Obfuscation!

David L. Strand, Executive Director of the Board for Communication Services for the LCMS has posted an 'explanation' that he hopes will make the controversy surrounding the cancellation of Issues Etc. go away. However, I know for a fact that Strand's official statement is full of half-truths and bureaucratic misdirection.

Here is just a sampling.

1. Business or Ministry?

In his official statement Strand states:

In fiscal year 2007-08, KFUO-AM’s operating deficit was $620,698. Since 2001, the accumulated deficits at the station have been in excess of $3.5 million. The LCMS budget, entrusted to our care by members of our Synod’s congregations, has absorbed these shortfalls for years. After long and prayerful consideration, it became clear that measures had to be taken to stop the ongoing, staggering losses.

Please consider this, if Issues Etc. was cut because of business losses then how come it was the ONLY program on KFUO AM that ever asked for donations and support? If Strand was so concerned that KFUO AM was operating in the red then how come he didn't demand that the other programs, which constitute 82% of the total air time for KFUO, ask for donations as well?

One of my sources told me on Monday that the Synod has always considered KFUO AM to be a ministry outreach and therefore was not concerned by the expenses of keeping KFUO AM on the air.

Please also consider this fact. The treasurer of the LCMS was in Germany on the day that Issues Etc was cancelled and was shocked by the announcement that the show had been cancelled. If Issues Etc. was cancelled for financial reasons, then wouldn't it make logical sense that the treasurer of the LCMS would have been part of that decision?

2. Audience Size

Strand grossly understates the size of the Issues Etc. audience. In his statement he says:

Some may also be under a misapprehension about the size of the “Issues” audience. In 2005, station management decided it could no longer justify paying for expensive ratings reports in light of the predictably low and static nature of KFUO-AM’s audience numbers. At the time, a blending of the spring 2004 and spring 2005 “books” showed an average listening audience during the “Issues” Monday-Friday timeslot of 1,650. There is no indication these numbers have grown appreciably since.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that Strand purposely omitted the number of people who listened to Issues Etc. via podcast. Why didn't he include those numbers? Answer: by omitting those numbers he is able to make it appear like very few people ever listened to Issues Etc. But if the Issues Etc audience is a small as David Strand would have you believe, then why is there a national outcry against this decision?

Also, missing from these figures are what those in the business world call a "comparative baseline". In other words, in order to get a proper perspective of these figures then we'd need to know how many listeners each of the other shows have during their respective time slots. But that information is also missing from Strand's statement.

3. 2004 - 2005 listener data??

Please also notice that Strand sites listener data statistics from 2004 and 2005 as the basis for making the decision to cancel Issues Etc.? Here is what he said:

At the time, a blending of the spring 2004 and spring 2005 “books” showed an average listening audience during the “Issues” Monday-Friday timeslot of 1,650. There is no indication these numbers have grown appreciably since.

Ummm...that data is 3 to 4 years old. How stupid does Strand think that we are?

Where is the current Radio Ratings data? Oh yeah, Strand claimed that he doesn't have the latest ratings because they are expensive.

In other words, David Strand is claiming that this decision was based upon listener data that is 3 to 4 years old.

This doesn't make any sense.

Investors do not make decisions about which companies to buy stock in using ONLY data that is 3 to 4 years old.

Sales Managers do not create sales forecasts using ONLY data that is 3 to 4 years old.

Accountants do not make budgetary decisions using ONLY data that is 3 to 4 years old.

Why would synodical executives make the decision to cancel Issues Etc. using ONLY data that is 3 to 4 years old?

The answer is obvious. Strand is not telling us the whole truth. He has told us a fiction and is using old data and partial information to support the STORY that they've created.

4. Mis-direction

When we consider the fact that, by David Strand's own admission, KFUO AM has been losing money since 2001 and has accumulated a $3.5 million deficit the obvious question arises, "Why are Todd Wilken and Jeff Schwarz being blamed for the operating losses at KFUO AM instead of David Strand?"

