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Exposing Nadia Bolz-Weber

9/14/2013

14 Comments

 
(See additional information since 2013 here)

Reverend Nadia Bolz-Weber is a troubled Evangelical Lutheran Church in America pastor who has grown in popularity within the ELCA ranks. She is highly sought after by ELCA leadership to speak at conferences and gatherings, and to preach to their leaders, members and youth. (see here) Just last week an ELCA website published a letter she had written praising Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson for his leadership.

But there are problems with Rev. Bolz-Weber, big problems. The problems I'm referring to rest in two areas, her teaching/theology, which is non-Biblical in many important areas, and moral issues that she seems to take pride in and actively flaunts.

God tells us what an appointed church leader should look like; He says the leader “must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.” Tell me if that sounds like Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber as we examine an interview she recently gave -


  • Host Krista Tippett: “Nadia Bolz-Weber is the founder and pastor for the downtown Denver 'House for all Sinners and Saints.' Is it 'House for all Sinners and Saints?'”
    Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber: “House for all Sinners and Saints. Or you know, we call it Half Ass.” (HFASS)

  • Talking about the Apostles' Creed, Rev. Bolz-Weber, who is revered by denominational leadership states, “oh my god, nobody believes every line of the creed.”

  • Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber enlightened us with this during the interview, “. . . I think that there is a really insipid message to girls when you use the exclusive male pronoun for God . . . So whenever you sort of attribute a human characteristic to God, that some people have and some people don't, it becomes problematic.”  

I guess Rev. Bolz-Weber can blame Jesus for that.

  • Rev. Bolz-Weber talked about an Easter service and liturgy she uses where her church members “invite the dead to witness the resurrection.”

  • Within her interview, Bolz-Weber spoke of what clearly sounds like universalism, at one point saying, “That's God saying, 'I would rather die than be in the sin accounting business that you've put me in.' That from the cross, you know there is all this stuff about the final judgment, you know what the final judgment is to me? It's God dying on the cross and saying, 'forgive them they know not what they're doing.' That is an eternally valid statement to me. That is God's judgment upon us.”

Let's be clear, this stance is not Biblical, but it is espousing universalism, the very dangerous belief that all people will be saved. The Bible says there will be judgment for those who deny Christ or do not have faith in Christ. John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.”

  • Rev. Bolz-Weber was asked about her Mary Magdalene tattoo and she described it saying, “She is standing there with a finger in the air saying 'Shut the hell up and listen to me for a minute.'”

  • Talking about her children Rev. Bolz-Weber says, “We are not the kind of family that does a lot of like family devotionals. We don't pray together as a family. We don't do this faith stuff in our home. You know why? My kids are around it all the time. And so I just feel they need a break at home, you know. So I know it's a big deal to like build faith in home; we don't do that."

  • The interviewer quoted a blogger's description of Rev. Bolz-Weber, “'Her sleeved tattoos and sailor's mouth are an immediate tip-off that this woman ain't your mama's minister.'”

As you can read from this interview, Bolz-Weber's “sailor's mouth” is on full display; and I'm not listing all of what she said. (see video here)

Rev. Bolz-Weber is dangerously wrong regarding very important Biblical doctrine and Biblical Truth. (see here, here and here for some more examples) Additionally, this ELCA pastor has a toxic tongue. There is no repentance or evident desire to tame her month. Paul tells us in the truth of scripture, “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” - Ephesians 5:4

Here are two snipits from Rev. Bolz-Weber's Facebook page that show her worldly and bankrupt spiritual state:


  • Rev. Bolz-Weber writes, “Just so I don't portray the National Youth Gathering as overly-controlling, a point of clarification: my contract is the same as everyone else's contract. I was just asked specifically by some of the leadership to not swear so that they don't get even more flack then they are already getting from people about me being a main stage speaker. 

    One person replied to her Facebook post, “Well sh*t. How are you gonna be authentically Nadia then?”

    Another said, “Church people make me laugh! Simultaneously saints and douchebags . . .”

