By Larry Beane
As if Lesbian "bishops" and gay porn in the cathedral weren't enough, here is the latest blasphemous attempt by the Lutheran (sic) "Church" of Sweden to engage the youth.
This about sums it up:
The church in Sweden has become increasingly progressive. In 1958, it allowed its first female priests, and two years ago ordained its first openly gay bishop, Eva Brunne, and gave priests the right to wed same-sex couples.
Idestrom says his modern Mass is a further development on the road of progress.
"People say this is exactly what the Church of Sweden needs," he said. "We need to develop the services so that we have a service also for people, mainly from the younger generation, who like this kind of music."That's always the rationale for "contemporary worship." And notice how it never stops with a few guitars, a flute, and a piano...
"There are churches who have U2 Masses, where they play music by U2, some have animals — horses and dogs and donkeys — and we have motor cycle Masses."This is exactly what happens when the church forgets that worship is Gottesdienst (Swedish: Gudstjanst), God's service - a holy, supernatural, sacramental transaction in which the Lord gives His gifts to His people in Word and Sacrament, who in turn worship Him with reverence and gratitude for the sacrifice that has saved them from sin, death, and the devil. Once that bond of mystery is broken, once the connection to the faith of our fathers is severed, there is not much left but a shallow and pathetic cry for attention that can quickly degenerate into a freak show.
At the heart of the matter, it's a first commandment issue. Do we worship and submit to Christ? Or do we worship ourselves and serve the god "entertainment"? The liturgical butchers of the "Church" of Sweden have made it clear what is the object of their veneration.
HT: Dr. William Tighe
This is irrelevant. The Church of Sweden is in no way Lutheran, and; whatever it is; no one attends it anyway. I believe that less 1% of Swedes are in church on any given Sunday, and even that 1% is split up between the Church of Sweden and other churches there. As for our context: people who want this kind of paganism will always find it somewhere and are welcome to it.
ReplyDeleteAs of 2003, 1.53% of the Swedish population attended a worship service of the Church of Sweden on a "typical" Sunday morning, and 1.52% of the population attended some other, not Church of Sweden, worship service.
ReplyDeleteI do not have more recent figures readily available.
Dear Pastor Anderson:
ReplyDeleteAnd thank God that so few people actually attend worship in these Swedish "churches" (The Mission Provinces churches are, of course, the glorious exception).
But it is relevant insofar as: 1) the article appeared in USA TODAY, Huffington Post, and other international news outlets - and they share the name "Lutheran" with real Lutherans - which creates an association that is not easy to explain away with a discussion of church-body fellowship. 2) The same impulse to create youth-oriented worship (which is really entertainment-worship) is alive and well in American confessional church bodies. he things we see in Scandinavia will find there way here, only 20 or 30 years later. We are like Scrooge being visited by Marley.
Paganism is as old as the fall, but we are seeing manifestations of it in once Christian contexts in new ways just since the latter half of the 21st century: such as the aforementioned lesbian bishop and the display (and defense) of a display of homoerotic pornography in an ancient Christian cathedral that still claims the name "Lutheran."
The reality is that western culture is shifting away from Christ whereas the center of the Christian world is moving southward into Africa and Asia where the Scriptures are actually believed.
We have already seen confessional Lutheranism and orthodox Christianity in Scandinavia preserved and rescued by the faithful archbishop Walter Obare (Sabre of Boldness) of Kenya. I think we are likely to see other similar acts of heroism from African and Asian brethren. Their grandchildren may well evangelize our grandchildren!
Just a few thoughts provoked by this provocative report...
Your point one is well taken. It is relevant, I suppose, when it is promoted in a newspaper as being a "Lutheran Church" conducting a "Lutheran Service." They certainly aren't doing us any favors.
ReplyDeleteWell, we in the LCMS are on our way to this kind of worship. Parishioners don't know a single thing about music or music history. They just know what they like. Old and young people are not taught about how music can affect worship and liturgy or their lives in the home. Music in the world for Lutherans is ok, so they think, why not bring it into the church. Lutheran pastors are not educated in music, only liturgy. Luther was correct to say, pastors should know about how music works and be educated in it.
ReplyDeletePastors, please educate your children and parishioners in the great western tradition of church and classical music. You can't have one kind of music at home and then expect people to continue using good music in the church if all they know is pop music.
Rather frightening to read this. I have heard that "religious illiteracy" is rampant. Worship standards lower as the IQ lowers! And who wants or needs to go to church to be entertained? Strange and sad.
ReplyDelete+Gary Carson
Aguascalientes, Mexico