When a business is losing money it is the MANAGERS AND EXECUTIVES who should be held accountable for the losses instead of those working in the trenches. In fact, if the synod was really concerned about the financial losses at KFUO AM then it would have made more sense for them to fire David Strand for mismanaging the station by allowing this situation to continue unabated for so long.

David Strand obviously had no sense of urgency when it came to raising the funds needed to staunch this bleeding. The fact that Issues Etc. was the only program on KFUO AM with a well thought out fundraising plan shows just how poorly David Strand was managing KFUO AM.

Making Todd and Jeff responsible for David Strand's mismanagement of KFUO AM is not only laughable it is criminal!

Conclusion

This statement by David Strand is a propoganda piece designed to silence critics and end the controversy. It was carefully crafted using only carefully selected bits of information while omitting data that would give people the full and complete picture.

Unfortunately, this piece because of its half truths and omitted data will do nothing more than add fuel to an already raging fire.

Comments

[Jim]

How many of these Seeker-Sensitive Purpose-Driven congregations need to be planted for them to completely take control of the LCMS?

I think you are on to something.IE attracts just the kind of people they don't want.

Jim

[Out-of-Touch Confessional Lutheran]

Great job, guys/gals.

[Helen]

They've already got enough to run confessional pastors out, when you add in the congregations which haven't a clue about what's really going on in Synod.
Which is to say, any congregation pastored by a synod supporter!

[Jonathan Schultz]

"But if the Issues Etc audience is a small as David Strand would have you believe, then why is there a national outcry against this decision?"

I would call it an international outcry. At the time the online petition reached 4000 signatures (now up to 5000--quite a feat in and of itself considering the show only had 1500 listeners) there were 21 nations represented.

[Pr. Jim Roemke]

Absolutely criminal! I am a new pastor in the synod and I am absolutely disgusted by these things, as I shared with my District President. I always wonder why people/institutions are allowed to behave so badly, why doesn't anyone ever say anything? It's because of a gorss misunderstanding and overusage of the 8th commandment. It is not sinful to say someone is behaving badly or doing wrong (unless you are the one who is behaving badly or doing wrong). This is what we have here, people behaving badly and doing wrong and then twisting and perverting Scripture to silence any godly rebuke. It is disgusting!

[FreeSpeechLutheran]

I agree, where was Mr. Strand, and other managers and executives, in creating the promotion plan on the Internet, through mail, or I don't know...let's try, the radio, to save this program? How difficult would it have been, for the managers and executives to go seek out some funds to prolong this program? If more passion, creativity, and effort would have been put into spreading the word about Issues Etc., and the KFUO funding dilemma, then Mr. Strand would not have to be "saving face" right now for the LCMS!

People who are truly committed to the work of LCMS, and the Christ-centered Gospel have already expressed that they would have given money to keep it alive, if they would have known. Truly determined and passionate people do not give up easily when the time for action comes, and this could have been before the cancellation of Issues Etc.

Heck Mr. Strand, you probably wouldn't have even needed a creative promotion effort to keep Issues Etc. alive. Just let the listeners know, and they could have gotten the money to prolong the Gospel life of this program. Listeners could have gotten other listeners to listen to the program. If only, they would have been informed ahead of time.

It sounds like a Utilitarian argument by Mr. Strand, one that justifies a lack of money for getting Issues Etc. off of the air.

So, I guess my question is, after reading this blog, how can people help in an effort to keep this radio show going??? What should we do?

[Andy]

Let's see, Arbitron SAMPLES people to determine listenership. Why? To let the world know what the broadcast reach is? No. Advertising. Unless Arbitron recently changed their guidelines, they only are interested in advertiser supported stations.

2) KFUO is licensed as a daytime only station. Where are most of us in during the day? I, for one, am at work. I don't get counted in arbitron.

3) Jim has it correct. It's not a financial decision - it is simply a lie to silence the confessional voice.

Oh, and last I checked a non-profit radio station wasn't in business to make money and ones that are ministry oriented (suprise, suprise) rarely make ends meet without some sort of subsidy from somewhere else.

