Every so often, the shun button is suspended for a few moments. I was mildly surprised to find the May 15, 2017
Christian News featuring the covers of the latest two books, quoting some of the introductory material.
When the first edition of
Thy Strong Word was published in 2000, Otten refused to publish any positive reviews of the book. Nevertheless, one of our members, from the Jackson area, was attracted to our congregation because of the mention of
TSW in
Christian News.
I was talking to our congregation's attorney yesterday. He got me interested in teaching New Testament Greek over the Internet, and a class quickly formed. He wanted extra copies of
Thy Strong Word and
Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant. A WELS pastor recommended
Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant to him, and that led to
Thy Strong Word being read. He said, "I could not put
Thy Strong Word down."
The synods have neglected basic Biblical doctrine for so long that people are starved for the training denied them in college, seminary, and the congregation.
That is the thesis of
The Lost Dutchman's Goldmine. Luther's doctrine has been forcibly ejected by the Lutherans, notably by the synodical leaders who endlessly honk, bray, squawk, and cackle their Universal Absolution and Salvation without Faith (OJ - UOJ). The ELS and WELS, LCMS, ELCA, and CLC (
sic) are completely in harmony -
concordia - with each other. When they say "grace," they mean Universal Forgiveness and Salvation. Some clergy and most laity disagree - if they are told the truth about their official positions.
Stephan-Walther trump the Bible and the Book of Concord. The Kokomo Statements only define the Scriptures, because WELS has no use for the Confessions. They do have around 60 essays in their beloved Essays file, praising their beloved UOJ dogma, some of them written by atheists who were once WELS clergy.
Christian News consistently trumpets the ELCA-ELS-WELS-LCMS Kokomo Statements.
I enjoy the opposition, because hatred, enmity, and shunning must accompany the Gospel. Even when
Christian News tries to appear pleasant, the barbs necessarily appear.
Both of my books are described in
CN as "manufactured by Amazon," a peculiar term to use.
Christian News is manufactured by a local printer.
Christian News is a vanity publication that the Otten family sells to the public. They have $500,000 in assets, according to public documents.
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"Shun the evil-doer! Make these books go away.
Does my beard look Eastern Orthodox?" |
Martin Chemnitz Press books are largely given away, thanks to gifts from various people and my tent-making activities in higher education. ELDONA received free MCP books and KJV Bibles, but His Holiness the Bishop had his flunky tell the donor, during a meal - "Make these books go away!"
"Lutheran News, Inc., publisher of Christian News, is a
non-profit organization recognized for tax-deductible giving
by the federal government."
All books are manufactured somewhere now, because few publishing houses have their own printing facilities. NPH published my
Liberalism: Its Cause and Cure, after ferocious opposition from the Church Growthers tried to stop the presses - and it sold very well. WELS later gave me the rights to the book. NPH manufactured it earlier. Now I do, through print-on-demand, Amazon.
Otten was going to publish
Catholic, Lutheran, Protestant, after WELS put it on their list to print, then cancelled. I know Valleskey and Bivens were bitter opponents, because they threatened to boycott a WELS printer who asked to publish my books.
Publishing means paying for the printing and then selling the title for a profit, with royalties given to the author. Otten backed out of his promise, but later claimed to be the publisher. He sold it and sent off boxes of
CLP to NPH, which was promoting and distributing the book like crazy.
For a long time I gave away PDFs of my books, but DropBox changed their public linking rules, nullifying that giveaway. However, I am going to repost new links to many of the PDFs.
Lulu.com has some of those PDFs posted as free downloads.