  • Another time Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber wrote “A trucker just blew me a kiss. #Thingsthathappenwhenyou'reaheavilttattooedlady”

    One person asked, “Did you flash your b**bs back?”

    Rev. Bolz-Weber replied, “Cynthia, I don't do that anymore. My Bishop insists. : )”

What is really telling, with this exposition on Nadia Bolt-Weber, is that this is someone the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has elevated to a place of leadership and authority.

14 Comments
C. Douglass
9/16/2013 09:54:53 am

"That's God saying, 'I would rather die than be in the sin accounting business that you've put me in.'" Here Nadia Bolz-Weber seems to be suggesting that Jesus came to abolish the law. But that contradicts Jesus' own words, and also St. Paul's.

"Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished." Matthew 5:17-18 (RSV)

"We see now that a man is justified before God by the fact of his faith in God's appointed Savior and not by what he has managed to achieve under the Law.... Are we then undermining the Law by this insistence on faith? Not a bit of it! We put the Law in its proper place." Romans 3:28, 31 (Phillips New Testament)

"To win Gentiles, who are outside the Law, I made myself like one of them, although I am not in truth outside God's law, being under the law of Christ." 1 Corinthians 9:21 (New English Bible)

Reply
Didaskalos link
9/16/2013 08:26:51 pm

When Jesus started His earthly ministry, Mark records His first words as, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

The ELCA now spreads its counterfeit "gospel" (Galatians 1:8) with essentially the same PR campaign the serpent employed to tempt Eve: "The kingdom of God is here. Stay in your sins (we voted to reclassify them, after all) and accept our worthless assurances that you're saved."

Reply
Didaskalos link
9/16/2013 11:43:34 am

So the ELCA is hunky dory about having a stable of heretics like Bolz-Weber on its official clergy roster, but when it invites her to speak at its National Youth Gathering, it expects her to sanitize her speech of crudities it wouldn't object to her using in church and in everyday interactions with the public.

Can you spell "hypocritical gutlessness," children? It's all about phony-baloney image with the Ersatz Lutheran Church in America.

Bolz-Weber isn't the only clerical wolf over whom the ELCA has tried to throw a sheep's mantle.

Note what's been sanitized from the ELCA website's bio of homegrown apostle of homosexuality Bishop Herbert Chilstrom.

Wikipedia:
"With Lowell O. Erdahl, he [Chilstrom] is the author of Sexual Fulfillment: For Single and Married, Straight and Gay, Young and Old. His other works include the book Hebrews -- A New and Better Way. He has been a contributor to Faith and Ferment, Augsburg Sermons, and Lutheran Book of Worship Occasional Service Book."

On the ELCA website:
"Chilstrom is also an author. His works include the book Hebrews -- A New and Better Way. He has been a contributor to Faith and Ferment, Augsburg Sermons, and Lutheran Book of Worship Occasional Service Book."

Reply
Mick
9/22/2013 01:48:10 am

ELCA is the most dangerous organization today in the organized church as they act Lutheran to keep people off their guard while clearly promoting an anti-orthodox and arguably anti-Christian agenda. This is just another in a seemingly endless stream of examples proving this point. If you are still in any way affiliated with, or know anyone affiliated with the ELCA, run, don't walk!

Reply
Jason
9/17/2013 10:14:58 am

In her interview, Rev. Bolz-Weber said, "nobody believes every line of the [Apostles'] Creed." That's acceptable if she's talking about the inquirers who attend her church services (provided they don't receive communion). It's NOT acceptable if she's talking about herself or her fellow ELCA pastors or the members of her congregation. The Apostles' Creed is the bare minimum of Christian doctrine. Rev. Bolz-Weber went on to say that it's the Church's creed, not the individual's. But how can it be the Church's creed if individual members are not expected to actually believe it?

