Pastor Fienen persists (As we knew he would):
Please make up your mind. Do you want me to shut up or speak my mind? Here you snidely jab at my continuing in the conversation. Later:
Are you going to answer any of my questions?
Oh, I get it, you want to call me on the carpet and call me to account, you just want me to give up on stating by opinion. After all, when you want my opinion you'll give it to me.
I ask again. Are you so willing to cling to a certain "Lutheran" formula for theology that you will automatically resist any ecumenical statement that is not simply that "Lutheran" formula stated again? Do you simply reject nearly 50 years of Lutheran-Roman Catholic dialogues (with the LCMS part of those dialogues for a good portion of that time) and say nothing has changed since Augsburg or Trent?
I guess it is your view that all those words written up to 1580 override anything that could be written since.
You guess wrong. Times have changed and neither the Roman Catholic Church nor Lutheran Churches are the same now as they were in 1580. Much has changed in the RCC since 1580, much of it for the better. There is much room for rapprochement. Lutheran Churches have splintered since 1580. Theologically some questions between the two church families may have been resolved and each side understands the other better. New questions have arisen. Much has changed.
What has not changed is God and His plan for salvation. It is not up to us to establish unity between our church families at the expense of fudging on God's plan of salvation.
Sectarianism is to be avoided. And yes, the LCMS tends towards sectarianism. On the other hand, so is doctrinal indifference. From where we stand, that seems to be an every present temptation for the ELCA.