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| WELS District President John Steinbrenner protected a pastor who was already fired, using verbal abuse and manipulation. He and Wall should both resign. |
Pastor Steve Wall penned a six-page love letter to a minor girl in his congregation. The council fired him, but the District President took over a meeting to which he was invited (as a courtesy) and bullied two council members into resigning. DP John Steinbrenner reversed the firing, protecting Wall from the consequences of his sin.
Say what you want about the Roman Catholic leaders who protect their priestly abusers of children - WELS, ELS, Missouri, and the CLC (sic) are no better. They knowingly protect the same class of criminals, until the backlash is strong and long enough to embarrass them.
Parallels to the Duggar-Gothard Scandals
The Duggar clan, famous for covering up incest in their own home, offers an instructive parallel to this story. I suspected, as the Duggar story unfolded, that he was surrounded by abuse of some nature. In news stories from various sources, there are Scout leaders, youth leaders, priests, and others who carry out their obsessions.
The Duggars were close to two different Evangelical child abusers - Bill Gothard and Doug Phillips.
Phillips gave Michelle Duggar a Mother of the Year award, where he could not keep his hands off her - so Jim Bob intervened. Phillips brought a teen girl into his home and made her his toy, because his wife "was dying" and he would marry the girl, who fell in love with him. " Phillips so-called ministry blew up when the girl sued.
Gothard Grooming a Bevy of Young Girls
Like Bill Cosby, Bill Gothard was finally exposed as a fiend who constantly preyed on the young. However, Gothard is even more closely connected to the Duggarnaut than is Doug Phillips.
Note this fact. The Duggar Whale-Sized Home in Tontitown was built for them by the TLC TV Channel after the first incest incidents, and designed to keep Josh away from his sisters at night. So the entire Duggar Myth was developed after the facts were known. That kept them from taping an Oprah show, since someone told her staff, but the facts did not keep them off
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| Elderly bachelor Bill Gothard posed with the Duggar girls. |
The Duggards are completely wrapped up in the Gothard philosophy and remain personal friends with the old unrepentant fiend himself.
Bill Gothard developed his own national network of conferences, accumulating hundreds of millions in assets. Josh and his estranged wife Anna met at a Gothard conference and saw each other again at the next one. That was on their own website, but one has to know what ILPB means and quote the Duggars before their lawyers say "Ooops!" and scrub the post. I quoted and cited this information long ago. The Big I knows how these things work, after seeing so many WELS posts erased.
Gothard conferences are the Church and Change meetings of the Evangelical Right. They learn their orthodoxy, their secret languages, their rules and regulations. The conferences are also magnets for the wrong type of people.
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| WELS Pastor Ed Werner became a District President and remained in office when known for abusing girls in his own congregation. The mothers of the new generation of victims decided to finish his term of office in state hoosegow. The mothers had been abused, too. WELS never published the news report in their national PR magazine. |
Grooming
Bill Gothard is an expert in grooming, manipulating, and using others. Like those bent on getting what they want, he created an emotional dependency that grew until the victim would do anything to gain love, affection, and positive attention from him.
Apparently he had the kind of charisma that comes from truly sociopathic characters, who glory in their ability to do anything they want, using compliments, accusations, threats - their libido disguised as affection. Control is their aim, purpose, and aphrodisiac.
Birds of a feather do flock together. Bill Gothard's brother also assaulted women in the Gothard cult. The brother was sent away to a remote location with some secretaries, where he assaulted them, too.
Robin's Grooming Story
Taking my hand, he leaned in with a boyish grin and said, “I’ve been watching you. Did you know you have the brightest countenance in this room?” Memories grow hazy after 25 years, but that particular moment is highlighted in my mind, and it struck the tone for the next four years of my life. I was seventeen.
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out why in the world he would choose me, but Bill wanted me to come work at the Headquarters—and right away. It wasn’t long before I was working in his correspondence department. It soon became clear that I was special to him. I could make him laugh, and that was something I particularly enjoyed doing. He would always say, “You’re such a character,” and he regularly reminded me, “You are my energy-giver.”
Matthew 18 used to silence witnesses and condemn them. Just like WELS.
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| The slandering, lying WELS leaders never tire of citing the Eighth Commandment and Matthew 18. I used to keep a folder of Eighth Commandment letters from WELS - Kelm, Gerlach, etc. |
Let's do some math. This was going on in the Gothard Cult 35 years ago, and good ol' Bill protected his brother good ol' Steve. Following the changes in initials would make a CPA dizzy, an engineer faint from exhaustion. But one thing is a constant - Bill was and is a lying predator. Now he is sorry he was not meditative enough. Aww - poor Bill. But we are encouraged that he can fake contrition so well.
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| The Stephanites did not leave Dresden until their leader was under house arrest for immorality and misuse of funds. |
WELS and the rest like to use the same methods as Gothard, who changed initials for his traveling sex romps and money-grubbing. The various sects say, "That was years ago. I was not there. I know nothing about it."
Missouri did not begin when Stephan left for America with his mistress, healthy son, and the Walther brothers. No, it magically started in 1847.
Zion on the Mississippi, a masterpiece of analytical history, was written by "a disgruntled LCMS seminary graduate." Yes, everyone who can smell the stink is disgruntled, whether in this sect, that sect, or another one. If you can get Servant of the Word, about St. Walther of St. Louis, you will experience ecstatic joy that someone so perfect was saved from drowning so he could save Lutherdom in America. None dare call it pimping for the bishop until the opportune moment came for a riot, a robbery, and another kidnapping. All great enterprises start with outlaws, don't they?
How did Stephan maintain power over his clergy and girlfriends? Just like Gothard - enforced loyalty, total control of the followers, accusations. forced repentance for those who dissented, excommunication.
Lutherans in America - you are still Stephanites - and nothing will change until that is recognized.
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| The official LCMS policy is "destroy all evidence of abuse." |