Just what we needed. Another Protestant denomination. This one to straddle the biblicism of the Lutheran Church”“Missouri Synod and the bibliphobia of the ELCA, presumably with its ratio of traditional exegesis/engagement with modernity balanced so precisely that an ambitious busboy could lay his tray of half-eaten cheesy nachos on its presuppositions without fear of tippage.
I sympathize with those Lutherans who could no longer suffer the leftward march of their denomination into the abyss of irrelevancy, and those who find the denomination of my youth tiresome in its calculation of how grizzlies managed the voyage on the ark without their Dramamine. Yet another denomination can only spawn yet another denomination and so on, until there are so many congregations and so little coherence that only a swift end to history can stifle the cacophony of competing theological claims.
And so I have vowed to give up organized religion for Lent. I remain neither spiritual nor religious, but a Lutheran, sans pew.
This guy has a serious ax to grind.
I take his comment of the biblicism of the LCMS as a complement.
He does have a point though.
I actually thought Sacramone was very funny. And very, very cynical. He does indeed have a big axe to grind, giving up “organized religion” for Lent.
Hmmm. Come to think of it, he ought to visit my church, we have disorganized religion!
But with all respect to brother Harry Edmon above, I thought the line about the new NALC straddling the biblicism of the LCMS and the “bibliphobia” of the ELCA was a hoot, because of that latter mocking swipe at the ELCA. Alas, that charge would apply equally appropriately to TEC, if not even more so.
As for the tendency of Protestantism to fragment endlessly, that’s been true for a very long time now. Zwingli and Luther couldn’t resolve their differences at the Marburg conference in 1529 and ever since Protestantism hasn’t been able to present a united front. Of course, the tendency to divide goes back even further. Little old Wittenberg wasn’t big enough for both Luther and Carlstad, and Zurich wasn’t big enough for both Zwingli and Conrad Grebel (an early Anabaptist), etc., etc. According to the latest edition of the massive World Christian Encyclopedia put out by Oxford University Press, there are over 37,000 known denominations around the world. That’s right, 37K organizations all claiming to be the Church of Jesus Christ and competing with each other.
Pretty sad. Lord, have mercy.
And yet, if ever ecclesiastical separation was justified because of blatant, outright heresy and open immorality, it’s certainly justified with the creation of the ACNA and the NALC.
To quote one of my favorite Lutheran theologians (or ex-Lutherans), the late, great jaroslav Pelikan (who died in 2006 after joining the OCA), the 16th century Reformation was “a tragic necessity.” Very tragic indeed, but very necessary too.
And the same applies today, if not even more so. I think the New Reformation of the 21st century is at least as necessary as the 16th century one.
David Handy+
Buried within the layers of cynicism there is indeed a powerful point. I am not sure I see the great necessity of the Protestant Reformation. In the end Rome and Protestantism are two sides of the same coin. The root difference seems to be in the number of popes. Rome generally only recognizes one at a time. With Protestants you basically have tens of millions.
For me it was either Rome or LC-MS, I chose LC-MS. The ELCA is an apostasy church, it certainly isn’t Lutheran.
NRA:
AMEN! Well said.
Re # 6
LMS,
I chose neither.
Harry (#7),
Thanks, brother.
David Handy+