Messages

31

Your Turn / Re: Coronavirus news

« on: January 20, 2023, 05:34:14 PM »

The point Brian and I are trying to make is that “learning” comes in different ways and that our children, if they are adversely affected by pandemic situations, are just facing the rigors of Life. Our cozy, untroubled world got shaken up. Deal with it.

That's the most hard-hearted, uncompassionate post I've read this year, but we're only 20 days in. 

Hey, bombs aren't falling on you, so buck up kids! 

32

Your Turn / Re: Coronavirus news

« on: January 20, 2023, 05:25:18 PM »

Yep. Can’t let a little thing like a pandemic get in the way of making a profit.
Sorry, there’s not more profit in public schools, maybe they could’ve been kept open.

So, it was the money-hungry Dem rulers, with Fauci as their puppet, who closed the schools due to lack of financial gain and usefulness. Got it.

33

Your Turn / The Hateful March for Life

« on: January 20, 2023, 01:22:39 PM »

"Tony Dungy to attend [today's] March for Life, dubbed right-wing extremist"

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/tony-dungy-attend-march-life-dubbed-right-wing-extremist

Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation: "Like Dungy, neither NBC nor the NFL has commented about his latest eruption. But their silence speaks volumes. It’s a silence that’s almost as loud as Dungy’s hateful blather, almost as loud as the thousands of people descending upon Washington—some mandatorily—to celebrate a fascistic, discredited Supreme Court and the loss of our rights. It’s shameful. And we should not be afraid to say so."

I've admired Tony Dungy ever since he was a star as my alma mater's (Minnesota Gophers) quarterback, 1973-76.

t appears that pro sports has swallowed the woke agenda hook, line, and sinker!

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2023/01/20/provorov-jerseys-sell-out-n2618534

"...Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov enraged leftists by refusing to wear Pride Night gear..."

34

Your Turn / Re: Happy Festivus

« on: January 13, 2023, 04:06:38 PM »

But then, I don't care who he is. If he wants to post under the name Fletch1, more power to him. Doesn't bother me in the least.

Agreed.

35

Your Turn / Re: Happy Festivus

« on: January 13, 2023, 04:01:00 PM »

A moderator makes snarky comments to me about my postings, but lets the anonymous one post which is presumably against the rules of this forum.
Figure out who it is? Wouldn’t that be doxing? I was blasted for trying to do that on more than one occasion. Simple rule. Post here under your own real name or get out.

Grandiose delusions, Charles? It's not up to you.

"Wouldn’t that be doxing?" No, it's not. What you've done in the past is evil doxing.

Interesting how the posts of an anonymous poster can be more gracious than yours. No shame, I guess.

36

Your Turn / Re: Happy Festivus

« on: January 13, 2023, 03:41:27 PM »

I “dismiss (or tend to not engage politely) those who persistently reject this humble correspondent as “Marxist,” non-Lutheran, heretical, Satanic and/or otherwise a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

.
I pray for you frequently (seriously). This forum would not be the same without you.

Sincerely, Fletch1

Well, you see, Charles has to disagree with this because, as has been stated by him many times in many ways, an anonymous poster can *never* be trusted...

#toobadsosad

Well, they are hiding something from the rest of us (or at least most of us): namely, their names.

Good grief! If you guys haven't figured out who Fletch1 is by now! 

37

Your Turn / Re: Dr. James Nestingen, RIP

« on: January 13, 2023, 08:15:54 AM »

The ending of Giertz' "To Live with Christ" devotion for this morning, based on Romans 6:3-11:

"We really do unite with Him, Paul says. " We have been united with Him in a death like His" (Romans 6:5). We have been grafted like branches to the vine. We have become members of His body. We are incorporated as living stones by the Spirit's wonderful establishment.

That means we are united with Christ. We will grow together with Him all our lives. Just as He rose up to live a new life, we also rise up every morning and live with the Resurrected One. We live through. Him and for Him. That is the meaning of Baptism."

