The Carolinian Herald of Liberty

"Rotten to the CORE!"

2010-06-26T06:42:00.000-07:00

A certain Dr. Pahl recently, in the Journal of Lutheran Ethics, attacked the motives of those of us who have reacted to the actions of the CWA-09 by aligning ourselves with Lutheran CORE. He describes our movement as a 'White male backlash' corrupted by 'American Civil Religion' and resentment about our loss of power! He goes on to associate us with various and sundry heresies: Donatists and Docetists... and little lambs eat ivy, I suppose! It is quite a diatribe and We thought after reading it..."Well, it's not everyday that one gets to see a theologian show his ass in a theological journal!"

After some reflection, We have come to think better of the good Doctor. We will not impugn his motives...at least not at this time... as We are feeling rather charitable this morning. We think that we need to take some of his charges seriously and examine ourselves, as there may be the least grain of truth in a very little of what he says.

Be that as it may, what are our true motives? Plainly put, we think that the ELCA is in great error bordering heresy, and perhaps has fallen into heresy bordering on outright apostasy, and at the very least, they are more than tolerant of all of the above. It would not be honest for us to think otherwise...culturally conditioned as we are. We don't want a new Gospel where God is doing new things. We want the old Gospel where God is still doing the same old thing, reconciling the world to Himself in Jesus Christ, and where Jesus Christ is the same...yesterday, today and tomorrow! In a word, we want the orthodox catholic Church that transcends all human culture! And the universal consensus of that Church will yet have the last word over our parochial proclamations until the final Day of Judgment when there will be an accounting and a reckoning!

Perhaps Dr. Pahl is reacting a bit to the steady stream of rhetoric from our side which accuses the supporters of CWA-09's decisions of being conditioned by the autonomous culture of postmodern liberalism. The truth here is that both sides are conditioned by culture...and that, we think, is inevitable! The Holy Scriptures tell us that the Gospel seed will fall on different ground and that wheat and tares must be allowed to grow together. The wheat of the Gospel must grow with the tares of culture. Christianity will always reflect the culture in which it is planted. But culture, old or new, is a finite thing grounded in fashionable superstitions, folklore and myth. The Gospel is an infinite thing grounded in God's timeless Truth! The modern quest for truth is bankrupt only because it could not divorce truth from God. Culture should conform to God's truth not the other way 'round. If one rejects universal truth then one rejects God's universal dominion.

Jesus when asked about a matter of marriage went right passed the Deutoronimic Code with it's abominable shellfish and straight to the Order of Creation in Genesis. He pointed to the plain sense of the text and in so doing He went beyond human culture to reveal the Divine Intent for all cultures in all times and in all places. He pointed out that God had allowed cultural deviation. The point I am making is that it is God and not we ourselves that may do the allowing.

We think, that without a belief in absolute truth, the logical end of universal relativism is nihilism; and that the truth may not be had without first having God. We may therefore, indeed, be 'rotten to the core!' The thing is, that we actually have a core; universal relativism does not! Our CORE may be more rotten than the ELCA's for the same reason that angels can be more rotten than men, and turn into fallen angels or devils. We, who have experienced the Truth, can forsake it. With God's help we will not do that!

So, we have before us a choice: We can choose to give up our lust for power and learn the new 'gospel of inclusion'...the product of the latest innovations in biblical hermeneutics, which just so happen to adapt God's Word splendidly to the new liberal culture. Or we can choose to learn ever anew the old Gospel of Redemption as understood by two thousand years of Christian teaching and not just our own, conditioned as it is by, American Civil Religion.

Orthodoxy will not be an option in the ELCA! Not only because of something that Richard John Neuhouse said about orthodoxy being proscribed wherever it is first made into an option, but for the very good reason that no homosexual pastor could ever preach orthodoxy without contradicting the very thing he is supposed to represent...and none will ever try! This is not merely about church order...it is about the orthodox catholic faith! Women can and do preach orthodoxy...and there is the difference. Just as in the parsonage the homosexual can only parody the physical act of procreation, in the pulpit he can and will only preach a parody of the Gospel.

