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So I go visit the ELCA website to see what's going on in "Lutheran"
land and run across an ad for The
Cafe, the ELCA's new Women's E-Magazine.
Wow. I don't even know where to begin.
For convenience, I'll start with the current issue. There's a long,
3-page article on forgiveness.
I guess I'm a little naive, because I actually dared to hope that somewhere in
that article that there would be the Gospel. I really did think that I'd
see "Jesus" mentioned in it. Even I was a little
shocked to find not even one occurrence of either.
But don't worry, there's plenty about the psychological benefits of
forgiveness, how forgiving can significantly improve our physical health, and
even an invitation to celebrate International Forgiveness Day (August 7).
Even in the "Faith Reflections" (I can hear Bloghardt-the-Reflector's
prettyboy Skywalker brain approaching the brink of explosion already), there's
precious little, if any, Gospel, but plenty of the Law. Jesus does get
mentioned in this "devotional" ditty on forgiveness -- in it, the
author quotes the Bible where there are references to this Jesus guy.
The author, an ELCA "pastorette", does bring up Baptism and the
fact that we receive forgiveness in it, once for all time. But she does
so, making it sound as though our own forgiveness was a one-time deal that we
don't really need to bother with giving much thought to anymore. She talks
about the Lord's Supper too...but in a way that advocates open communion and
reduces it to a community meal that spans class, race, gender, ethnicity, etc.
where we receive the power to forgive rather than where we faithfully receive
into our bodies Christ's own Body and Blood for the forgiveness of our sins.
The articles are on FORGIVENESS, ladies. How in the world can a
Christian even begin to talk about forgiveness without talking about Jesus, who
won our forgiveness, or the Cross where He did so? This was a perfect
opportunity to share the Gospel in its purity and sweetness. And they blew
it. That's what I get for forgetting that no woman who knows the
Gospel would ever be a "pastorette".
Since finding this tonight and the wealth of things to discuss and false
teachings to expose, I plan to spend quite a bit of time springboarding from
their articles over the next few weeks. Watch for more frequent Missives!
Edited on: October 03rd, 2005 4:29 am
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