Tuesday, April 8, 2008

In the Interest of Full Disclosure

Having suffered through the flurry of posts and new blogs regrading the demise of "Issues, Etc.", I probably should have said upfront that I did not like the show. I found it hyper-critical at times, woefully inaccurate in others and, on occasion, more the bully pulpit of the personalities rather than an honest exploration of issues.

However, I've been blogging on all this because the show was also very good at times and served a good purpose in our Synod. It truly was the voice of 21st Century Confessional Lutheranism--the good, the bad, and the ugly included. That it was canceled--and canceled in such a slapstick way--I believe signals an end of everything the show represented.

6 comments :

  1. Anastasia Theodoridis said...

    Full agreement.

    Still, as a step in the apparent transitioning into a Saddleback-type denomination, its cancellation is well worth confessional Lutherans fighting.

  2. Rev. Eric J Brown said...

    I didn't listen to the show - but I enjoyed reading the journal that they put out. It was a good read.

    I guess it's just that if I want to have talk radio on I want Sports talk.

  3. Anonymous said...

    I remember the journal for "Issues Etc." Is the journal archived on the internet?

  4. Cha said...

    I'm not sure it is worth a fight, or whether any amount of fighting will really do any good.

    Tough to swim upstream.

  5. Christopher D. Hall said...

    Anon--not sure about the journal. You may ask Pr. Weedon, as Pr. Wilken is a member of his congregation.

    -C (and Anastasia): It's funny. One of my elders (and a good friend) said the same thing recently about me, that I was swimming upstream. It is tiring work, to be sure.

    It is worth letting people know what is going on, as a lot of this is below the radar of the average layperson. Someone wise once told me, "If the house is on fire and you can't put it out, you exit it. If you are concerned with others, you run out yelling that the house is on fire."

    Is the LCMS a house on fire? Is it even possible to fight for Confessionalism within the LCMS? Is Confessionalism just an -ism?
    Stay tuned, folks :)

    PS Thank you all for your comments so far.

  6. Anastasia Theodoridis said...

    Well, I'll agree it's an uphill battle. Tough to win. Perhaps impossible, but *definitely* impossible if one doesn't even try.