O yes, We forgot to mention that we are homophobes...but, we are trying to do better! Do those who contend against us have no bigotries, no prejudices, nothing to repent of except perhaps a few lingering vestiges of orthodoxy? Dr. Pahl asks the question, '...can homophobes be saved?' Fear of homosexuals does indeed infect the heart of CORE and though we would fear them less, we must fear God more, and with Luther, 'call a thing what it is'.... homosexual acts are sins to be repented of and not to be blessed in God's despite! All sinners are to be loved; all sin is to despised, confessed, and by grace, absolved!

When we pray the words, 'Give us this day our daily bread' we pray for power. Power not to hold in dominion over others, but to fulfill our vocation. To do God's will. The vocation of the Church is to be found in the Great Commission and it requires the power to fulfill that vocation. Missionary work can never be condemned as 'colonial violence.' Missionary power has been waning in the ELCA, we hope for it's revival. Liberal theology is 'weak' in more ways than one. It was the weakness of an earlier liberal theology that inspired Barth to start the neo-orthodox movement. We can be, after all, even more 'inclusive' if we simply say that one religion is as good as the next, or no religion at all is even better. Some of the wonderful 'teaching theologians' of the ELCA are doing just that. But, where is the power in this message? Why take it into all the world? We in CORE want power...'the power of God unto Salvation...' found in the old Gospel of Redemption!

Now, Dear reader, here we should advise you that we do not speak for Lutheran CORE. We are only offering you our own poor thoughts and reflections, such as they are. We will include here, the text of a sermon by, Dr. Martin H. Franzmann published in the April 22, 1947 edition of The Lutheran Witness. We have edited it slightly, to exclude particular references to the LCMS and in one place inserted the phrase, 'Rotten to the CORE' to make it pertinent to our own message of today. We don't think Dr. Franzmann would mind and We are sure that he would have preferred that we all simply joined the LCMS...many, no doubt, have and will!

"The power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek"; that is the Gospel. And the whole meaning and the whole glory of our...history lies solely in the fact that we have preached that Gospel without additions, without abridgment, and without reservations. What we have offered the world is simply God's offer of salvation, implemented and guaranteed by God's power.

The salvation we offer means life. Life in it's only real sense, life without end; and there is no alternative. It is not a matter of choosing between life on the terms of this salvation and life on somewhat lower terms. There is no choice, no choice that anyone would choose.

It is either this salvation or the wrath of God abiding upon us. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." And the wrath of God on all outside Christ remains as real and as terrible as it was from the beginning: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

It is either this salvation that we have offered and still offer, or death. "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life." The line is drawn as sure by the power of God as rescue is offered by the power of God. There is no debatable land, no neutral place no room where a man may stand and be a looker-on. This crises is for every man alive.

It is either this salvation or perdition. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." "The second death:--the perdition is as eternal as the salvation. The salvation which we preach is no less than eternal; the Christ of whom our Gospel speaks, in whom the salvation that we offer is, "Become the Author of our eternal salvation."

It is the only salvation, and it is indispensable. It is the salvation that all men need, Jew or Greek. Unless the Jew and all like him, all doers of works and accumulaters of merit, all the claimers of salvation by performance--unless they can bring to God a law perfectly and always kept, down to the last jot and tittle--and they cannot--they need this salvation. And unless the Greek and all like him, the seekers in wisdom and the exulters in culture, can show a knowledge of God complete and perfect, a knowledge so deep and so perfectly absorbed that it has guided and informed their lives and has made God all in all--they need this salvation. All men need it, "for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men."

"Against all ungodliness"; that includes the worship of yourself, that subtle idolatry to which all religions of performance and all secular humanism are finally reducible. "And all unrighteousness"; the stubborn fact of sin remains, and as long as sin remains, there remain it's consequences: "The wages of sin is death."

