ELCA, A Sinking Ship?

From time to time it is nice to record my thoughts, no matter how insubstantial they are, after it has been construed. And maybe, in a few years, I can always look back and laugh at my nonsensical blathering. Maybe it will have commemorable values. For those of you who are reading my blog, feel free to plagiarize any ideas of mine for your papers. Everything I publish here will be for the public use, but it comes without warantees of any sort.

I am publishing this following blog in order to explain to myself about why I think ELCA is shrinking. I have been thinking about this over the summer without reading any books. The of decline of church membership is very ostensible. The large shrinkage of church income is a well known fact. Should I really pursue the ELCA ordination? It is not only time consuming, but it feels like jumping onto a sinking ship. Is it possible to reverse the decline? It is possible but not likely, especially since those who belong to the Lutheran leadership ranks are very defensive whenever I bring up the subject. All I hear are excuses to justify their inactions and indolences, but the prospect of change is perhaps even more terrifying. Eventually ELCA has to get their collective asses together or face extinction. Anyways, I will cut to the chase and explain the problems and perhaps a few remedies to end the spell.

I. The Meaning of Decline

What is the underlying meaning behind this decline? I think it means that ELCA has failed to connect with majority of the Christian population. I don't think the validity of the theology has anything to do with it. If church growth is the best indication of the validity of a religion, than Mormon Christianity is the most valid religion of all religions! The fact that R&B and rap music is better than classical music doesn't mean it is a better form of music. The fact that American idol has better ratings than educational programs doesn't mean that it is a better program. Evangelical Christianity is popular simply because it is popular among unintellectual and uncritical messes of believers. I'll have more to say about this in the future.

II. Church Culture & Structure

ELCA is marked by eurocentricity. What I mean by that is that the whole Lutheran tradition is created in Europe and was brought over to the US via the immigrants mostly from Scandinavia and Germany. The church design, culture, liturgy and style of worship are all somewhat similar no matter what part of the world the churches are located. Since Lutheran is the state religion in those countries, the denomination has the monopoly of the Christian faith. It is a well known fact in economics that whenever an entire industry is owned by an monopoly, it is very slow to respond to the needs of its consumers. For the first few generations of immigrants in the US, it was politically correct to go to church every Sunday. The choices about which type of church to attend were larged based on the sects where they originated from - language, nationality, culture, worship style, looks of buildings, etc... There was no need for evangelism.

However, the time has changed. The Scandivian / German community has disappeared because of cultural assimilation and population migration and mixing instigated by the economy. In the past, people's lives are centered about their community. Today people's lives are centered around the economy. In today's generation, offsprings of Lutheran immigrants neither are compelled to go to Lutheran churches nor are compelled to go to any church at all. Today in the midst of free religion, ELCA find themselves in competition with not only other religions but also other Christian denominations. Fully adapted to American culture, Evangelicals have flourished while the Lutherans are perishing.

ELCA is more centralized. On the other hand, Evangelical churches are more localized and more likely to adapt to the regional demands. If you don't like one Baptist church, you go to a different one. If you don't like an ELCA church, most of them are nearly all the same.

Evangelicals target their audience and fulfill their needs. ELCA say we will give you *what we think* you need, (and not what you think you need) and we will do what we think is the best for you. (and not what you think is best for you)

Because ELCA does not have emotional services, they are unable to turn people into "worship junkies" or "worship addicts" - those who need to get their weekly doses of emotional kicks and fixes. Because ELCA actually interprets "born again" correctly, they are unable to have power over and manipulate people's lives. Because ELCA does not provide entertainment through rock and roll music, stand up comedy on the pulpit, emotional sermons, and charismatic razzle dazzles, going to services become more like a task and less like a carnival.

Lutheran congregations are bad at missions, and individually Lutherans are terrible at sharing their faith with others. Evangelicals on the other hand are indeed growing. Are they converting new believers? Well, the Mormons and JW are growing. Muslims are growing, and so are Buddhists and Wiccans. Scientology and New Age are growing. Atheists are Agnostics tripled their population in last 10 years. The answer is no. Percentage-wise all other religions are growing, and Christianity is experiencing, at best, stagnation. This means the Evangelicals are not converting new believers but instead are converting existing believers from mainline denominations. ELCA is losing members to other denominations like Baptists, E free, or Assemblies of God.