38

Your Turn / Re: Happy Festivus

« on: January 12, 2023, 06:25:17 PM »

Here you go, Charles.

"This Land Is Not Your Land"

https://www.motherjones.com/food/2021/04/this-land-is-not-your-land/

39

Your Turn / Re: Dr. James Nestingen, RIP

« on: January 11, 2023, 11:55:59 AM »

A remembrance of Nestingen by CSL prof. Robert Kolb:

https://concordiatheology.org/2023/01/in-memoriam-james-arne-nestingen-1945-2022/

Thank you, Pastor Butler. There are many glimpses of the James Nestingen I knew through lecture and conversation. One point really stood out. When he would start proclaiming the Gospel and the grace of God, through paraphrasing Scripture or through anecdote, he would get animated, he'd start chuckling and then laughing, and, yes, his North Dakota/Up Nort brogue would increase. You could tell that it was a joy for him to do so, and it was a joy for us to hear it!

40

Your Turn / Re: Happy Festivus

« on: January 10, 2023, 07:52:52 PM »

You are over reacting, as I suspected you would. I was only making a simple historical comment. No need to get all excited.

And you react with the ad hominem, as I suspected.

Besides, your comment is not historical. You err.

41

Your Turn / Re: Happy Festivus

« on: January 10, 2023, 05:53:10 PM »

From our worship bulletin on January 8, baptism of our Lord. I don’t know whether it was created by the pastor or came from another source.
   “we gather this day on the ancestral lands of the Dakota people, those who first settled along the shores of Mdewaken, the waters we call medicine Lake. We remember with sadness that the gifts we enjoy were taken from others. We confess our failure to walk your path of justice and peace. For the Dakota people and all who cared for the air, the Earth, and the waters before us, we give thanks. When we are baptized we claim the promise of life for us given to us in our mother’s wombs. We claim the promise that we have been adopted by the Spirit and are part of God‘s beloved creation. Renew in us the saving truth. Give us faith to live as your children in all that we sense and say and do.”
   Theaters that we attend frequently always announce the fact that we are meeting on land once owned by others and give thanks to the various tribes that occupied it.
   Too woke?

There's a great difference between settling on land and owning it. How did those Mdewakanton Dakota end up on Medicine Lake? they originally settled on Mille Lacs Lake until...

"But about the middle of the eighteenth century, the Sioux villages at Mille Iacs [sic] were wiped out in a wild onslaught from the savage Chippewa who had obtained firearms from the French and had pushed their way westward from the Lake Superior country.

A few of the fleeing refugees established new villages along the lower Minnesota River.  One of the largest of these was the one headed by Chief Shakopee, on the site of the modern city which bears his name. From this point, the villagers ranged far and wide, hunting and fishing.

One of their principal trails led to the site of Anoka, on the Mississippi River, at the mouth of the Rum River which flows from their ancient home at Mille Lacs.

Midway, the trail skirted a beautiful lake, set amidst heavy groves of trees which constituted a part of the ‘Big Woods,’ a vast stretch of hardwood timber which occupied all this part of the present State, north and east of the prairies and south of the pineries.

On the banks of this lake, the warriors established a stopping place near the mysterious sepulchers of earth which their far-distant ancestors had fashioned in the dim reaches of antiquity. Brooding at this lake the homesick hearts of the Shakopee Sioux found in its waters a resemblance to the distant lake from which their enemies had so ruthlessly expelled them."

Question: Were there other natives in the area that these "warriors" drove out and displaced?

So, yes, some of the Ojibwe (Chippewa), including some of the "savage" Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, who are residents of Northern Minnesota where I reside, claim that we "stole" the land that they "stole" from the Dakota. And so it goes.

Woke? Yes. Out of place in a church bulletin? Probably.

Do we even know the tribes on our lands before we got here?

Yes, I do. See above.

But thanks, Charles. I have friends who live on Medecine Lake. I'll forward this to them so they can return their property to the Dakota, pay reparations, or at least repent of their evil actions. 