Sin is being rediscovered of late, after lying long hid in theological attics; and the world that is rediscovering it had better reckon with its corollaries. All, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; every mouth is stopped; and all the world is guilty before God.

In the face of this we offer, not something of our own, not a system to be followed, not a set of rules to be obeyed, not a wisdom to be assayed and absorbed; we offer a power, the power of God that delivers.

And we offer this salvation to all mankind, to everyone that believeth, to all the world; that is to say to all the guilty, for God's grace extends as far as His judgment. That is what we have been doing .....and that is what we are doing now, we 'exclusive' Lutherans....we narrowhearted Lutherans,....we 'rotten to the CORE' Lutherans,....we that have bound ourselves hand and foot--yea, brain, will, desire, heart, soul and all--to a book that will not let us go. We offer salvation to all. We offer it more freely because we know it more truly.

We lay down no conditions. We ask none to take any mans word as authority over him or any man's power to dominate him. It is God's Word that we ask men to accept and God's power that we ask men to succumb to. There are no conditions; only believe. We demand no performance. We ask no one to climb laborious ladders to a probable heaven. We ask men to believe and let God work. We place no bars racial, political, or social. The Lutheran Church is not a German church, an English church, or a Chinese church; it is neither a White man's church or a Black man's church; neither a rich man's church or a poor man's church. The Gospel that we preach is universal grace.

So we preach. We cannot do otherwise; our life principle is the Spirit of God; and if we live by the Spirit, we must also walk by the Spirit. In so preaching, whatever our shortcomings may have been, lies the glory of our past. In so preaching lies the only hope for our future. There is no conflict in conserving and going forward; for unless we conserve this, our life, we shall not go forward at all.

The Coffee Party Movement | Working With America

2010-02-23T17:19:00.000-08:00

The Coffee Party Movement | Working With America

Christmas Apples in the Kraut Barrel

2009-12-18T06:50:00.000-08:00

In our last post we used the expression 'Supply Side Jesus' which comes from a cartoon by Sen. Al Frankin. We had intended to link to it on Youtube but have not mastered the trick. It is called 'The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus' and it is worth finding and having a look-see.

Our 'Dutch' ancestors liked sauerkraut. It was a way to preserve cabbage through the winter and beyond. Sometimes they would place apples inside the kraut barrel for a special treat at Christmas.

We rinse our kraut, mix in a shredded apple, and add some brown sugar to sweeten it. We cook it in Reisling seasoned with bacon drippings and add a shot of gin for the taste of juniper. This is a good side dish to go with our bratwurst steamed in beer and bay leaf. Some mashed 'pratters' with bacon gravy to finish the plate. Serve with dark beer and pumpernickle.

Political Correctness is found on both sides of the political spectrum. During World War I it was not politically correct to use German at all. Sauerkraut became 'Liberty Cabbage,' something like, when the Republicans tried to rename french fries by calling them 'freedom' fries. We think that this sort of nonsense is just silly. We have never liked having folks tell us what words we must use; or what words should, or should not be, considered as offensive. We'll be the judge of that! Thank you very much!

In the E.L.C.A. they would like for all of us to use 'gender-neutral' or 'inclusive' language. If you go to the headquarters on Higgin's Road in Chicago, and happen to refer to the Holy Trinity as the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; someone might get a case of the vapors!

Gender neutral language ends up using abstractions; and God is not an abstraction. He is a Person. He may even be eccentric. He may be a bit romantic about this morality play that we call history. He may consider the old chivalry to be a jewel in His crown. It is not at all pious to speculate about such things. This is precisely the reason that we should confine ourselves to what is revealed. We call Him 'Father' because Jesus taught us so to do. As Luther might put it, we should so fear and love God, as not to put word's in His mouth, but rather, to take Him at His Word Alone!