III. Theology

Most Midwestern Lutherans as far as I know stay closely with the Scripture and Orthodoxy and with bona fides. Some Lutherans in the two Coasts have earned the reputation of being too liberal, but that is not the case in the Midwest. The Lutheran mode of bible interpretation is too difficult for the common people. If it is too difficult, the bible adds NO VALUES to their faiths. I mean people are told that in order to interpret the bible correctly, they need to have an adequent profficiency in the background history and culture, they need to think inductively and look for metaphors, allegories, and symbols, they need to know a thing or two about textual criticism, and to really understand the text they need to know biblical languages. Evangelicals, on the other hand, make things really easy. They believe that any high school dropouts should be able to pick up a bible and understand it perfectly. There is only one way to understand the bible, which has only one right interpretation - the meaning that is the most literal and obvious.

In the end, it just seems to me that the Lutherans require trained professionals to tell them what to think.

IV. Professional Clergies

It is a huge problem. This is something which I alluded to in one of my previous posts. I am going to cut the length of this blog short and write more about it in the future.

How Is Luther?

Ever since I embarked on my seminary career in the beginning of July, my friends never stopped interrogating me for my new experience. At this point I am without sufficient empirical data to construe an accurate response, because most students whom I have met are first year divinity students. A large chunk of the student body is away for the summer. I have not acquainted many faculties either. Nevertheless, I have to give my impression of this place to satisfy the curiosities of many.

A multitude of students I have met are theologically conservative but politically liberal. I don't think theological orthodoxy will be challenged here.

Most people are more Lutheran than I thought. A few are ridiculously Lutheran. I mean they grew up in Lutheran family, went to Lutheran elementary school, middle school, high school, and of course Lutheran college. More than half of the students here I met are either mk's or pk's. Now they are in Luther Seminary. Marten Luther himself is put on a pedestal. A typical lunch time theological discussion goes like this...

topic: anything

Seminarian #1: This is my opinion: *explain explain explain.....* By the way, I have no possibility of being wrong in this issue.

Seminarian #2: How so?

Seminarian #1: Guess what, I am going to invoke the writings of Luther himself as the Authority. This is what Luther said....

Seminarian #3: Oh! If Luther said that, it must be true!

Seminarian #2: Okay, that settles it for me...

Classes must be difficult. One very confounding and disturbing advice I kept hearing from many other experienced seminarian is that don't try finish all the readings and all the works that are assigned to you in any class for the sake of your own sanity...don't work too hard but smartly. It will be a very hard advice to follow for my perfectionist self.

Dehumanization

Taking a pit stop to temporarily halt the agony of Greek studying in a race against time before the vocab quiz on Monday, I opened up my web browser, opened up a can of soda, and read the news. I have been following the situation in the Middle East. The cycles of violence never ends. While people in that part of the world are never tired of fighting, I am already sick of hearing about it. President Bush appears to have no intention to negotiate peace. Many Evangelicals like himself have insatiable avarice for more wars, which they believe would trigger the end time apocalypse.

Besides religious beliefs, I have been thinking about what other factors could cause human beings to inexorably harm other human beings. One common factor is this psychology of what I would call "dehumanization". There are two main types of dehumanization - deflatory and inflatory. Before I begin, I have to make a side comment. This treatise is not the result of formal psychological research. I am sure you can find similar materials in academic journals that are better and more in depth. The problem with those journals is that they are very esoteric, incomprehensible, and inaccessible to non-professionals. This treatise is the outcome of my own readings, experience, and reflection. It may not be completely *true*, but it should at least contain substantial practical significance. Okay, here we go.