[Giving up]

I give up. I have no more hope in the LCMS. After failing in one parish that was more determined to be post denominational than Lutheran and being told quite clearly by a stacked voters' assembly that close communion bible thumping liturgical pastors were a liability when one can have a progressive lay minister for a fraction of the price, I know better than raise my head too high or it would be lopped off. I have to think of my family, so I've found myself a little job in an out of the way place where I can try to do some ministry, provide for my family, and try to convince myself that I am still something of a shepherd. May God forgive me and may He have mercy on the Synod.

[paula]

Jim wrote: How many of these Seeker-Sensitive Purpose-Driven congregations need to be planted for them to completely take control of the LCMS?

Jim they don't have to plant any, just get enough key leaders on board to stonewall and wear down the opposition. They count on the opposition being too nice, trusting, and/or confused by their obfuscation and seeming willingness to 'discuss' issues, and too disorganized to mount any kind of counteroffensive against them.

Giving up -- I hear ya. I feel for you. It is possible that the Lord is calling you out of a corrupt organization... not all have the wherewithal to stand and fight so visibly, but you can also vote with your feet. If you keep preaching and speaking the truth and tending his sheep wherever you find them, that is enough. Perhaps it is only your own little flock/family that you will do that for for a while. Just be faithful in the small things.

[Steve]

To Giving Up, one word...Don't

Just because you ran into an unfaithful congregation it doesn't mean that there aren't faithful Lutherans and "future Christians" out there who are desperate for a faithful Pastor. My family and I travel miles out of our way every week to go to a faithful LCMS Church and support a faithful Pastor and its well worth it.

We need Pastors like yourself and by giving up, you are not helping the cause. Think about it, they crucified Jesus. Do not think for a moment that people will not also rebel against you when you stand in His stead and teach the truth. Brush the dust off your feet and get on call list...

Also, please let me know how to contact you, as I would like to offer help...

[Pr. Paul A. Siems]

Dear Giving Up,

I seriously doubt that what you have shared even begins to describe what you experienced. If, by chance, you would find it an encouragment to be in contact with a fellow verteran of such heartache, please feel free to contact me. There are others as well.

As an immediate word of encouragement, please remember that your personal head is not the one that they really want to chop off, but your everlasting Head. As we celebrated Sunday and as we observe every Lord's Day, they can persecute Him and torture Him and pierce Him, but they cannot cut Him off from His body. He lives, and so do those who live in Him.

God's peace to you in Christ Jesus, dear suffering servant.

[Rob Olson, erstwhile Tim the Enchanter]

For what it's worth, here was my response:

Mr. David L. Strand
Executive Director
Board for Communication
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Dear Mr. Strand:

I read with great sadness your explanation yesterday as to why you have canceled Issues, Etc., and today, after reading the Wall Street Journal article that has now brought your report into serious question at a national level, I am even more concerned about the veracity of your claims and the integrity of our synodical leadership.

I am writing you today about the supposed "misapprehension about the size of the Issues audience" that you mentioned in your statement yesterday. The most obvious omission in your statement and your grossest miscalculation of the Issues, Etc. audience, was your failure to even mention downloads of the program via iTunes podcast subscriptions. In fact, you don’t even mention podcasts! [...]

Entire Letter: http://wittenbergtrail.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1453099%3ABlogPost%3A72189

[Don]

Re: Issues, Etc

I am truly upset by actions taken by BCS (and with a great many actions that have taken place within the LCMS in recent years. Issues, Etc was one of a limited number of information and discussion places at which we can get good answers to questions - answers that are supported by God's Word and are in concert with the Lutheran Confessions. I believe there are many more individuals out in the hills and valleys of Christiandom that are not unlike myself: yearning for solid Lutheran theology that is honest and uplifting. May this not lead us to dismay but create in us a sense of urgency and trust that God will show us the way to bring us back to 'my grandfathers church'.