We prefer that the sacred be treated as though it were,... well, sacred! We prefer;and ought to prefer, that the liturgy and hymns be intoned, said and sung as they were written, Faithfully translated that we might understand their meaning. We do not find in all of this 'liberty cabbage' of inclusive language any apples of goodness for our Christ's Mass!

We think that feminists are rather prudish in their own way. They remind me of the high priest, Caiaphas, who rent his garments when Jesus referred to Himself as the 'Son' of God. He thought it so offensive, that he handed Him over to the Roman Governor to have Him executed. Pilate presented the Jews with, not one, but two,' Sons of the Father'. Jesus and Barabbas, the later name meaning, 'son of the father'. Jesus was accused of nothing more than using offensive language. Barabbas was guilty of 'theft' or as it might be translated, 'terrorism'. It is possible that Barabbas was a Jewish terrorist. Pilate gave the Jews a choice for release. The crowd drunk on the liberation theology of their day chose Barabbas! Jesus could be said to have been crucified for not being politically correct. He was certainly not gender neutral in His choice of words. We can only wish that these feminists were as zealous in His cause as they are in their own! Like the proverbial virgin sensitive to the pea under her mattress; so sensitive are they, as to the use of the pro-noun 'he', that they will not rest until it is rooted out of their worship. That pea has been there for two-thousand years disturbing the peace of no one. It is only in our day that skin has been found so sensitive as to cry out for it's removal. Theirs is not the Christian faith of always and everywhere. It is not catholic. It is a thin-skinned faith; and that is why it will not last.

Even so, we should live and let live. Then, let them worship God in their own way; and let us worship God in His!

May He help us all to be good apples in this sour world, and may He preserve us for the Feast to come! Let us put aside all our disagreements and worship the Heavenly Babe for Whom the Herald Angels sang , Gloria in excelsis Deo! Peace and Goodwill to all!

Sausage in Our Grits!