Did you ever wonder about what exactly went through the minds of the crusaders and inquistors? How can an extraordinary human being watch another get tortured, whiped, have bone crushed by tightening vices and screws, boiled alive in hot oil, or dismembered alive by machines or wild beasts? Many Christians would very quickly defend of Christianity by saying "Oh, those people are not real Christians." That is a myth based on false information and perpetuated by pious believers. Muslims used the exact same excuse after September 11th - "Oh, those terrorists are not real Muslims." Would atheists take their own lives for the sake of Allah? The truth is that those crusaders and inquisitors not only believe in Christianity but believe a thousand percent. In fact, it takes a great deal of faith for them not to believe. Excommunication is dreaded more than death. Christian warriors were all pious believers, and the government at that time knows how to take advantage of their piety.

Would one human being harm another if we all know we share many common bonds with all other fellow human beings? For example, we all suffer physically and emotionally. We all have aches and pains and moments of agony. We all have mothers who worry about us. We all have people and things that we love and value. We all have dreams and aspirations. We all have moments of joy and memories we treasure. We all have compassion, remorse, and conscience.

However, if a person seriously think this so and so muslim, heretic, witch, or jew is an incarnation of the devil, the being that instigated Adam and Eve toward the fall, the origin of all the pains and sufferings, the entity that caused God himself to die on a cross, the being that leads your love ones astray and into eternal torture in hell, then your feeling toward this person would change. In fact, if you believe all these things about this person, then this person is no longer human. Anger and hatred would over run your emotions and cause you to do unimaginable things, if you really believe so and so is the devil such as many people did in medival period.

The same dynamics of dehumanization also occured to Nazi soldiers during World War II. When the Jews are considered to be no better than animals after the manifestation of various propagandas, then they can be extinguished.

The same principle applies to enemies of war. The Commies are savages and flesh eaters. They infect their ideology on other countries like a pervasive and uncurable disease. Do we know anything about those Vietnamese soldiers that we shoot at during the Vietnam war? Do they go to school and have a job? Are they married? Do they have children? What is their favorite movie or novel or food? What do their mother feel about them getting shot at? Lets say if meet these people the first time as complete strangers at a casual setting, and you are about to fall off a cliff, would those people rescue you?

We also tend to dehumanize ourselves without noticing it. If we are soldiers at a war, we suppose to just fire weapons without asking questions. We are indoctrinated to uncritically accept certain values, expectations, and beliefs by our society, our social groups, our culure without really thinking about it. We are not really humans but just a worker bee who lives under another person's agenda. This brings up the next form of dehumanization - the inflatory type.

Sometimes there are certain people who like and respect so much that we just absorb their ideas and opinions uncritically. Those people can be your parents, your favorite teachers, pastors, theologians, or philosophers. A small group of people accepted Karl Marx uncritically and eventually caused deaths to the millions and lack of progress in many countries. When we keep inflating the status of a person, he or she is no longer human. When a concept, an idea, or anything is hoisted above and beyond criticism, it becomes an idol. Sometimes when a false idol is lifted up high, it becomes hard to bring down.

There is no easy solution to this problem. At this time, I just pray to God and hope that the Holy Spirit would keep enlightening us and to make us more like the humans that is created under God's image.

Proclaim the Year of Lord's Favor

Now I would like to share with you a gem from the Scripture at this time.

I am sorry. Some of my blogs might be too preachy. This will be one of them. I am not actually a fan of the concept of preaching myself. I prefer a form of communications that can be challenged and has a mechanism for feedback. I guess we have to live with it because it is a part of liturgy and tradition. Sermons inherently have the idea that “I know more than you do, and this is exactly the way it is.” This is especially true in Lutheran churches where the pastors wear an elaborate robe and stand on an elevated podium. It symbolizes the idea that “I am not only special, but spiritually and intellectually I am a level above you.” At one point in time that was true. Uneducated and illiterate farmers, unable to think for themselves, had no choice but to accept all preaching with credulity. The time has changed. The audience today is more educated and informed and should be harder to impress, but uncritical acceptance of a certain school of biblical teaching still happens. Most people are just too busy making money and providing for their families. They throw their own spiritual and political beliefs “up for grabs” and effectively are manipulated through emotions, propagandas, and the dynamics of “group think” phenomenon. Do most people really think for themselves? They think they do. I will have more to say about this later, and how the format of preaching maybe changed to be more relevant and culturally appropriate. Oops! Did I say change? In Lutheran tradition? I just said a word that is as bad as any swear word didn’t I? Never mind! Anyways, I will now get on with the subject…

