Coronavirus news

[Steven W Bohler]

Why, Pastor Bohler, are you trying to minimize this issue? Is it because one of us ratty "progressives" is trying to make the point?
Bottom line facts:
The unvaccinated are more in need of hospitalization than the vaccinated.
Minnesota hospitals are overcrowded.
Hospital officials report (today, by the way, not reports in an economist article) that the majority of the covid patients are from the unvaccinated. (Ditto reports from my niece, the nurse, a hospital worker.)
There is a good chance that were it not for the unvaccinated then people in need of surgeries like the one I need and people with much more critical concerns would not be crowded out of the care they seek.
Why do you find it necessary to dispute this?

Well, your niece, the nurse, says so!  That changes everything.  You should have led with that.  I retract everything.  By the way, it was an article by the Economist, not an economist article. Even an unlettered and unlearned person such as myself has heard of it; I am surprised that a world-renowned and celebrated journalist (not to mention sand-castle builder and barbershop quartetist) such as yourself apparently has not.  Here is a Wikipedia link to help you out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist

[James S. Rustad]

Why, Pastor Bohler, are you trying to minimize this issue? Is it because one of us ratty "progressives" is trying to make the point?
Bottom line facts:
The unvaccinated are more in need of hospitalization than the vaccinated.
Minnesota hospitals are overcrowded.
Hospital officials report (today, by the way, not reports in an economist article) that the majority of the covid patients are from the unvaccinated. (Ditto reports from my niece, the nurse, a hospital worker.)
There is a good chance that were it not for the unvaccinated then people in need of surgeries like the one I need and people with much more critical concerns would not be crowded out of the care they seek.
Why do you find it necessary to dispute this?

The plural of anecdote is not data.  The actual data I see reported generally contradicts many of the anecdotes you pass along.  When it doesn't, well, even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes.

[Steven W Bohler]

By the way, Rev. Austin, I did not see this anger when hospitals last year cancelled such surgeries and sat empty in preparation for COVID waves (that often did not come).  It seems that it is only when YOU are affected directly that you go berserk.  There were people who needed cancer screenings that could not get them, elderly patients who could not see their doctor for check-ups, and the like.  But you demanded the whole world be shut down, just so you would not get infected.  Yeah, it WAS an inconvenience (why, you even had to rely on your facility's servants -- I mean, employees -- to bring you your ice cream!) but one that was well-worth it, if it kept folks like you safe.

[Charles Austin]

Pastor Bohler, I am sick of your mean-spirited snark, your intentional stupidity (can't recognize an obvious typo "Economist") and your constant personal potshots at where I live and what I do. You need to get a life not filled with resentments and bile. (But for God's sake, don't go back to your previous obsessions and your failure to win your post 9/11 idiocy.)

[Steven W Bohler]

Pastor Bohler, I am sick of your mean-spirited snark, your intentional stupidity (can't recognize an obvious typo "Economist") and your constant personal potshots at where I live and what I do. You need to get a life not filled with resentments and bile. (But for God's sake, don't go back to your previous obsessions and your failure to win your post 9/11 idiocy.)

Hey, that's exactly what many here have been saying about you and your Trump obsession!  Is the light starting to dawn yet?

[Charles Austin]

You have the same dark dark spirit of your predecessor, David Anderson, who in Dubuque 50 years ago went on the radio to denounce me and my congregation, calling me un-Lutheran, mocking my motorcycle, and calling my op-Ed article on ecumenism in the Telegraph-Herald a betrayal of the Reformation. He also suggested a pastor who took part in an anti-war demonstration or helped draft resisters should be investigated by police and the FBI.
You carry on his assaults. Be proud.

[Steven W Bohler]

You have the same dark dark spirit of your predecessor, David Anderson, who in Dubuque 50 years ago went on the radio to denounce me and my congregation, calling me un-Lutheran, mocking my motorcycle, and calling my op-Ed article on ecumenism in the Telegraph-Herald a betrayal of the Reformation. He also suggested a pastor who took part in an anti-war demonstration or helped draft resisters should be investigated by police and the FBI.
You carry on his assaults. Be proud.