2009-12-07T12:17:00.000-08:00

When Socrates Henkel wrote his History of The Tennesee Synod he noted that they were often accused of adhering too closely to the Jeffersonian Principles of politics. In his day almost all of the folks in our church voted Democrat. Catawba was the Democrat's 'Banner County' in North Carolina. The Democratic Party was the party of separation of church and state then as now. This idea of 'two kingdoms' one of the sword and the other of the Gospel is at the heart of Lutheran thinking. Unlike the Calvinist or Anglicans who are wont to confound these two realms and render to Ceasar the things that are God's; so scrupulous we were in attending to this distinction that we refused to receive letters of incorporation from the State. Our Charter came from Zion! Jefferson did not think much of corporations either.
Catawba folk were very cautious about power structures; the power that one man might have over another man or that one group of men might have over other men. Our church polity was congregational; the pastor and all synodical authority was only advisory. In affairs of state this attitude carried over as power was seen as something to be kept close to home and jealously guarded, less somebody set up a monarchy or still worse a papacy! Jefferson thought the same and the Democrats guarded against the consolidation of power not only in the government but in private monopolies and concentrated wealth. In general the concentration of power in Washington has followed the concentration of power on Wall Street and in the giant corporations who's stocks are traded there, in the great banking houses who's debts are public and who's profits are private.
All of this is true, but the primary reason that we were Democrats has to do with the fact that some southfork farmer went down to the county seat in Lincolnton one day and the Presbyterian Whigs who ran the place made fun of him. He went back home and sent the word around that good Dutch folk weren't acceptable to those people down there. A petition was got up to form a new county and that is how Catawba County came to be...and of course it weren't no Whig county either. We voted for Jackson!
While most Catawbans today are Republicans they are also mostly Baptist. The Baptists believed in separation of church and state too, until they became the majority. Back in the old days Catawba was mostly farmers. Farming is close to nature and nature is close to God. Today they are employed in less noble occupations and they ain't so close to God as they used to be either! Jefferson said that farmers were the chosen people of God...if God ever had a chosen people. Those chosen folk worshiped the Jesus who loved the poor and they voted the Democratic ticket. Today they vote Republican ticket and worship supply side Jesus. They no longer have any regard for the separation of church and state and won't be happy until they have forced their supply side idol down all of our throats. That's called social conservatism. The fact that they don't believe in power until they have it is called neo-conservatism. The freedom that they believe in is the freedom that wolves have over sheep. Theirs is the freedom that would give one group of men way too much power over the rest of men. So long as that group is their own they won't care.
Unlike supply side Jesus the real Jesus did not hold with trickle down economics. I know this because of the story He once told about a poor man named Lazarus who depended for his fortune on what trickled down from a rich man's table. Jackson believed that the success of a society should be measured at it's base and not at it's apex. The Republican idea is the opposite and it is the inverse of the idea found in the Gospel of St. Luke.
My great grandfather Fox was a farmer, a Lutheran and a Democrat. My great granfather Dellinger was a farmer, a Methodist and a Republican. They both livrd east of Statesville on opposite sides of the Salisbury road. They were different in every way and each convinced that the other way was the wrong way. They each had large families and of course opposites are wont to attract so there was a lot of intermarriage between those two families. One morning after the Fox's had set down to breakfast, Grandpa's new Dellinger son-in-law piped up that, it being election day, he was going out to vote and that he was gonna vote for the whole Republican slate!
Well, the grits had went round and he had some on his plate. The sausage was at the head of the table by grandpa's plate. So the Dellinger boy asked Grandpa to please pass him the sausage. Grandpa with his head down over his plate raised his eyes and said, Son, if you want sausage in your grits you'll vote Democrat! Then, having made his point, he passed him the sausage.
My family is still Lutheran and still Democratic. Perhaps this is so because my great grandfather moved to Iredell County. This happened in 1918 when Catawba elected a Republican Sheriff. Grandpa Fox said that he would not live in a county that would have a Republican Sheriff; so he loaded up the family and moved to Iredell County. Here we reside to this day. Different from the folks around us; they simply accept us as being eccentric. We think that one way to measure the freedom of a society is in the number of eccentrics it tolerates. That, and the amount of sausage that may be found in the grits of it's poorest citizen!

One Lord, one Faith, one pot pie!

2009-11-30T11:12:00.000-08:00

The name of this blog is taken from a pamphlet by the Reverend David Henkle who was the great leader of Confessional Lutheranism in North Carolina. It is said that a Methodist lady poisoned his coffee. We Lutherans have a great affection for coffee...and beer. You need a depressant after all the stimulation from the coffee. Catawba County Lutherans like Pot Pie. It is a chicken dish but it is not what vulgarly passes for chicken pot pie. It is the dish par excellence of the haute cuisine of our transplanted Pennsylvania Dutch ancestors. It is made in iron black pots placed in dutch ovens. Chicken is cooked off the bone. The chicken removed from the bone. The bones are then returned to the bottom of the pot. Yeast dumplings are added; then the chicken, and finally another layer of dumplings, forming a pie in the pot. There is nothing like it! It is far too good a dish for poor Methodist folk!
The Henkelites, as they were called, were pure land Lutherans. They practiced closed communion.
The sects were not invited; but then they were too honest to want to come to our altars and we were too honest to have them,before they submitted to true doctrine. In those days, long gone, we were very settled in our beliefs and very strict in their observance. The name of our church was The Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod. The name North Carolina was already taken. In Tennessee they had the Holsten Synod because the name Tennessee had already been taken. It looks like very soon there will be a new Lutheran denomination and I just can't wait to see what we name it! We will have a new denomination because, as the Henkelites refused to submit to majority votes before Scripture or Creed or Confession, so do we. The Tennessee Synod had no social statements, other than the Scriptures. They have stood the test of the ages... whether they will stand the test of contextual hermeneutics is another matter.
The old saying still holds true that the more things change the more they remain the same. As for me...give me that old time religion. It was good for David Henkle and it's good enough for me!