By the way, I only wish to inform not brainwash. Please consider my discourse with both an open mind and a healthy dose of skepticism. Anyone can leave a comment in my blog. At any rate…

In the beginning of Luke 4:18, Jesus stated his mission and purpose:

“The spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has appointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to proclaim release to the captives; and to recovery of sight to the blind; to let oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

What is *the year* that he quoted from Isaiah 61 and at the same time the Lord’s favor? Unless we resurrect Isaiah or Jesus himself, we can’t know this for sure. However, by the process of elimination, deductive reasoning, and consideration of the passage in historical context, I believe he was talking about the year of Jubilee.

The concept of the year of Jubilee is described in detail in Leviticus 25. Basically every 7th year is a Sabbath year and every 7x7=49th year is a super Sabbath year. There was extravagant celebrations and jubilation, but there are many other interesting facts. One among them from the bible is the fact that in ancient Israel all land was supposed to be divided evenly in every tribe and among every family. After all, the land is owned by no one but God. Some families experienced hardship and had to sell their land. However, in the year of Jubilee, all land would go back to their original owners. The purpose of the law is to ensure equal distribution of wealth and to prevent a small number of powerful few from controlling all the land and all the wealth. It sounds great, but unfortunately historians and archaeologists don’t believe the law has ever been put in practice. In ancient Israel, there was practically no middle class as most people are extremely poor except a few who are rich and powerful. I believe this is the whole purpose behind Jesus’ proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor.

Did Jesus accomplish this goal? Of course not. His ministry only lasted a year. That means his disciples, us, are expected to continue his endeavor through compassion, discipleship, political action and legislation. Anyways, I am doing my part by informing you. I just hope you lasted until this point. Until next time…

A Prayer for All fellow Luther Seminarians

Dear Lord,

Please let us seek until we find, let us in when we knock, and let us be astonished by your love and grace.

Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, hands to touch, and whatever has never occurred to our mind.

Lead us from unreal to real, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen

My First Post

Hello,

As a spanking new Luther Seminarian, I like to thank the very few of you who has the patience to visit this little blog. (You bring tears to my eyes.)

This blog will contain my thoughts, opinions, and reflections. It will NOT contain any personal secrets, gossips, and trivial occurances. I would like to both inform and entertain. I write this blog mostly for my fellow Luther seminarians from summer Greek and a few other friends, since its contents is by nature esoteric. (If I talk to my best friend about God or philosophy, he would fall asleep in no time.)

I create this blog for many purposes. Besides being a personal exercise of my own nerdiness, I like to use it as a mean to stimulate thoughts and discussions. In time I will have some deep thoughts. Also I wouldn't mind getting into very dangerous territories, such as the doctrine of hell, double predestination, the problem of evil, abortion, homosexuality, and etc... Normally you wouldn't want to get involved in difficult discussions in public. Also I believe truths or any good ideas should be proselytized. I hope to challenge your beliefs and in return have my own belief challenged. I love to have you read my blogs carefully, and I love to see some feedbacks.
I'll begin with a very brief personal facts:

1. My undergraduate degree was electrical engineering & physics. I worked in industry for 5 years as an wireless design engineer. My stint with the coffee shop is merely to buy time so that I can ponder about my future and still have a source of income.

2. I respect other people's opinion, and sometimes too much so. I think it is crucial to consider all different points of view, no matter how absurd, and understand how different people come up with different conclusions. That requires thinking from a different box then the one that I am acustomed to. Refusal to think outside of one's box creates close mindedness.

3. I am an inept Christian mystic, armchair philosopher, and amature theologian.

4. I am studying to become a pastor or theologian. I don't think I can be both because of limited youth and resources.

5. I do feel like the Lord has called me to do ministry, but I am currently in a state of denial.

6. I am looking for a new church, maybe a Lutheran one. My church is way too large.