I greatly admire Rev. Anderson (who was not only my predecessor here in Crookston but also my vicarage supervisor), so I thank you for the comparison.  He was a very good pastor.

[Charles Austin]

And of course a "good pastor" sets out to attack and ruin the ministry of a neighboring pastor and destroy the neighboring congregation, using extremist tactics and lies. His words were probably stimulating to the unknown person who poured five pounds of sugar into the gas tank of my motorcycle, not at all good for the bike.
BTW I have forgiven him and the unknown vandal.

[Steven W Bohler]

And of course a "good pastor" sets out to attack and ruin the ministry of a neighboring pastor and destroy the neighboring congregation, using extremist tactics and lies. His words were probably stimulating to the unknown person who poured five pounds of sugar into the gas tank of my motorcycle, not at all good for the bike.
BTW I have forgiven him and the unknown vandal.

Yeah, it sounds like you have forgiven him.

[Dan Fienen]

And of course a "good pastor" sets out to attack and ruin the ministry of a neighboring pastor and destroy the neighboring congregation, using extremist tactics and lies. His words were probably stimulating to the unknown person who poured five pounds of sugar into the gas tank of my motorcycle, not at all good for the bike.
BTW I have forgiven him and the unknown vandal.

But was he a good pastor for his congregation, caring for his people and feeding them on Word and Sacrament. Or does that not matter?

[Charles Austin]

Let's give this up, Pastor Fienen. My beef is with Bohler and his mentor, and is no longer an issue.
Carry on with virus news, not old scores.

[RDPreus]

You have the same dark dark spirit of your predecessor, David Anderson, who in Dubuque 50 years ago went on the radio to denounce me and my congregation, calling me un-Lutheran, mocking my motorcycle, and calling my op-Ed article on ecumenism in the Telegraph-Herald a betrayal of the Reformation. He also suggested a pastor who took part in an anti-war demonstration or helped draft resisters should be investigated by police and the FBI.
You carry on his assaults. Be proud.

I greatly admire Rev. Anderson (who was not only my predecessor here in Crookston but also my vicarage supervisor), so I thank you for the comparison.  He was a very good pastor.

Rev. Anderson was my vicarage supervisor, too.  He was a great pastor, a good friend, and a humble and faithful servant of the Word.  I am grateful to have served under him (1977-78).

[Dan Fienen]

Let's give this up, Pastor Fienen. My beef is with Bohler and his mentor, and is no longer an issue.
Carry on with virus news, not old scores.

You are the one who brought Pr. Anderson into this conversation as an additional way to denigrate Pr. Bohler and cast aspersions on his pastoral qualities by comparing him to his predecessor with whom you seem to have a half century or so old grudge and scoff at the idea that he could have been a good pastor and by implication neither could Pr. Bohler.


If this was to be a private spat between you two, why not carry it on privately? You put your grudge on the open forum which makes it fair game for anyone to comment. You generally show little hesitancy for telling people just what you think of them, how foolish they are, how ignorant, how dangerous you find their ideas, how lacking in Christian love, how lacking in pastoral qualities. Should others show more restraint than you do?


Perhaps Pr. Anderson treated you unkindly or unfairly so long ago. Perhaps he was not as good a neighbor pastor as you were to him. I don't know, I wasn't there, I'm not going to try to judge and either condemn or justify him or his actions. But even if he treated you badly, did that preclude him from having been a good pastor to his people?


Something that people have a very hard time doing, have always had a hard time doing, is recognizing that everyone is both good and bad. The one does not preclude or negate the other.

[Charles Austin]

BTW an advisor and mentor in those tumultuous days was none other than the late Richard John Neuhaus. We would later meet and become friends, but we spoke by telephone and communicated by mail. He gave helpful advice on social involvement and liturgy to a young pastor. Later I would write several things for Forum Letter when he was editor.

[peter_speckhard]

So, how 'bout that Ronavirus, huh?