch how we treat the Batman theater shooter and the Oregon mall shooter like celebrities. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris are household names, but do you know the name of a single *victim* of Columbine? Disturbed
people who would otherwise just off themselves in their basements see the news and want to top it by doing something worse, and going out in a memorable way. Why a grade school? Why children? Because he'll be remembered as a horrible monster, instead of a sad nobody.
CNN's article says that if the body count "holds up", this will rank as the second deadliest shooting behind Virginia Tech, as if statistics somehow make one shooting worse than another. Then they post a video interview of third-graders for all the details of what they saw and heard while the shootings were happening. Fox News has plastered the killer's face on all their reports for hours. Any articles or news stories yet that focus on the victims and ignore the killer's identity? None that I've seen yet. Because they don't sell. So congratulations, sensationalist media, you've just lit the fire for someone to top this and knock off a day care center or a maternity ward next.
You can help by forgetting you ever read this man's name, and remembering the name of at least one victim. You can help by donating to mental health research instead of pointing to gun control as the problem. You can help by turning off the news."
________
Apparently Freeman denies ever saying this in his Facebook. I wish he had said it because there is more truth to the above critique than we care to admit. We should give credit to whoever hacked into his account - he might as well, come out and own up to it because there is some brilliant insight in that piece.
LPC
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