[Brandon Booth]

Great post! We are trying to get together a truly organized grassroots movement to discover the real reasons that Issues, Etc. was canceled, and we could sure use your help. Check out augsburg1530.wordpress.com to join our email campaign, register to attend our evening prayer service April 13 (with a possible event the next day), and join our Yahoo! group to stay connected. Can you point your readers toward us? The more we have the better it will be.

[Pr. Jamie Waring]

Dear Giving Up, I echo the comments of others on here and urge you, please, please, don't! I too am suffering a very similar fate to what you have described...I was placed out of seminary as an associate pastor in such a Church-Growth type church, asked a few impertinent questions, and was summarily executed for it. (So to speak, of course.) I too am currently tending a small flock while I await a call, and I too share your sense of pain and frustration with synodical leadership (I am in Canada, and things aren't much better here). We are victims of a problem that goes back before our time as pastors - even before the time of those who should have stamped out the cancer that is this non-Lutheran theology and practice before it got to this level - back to the garden of Eden, I'm afraid. Sin exists, and as we preach each Sunday, is a horribly nasty thing. And as has been pointed out, if our Lord Himself suffered such opposition at the hands of sinners He only deigned to love and save, how do we kid ourselves into thinking a similar fate just might not befall us? But what encourages me the most is that just as the grave could not hold our Lord Jesus Christ, for He did rise that third day, neither can the forces of spiritual evil that oppose Christ's pure doctrine prevail in the long term. We must fight the good fight, dear brother, or else who will? Praise be to God, for He fights in us and for us with His holy Word and Sacraments!

K, enuff preaching from me (for myself as well as you and others who may be similarly troubled), and I share the same feeling as another Pastor who posted above...not that I'm exactly a veteran of such suffering, but if you need someone to commiserate and suffer with, don't hesitate to contact me...pastorjamiew@gmail.com.

[Brendan]

I am not a Lutheran nor have I heard of the radio show Issues, etc. I believe by the name that it was a question-and-answer show of sorts and Biblical expounding on the air waves and shared through podcasts so that topics of today might be discussed. I honestly think that canceling such a program is a direct reflection of the lack of interest in religious education (either by the "teachers" or the "students") and contributes to the dumbing of our own society and brethren that basically will turn us all into mindless sheep who don't think for themselves.

What I am curious about, since I am not a Lutheran but rather a Baptist of sorts, is why such a structure exists to cancel such a show? From the limited reading and studying I have done, I would think that people would be very resistant to having a group of people "run" a denomination in such a hierarchical structure due to the very nature of man, a nature strongly discussed even on this website. It confuses me because I would think that people would want to focus on a more independent-church structure with possible associations with groups such as mission boards instead of there being a control issue there. By giving more power to a smaller group of people, there is an inherent flaw of corruption that only seems to be threaded out by reducing or eliminating the structure.

So my summary question is: why do Lutherans (in short) use a Synod church structure verses a more localized structure to protect against these types of pitfalls? Thank you for helping me with my ramblings.

[Kelly]

Brendan: Cults of personality can unfortunately happen in synods, Catholic and Anglican parishes, and independent congregations alike. In my experience, the more independent and localized the structure, the more splintering of the church body and lack of solid confession they will hold, and the greater the likelihood for a cult of personality to begin.

This is not an exclusively Lutheran problem by any means, and in fact the Lutheran church has been comparatively resilient against such schism when other church bodies are taken into account. Also, by the way, Lutherans do not have one specially designated church government structure that they hold to be divinely ordained; some lean towards congregationalism, some have bishops, etc.

[Brendan]

As a whole though, do Lutherans participate in one of the two major synods (I think there are two?)? I'm curious as to whether the splintering and doctrinal errors are simply more noticeable in a local congregation with no ties to any governing structure and that the errors are still in the different churches in people's thinking, they are just forced, so to speak, to believe/think a certain way to avoid the falsehood. I know I have seen this in some friends of mine, especially in some SBC churches, and I have seen this in government in general, so it's a curious puzzle.

[Inga M. Baitis]

I would like to suggest that congregations withhold their synod donations and instead send those funds directly to Todd Wilden and Jeff Schwarz until this mess is cleaned up properly and the appropriate heads roll.