14 May 2008

Scott Is Having...

...too much fun! Check out his map of Issue's Blue and Red states. Come on, Salt Water folks. I know you can do it. Give us one of those districts in Issues red, please!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Many lay people in Boston are unhappy with Issues getting the boot, but I think it will be a cold day when the New England District comes out in favor of the program. But I pray God that I am wrong.

Chris Jones said...

it will be a cold day when the New England District comes out in favor of the program

Luckily "cold days" are not in short supply here in New England, so perhaps the district will pass a resolution in favor of "Issues" come next November or December!

OK, that was a joke. Seriously, if there are folks in Boston upset about Issues Etc, then they are ahead of our parish in the Boston suburbs. There is absolutely no awareness in our parish of what is going on in the Synod, good or bad. The Synod went through the whole Benke/Yankee Stadium controversy without anyone in our congregation ever so much as mentioning it; the word Ablaze! has never been uttered (whether with approval or derision) by any of us; and no one in the parish (probably) would know what Issues Etc was (or even that the LCMS has a radio station).

In our parish, the fact that we are LCMS is a sort of dirty little secret. The Synod name and logo do not appear on the Church sign at the street, nor in the weekly service bulletin or the monthly newsletter. (There is a link to LCMS.org on our website, but no statement that we are actually affiliated with the Synod.)

When we moved to New England from California, it took us several months to find a Missouri congregation to attend. During that time we drove right by our current parish many times, thinking it must be ELCA. When we finally tried it one Sunday, we had to ask the pastor what the Synodical affiliation was, and he admitted that it was LCMS.

Maybe our parish is not typical of "salt water" congregations, but it pretty much acts as if the Synod didn't exist. Don't hold your breath waiting for congregations like ours to get involved in the Issues Etc controversy.

Rev. David M. Juhl said...

Though Mr. Jones joked about it,
It wouldn't surprise me to see a resolution commending the BCS before the end of 2008. What district? I don't know.

Not from NID. We have a regional conference this summer but no general conference until next spring. We had our 2008 general conference in late January before the controversy.

J.G.F. said...

I'll try my luck with the LCMS-YS District :-)

John

Anonymous said...

"Seriously, if there are folks in Boston upset about Issues Etc, then they are ahead of our parish in the Boston suburbs."

Holy crap! Another Lutheran in the Boston area?! Sorry to hijack this blog, but you should come visit us at First [and only] Lutheran in downtown Boston sometime. www.flc-boston.org It's better to go through Issues Etc. withdrawl in a group environment.

Anonymous said...

Oops - forgot to sign name above - Bethany

Past Elder said...

Can't remember, even though Pastor Esget told me -- is First Lutheran the parish in the Back Bay?

Used to walk by it all the time, thinking Those would be my guys, if I had guys!

Scott is great, and I love it to have lived long enough to run into a Diekmann with whom I agree. Well, almost -- Godfrey's brother Conrad was my World Lit I prof, and man, nothing like seeing a guy in a Benedictine habit acting out Homer or Aeschylus, sometimes on top of the desk, at 0800 on a freezing Minnesota morning! He was fabulous!

Hey, Nebraska's supposed to be BIG red. How about it guys?

Anonymous said...

Aw, Pastor!
We're "salt water"
but "We're Texas" :(

Those of us who can read are out numbered.