42

Your Turn / Re: Question About ELCA Congregation Departures

« on: January 09, 2023, 01:00:22 PM »

Don, I should have focused on the beliefs of FreeMasons rather than rituals.

They believe eternal bliss is promised to all who follow Masonic ethics.
Masons stress good works as the goal of mankind.  Jesus Christ is not
regarded as man's Redeemer from sin.  They believe in a Supreme Being
rather than the Triune  God.

Dave,

Can you give me specifics as to what is anti-Christian about The Lodge? The rotary is not a Christian organization, it dows not confess Jesus Christ, but I don't think it's considered anti-Christian.

Thanks.

Yes, he can. But he should not do so in this discussion, which isn't about the Lodge. Yes, we all know the different Lutheran bodies have differing views on Free Masonry. We can talk about those views in a thread devoted to that subject.

I don’t think he can. But, okay. I wish that you’d been as vigilent with the Nestingen thread hijacking.

43

Your Turn / Re: Question About ELCA Congregation Departures

« on: January 09, 2023, 12:34:53 PM »

Don, I should have focused on the beliefs of FreeMasons rather than rituals.

They believe eternal bliss is promised to all who follow Masonic ethics.
Masons stress good works as the goal of mankind.  Jesus Christ is not
regarded as man's Redeemer from sin.  They believe in a Supreme Being
rather than the Triune  God.

Dave,

Can you give me specifics as to what is anti-Christian about The Lodge? The rotary is not a Christian organization, it dows not confess Jesus Christ, but I don't think it's considered anti-Christian.

Thanks.

44

Your Turn / Re: Question About ELCA Congregation Departures

« on: January 09, 2023, 12:32:26 PM »

The Masonic Lodge had religious rituals which were contrary to the Holy Scriptures. 

Which rituals were those, Dave. Can you be specific?

And how does the York Rite, leading to Knight Templar, fit into that?

As a summary of LCMS understanding of Freemasonry there is a short CTCR paper on "The Lodge" at https://files.lcms.org/file/preview/zxodAMUgikNVPE0XdNxxZuLLoZvFGI8Z? CPH has a pamphlet on the topic, How to Respond to the Lodge in an ebook https://www.cph.org/how-to-respond-to-the-lodge-3rd-edition-ebook-edition or print edition https://www.cph.org/how-to-respond-to-the-lodge-3rd-edition.


As to the York Rite, I recommend the following online article: https://freemasonscommunity.life/york-rite/. This is not an LCMS site, but one from Freemasonry itself. In describing the York Rite, this website agrees that the York Rite does use the Bible and Christian themes, but it is not tied to Christianity.

Masons associate the York Rite with the Bible. Indeed, much of its teachings lean heavily on Biblical passages and allegories, particularly compared to other rites and degrees of Freemasonry. For this reason, many outsiders erroneously consider the York rite to be a form of religion.
However, like all Masonic teachings, the York Rite is not a religion. The only pre-requisite to complete the York Rite degree is to be a Master Mason and to have faith in a Supreme Being, and the latter is fundamental for all Masons, regardless of degree. While the York Rite does focus heavily on Biblical teaching], it also teaches Masons about themes relating to the medieval crusades, as well as elements of ancient craft Masonry. However, many of the York Rite degree secrets are heavily guarded and are only shared with those completing the degree.

While there is undoubtedly a crossover between the values and the history of Christianity and the Knights Templar movement, it’s inaccurate to say that the Knights Templar is a Christian organization, as it accepts members of various denominations.

Anyone joining the York Rite must first be an accepted Mason. The objections that the LCMS has to Masonry thus also apply to York Rite Masons.

What exactly and specifically is anti-Christian about Masonry and the York Rite?

Do you consider "various denominations" to be anti-Christian?

45

Your Turn / Re: Question About ELCA Congregation Departures

« on: January 09, 2023, 11:28:47 AM »

The Masonic Lodge had religious rituals which were contrary to the Holy Scriptures. 

Which rituals were those, Dave. Can you be specific?

And how does the York Rite, leading to Knight Templar, fit into that?