Reply
BH
9/18/2013 09:15:05 am

Jason let me shine some light on this situation for you. The ElCA's stance on creeds is confused at best. They claim them to be authoritative, but at the same time find no problem with people disagreeing with parts of these creeds based on their conscience....and the fact that the ELCA effectively uses them as nice displays of theological relics, not as things which declare normative beliefs of a church. Now, for a layman to have some doubts about the content of the creeds is not the biggest issue and shouldn't exclude that person from communion. If a person (ordained, or layman) blatantly disbelieves parts of the creed then this is problematic. I say this from an Orthodox Christian perspective who has had experience with an ELCA seminary (LTSS). In the Orthodox Church we do not fault a person who struggles with doubt towards the Nicean Creed (sans filioque) and they can still receive communion. Now if one of our members openly and blatantly disbelieves, or obstinately doubts parts of the creed then some ecclesiastical reconciliation may have to take place. Her theological views, appearance, and flippant attitude toward the creed would get her in some hot water in Orthodox Church, unfortunately the ELCA has chosen leftism and a disregard for Holy Tradition as their pope and magisterium.

Reply
Mick
9/22/2013 01:51:39 am

It Can't Jason! If the creed doesn't state what everyone there believes, it ain't a creed!!! You are absolutely correct! http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/creed

Reply
Greg
10/27/2013 11:19:46 pm

This person is appearing at my home church this week, and her book was on display this Sunday, and here is what I wrote our Pastor's this morning.

Dear Pastors,

I was shocked and disheartened to see that Pr. Nadia Bolz-Weber would be appearing at Atonement. I have been troubled, for some time, by this foul mouthed Pastor, the ELCA has elevated as a representative of our denomination. I have not read her book, but I have viewed, some of her interviews with the press, and read things, she has said, and it seems to me, that a Pastor, should, instead of sowing the seeds of unbelief, should help draw people to Christ, and reinforce, and strengthen their faith. I realize that I don't fit in with the "new Gospel" that the ELCA is espousing, and this is more reason, for me to leave the ELCA and join the LCMS. It's a shame that we are abandoning the message of the Gospel, and refusing to recognize sin as sin. As it says, in the Gospel of John, "he came, not to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved." How do we escape condemnation? The answer of course, is by faith that the Lord Jesus is the Savior. This does not mean that we should not seek forgiveness for our sins! Since, we now seem to think that our sins are no longer sins, there is no reason to seek forgiveness? If you believe that, I am afraid you are in denial of Christ's message, and in direct conflict with the Confessions, which drew me to the Lutheran Church.

Reply
Blake link
11/4/2013 07:44:08 am

It is sad that anyone would call her a minister. As a Reformed Baptist brother this is just a good example of were modernism takes the church.

Reply
Katrina
11/4/2013 04:33:52 pm

Bolz-Weber's "ministry" is a mockery of the Gospel preached.
She/he? is a profane, egotistical, self-serving person who is a reflection
of all that is wrong with the liberal, God-loathing churches who are more into narcissim and self promotion than preaching the Good News---all of it.

Reply
Drake link
11/5/2013 02:57:12 am

Thank you for posting this article. Drudge posted the Washington Post story which will unfortunately give her even further momentum. It is just plain sad that her brand of 'Christianity' is viewed as progressive. It is regressive and post-modern. I'd make the argument that it is post-POST. There is no 'modern' to it. A Christianity which dismisses the Bible, all other churches throughout history and the words of Christ, is not Christianity.

Reply
Angie Birdsall
10/16/2014 12:50:24 pm

I adore Nadia Bolz Weber. She's refreshing and I feel looking at her is like looking at God.

Reply
Kate
6/30/2018 07:26:52 pm

Are you kidding me? She is the most refreshing thing to come out of the church in years. Your comments do not live up to the only commandment given is in the New Testament which is to love one another. Jesus came to save us from the rules. If you don’t want to believe it, that’s fine. But look at the ELCA website. It outlines everything the ELCA proposes to believe. And what it says is that you don’t even have to believe to be saved. Check your source my friend.

Reply
Mick
7/1/2018 06:27:37 pm

If you honestly think one does not even need to believe to be saved then you are taking a position contrary to the teachings of Christ Himself..there is nothing more to be said as you are truly losy...


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    Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.  
    ​1 Thessalonians 5:21

    Dan Skogen

    Former ELCA seminary student and former ELCA member who is fed up with the ELCA's consistent mockery of God's Word.


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