Friday, April 20, 2012

I am No Luther

http://peculiarpilgrim.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/95-theses.jpg

I'm certainly no Luther, but this post cracked me up in light of my current legal predicament.  It comes from a commenter "Friendly Observer" on the SGMSurvivors blog - a blog dealing with the abuses that past and current that members have suffered over the years at Sovereign Grace Ministries' churches under the leadership of C.J. Mahaney.   There are at least two blogs that have spotlighted the abuse issues and give a place for congregants to share their stories just as I have here.  AoR mentioned below is Ambassadors of Reconciliation - an organization that helps Christians in the mediation process.  They seem to not like the bloggers.  Oh well.  If the church would have handled the problems properly in-house, there would be no need to go elsewhere to speak the truth and give a voice to those victims who have not been allowed to have a voice. 


Have fun with me and pretend I'm Luther and you-know-who is The Vatican :)
As for the AoR guys, it’s ironic to me that they are Lutheran and especially ironic that they came down (predictably, by the way) against the blogs and bloggers.
Wasn’t Luther an early blogger? Sure, he preceded the electronic age by a few hundred years, but he could well have been “MLuther@cathedraldoor.com” right? Didn’t his initial blog entry (granted, his “Send” button was a hammer and some tacks) start a ruckus? Didn’t “Leo@vatican.org” have serious issues with this blogging upstart? Had he been immediately “repentant” and silenced, there would have been no denomination bearing his name.

8 comments:

  1. And you-know-who issued his papal bull to show who's in charge! Keep on blogging...

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  2. Luther...ironically, another of Chuck's favorates.

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  3. Replies
    1. Focusing on something as nit-picky as spelling and avoiding the true meaning of the message makes me curious. Why are you interested in shifting from the topic of the post?

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  4. Funny you should mention Luther. When the elders at the church I attended slammed me for my blog where I discussed theology, the very next Sunday School class (amazing how God does this) was about Martin Luther. In the "meeting with the elders" the exact points they criticized me for in my blogging they praised Luther for in that next SS class. In the SS class I looked at my wife to see if she was catching any of this and she was already looking at me with a smirk on her face. I just love double standards like this.

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  5. Blogs can be a good thing, but I understand the AoR perspective after reading their report and several SGM-related blogs yesterday. Blogs are just like the tongue--they can speak incredible grace and be sources of salt and light, or they can be tools of hatred and malice. Too often, our sinful hearts result in the latter. While I understand a LITTLE of the hurt experienced by the people writing them, and I can see their original motive in starting their blog, many of them are at the point where they are just spouting unkind words...even lies. Nothing gets vetted and slander is allowed to travel like wildfire. There is no indication of grace, no effort to reconcile, no stride toward healing. There is very little being said that would be said by Jesus Christ. His Glory is not the preeminent motivation, nor the general theme. We as fallen creatures have a much greater tendency to tear down than to build up...myself included! From that perspective, I understand the AoR and many others viewing blogs as a negative influence on the process of forgiveness and restoration.

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