I find the kerfluffle over colors among the guardians of the Reformation to be positively hilarious. (See here, and then here.) LCMS pastor Joshua Genig suggests using purple instead of red for Reformation, and the poor fellow gets his shins kicked repeatedly. (Genig’s got a few things seriously wrong, mind you – I won’t defend his position.) It’s no fun being on the receiving end when the ecclesial brute squad takes issue with your colors. Or so I’ve been told. But what’s so terribly humorous about the whole thing is this is the same crowd that thinks nothing of changing the color for a whole season (Advent) to follow—whom again? oh yeah—the Papists! Snigger.

Of course, anybody who digs just a smidge into the history of liturgical colors knows that the whole thing is made up anyway. So much for Lutheranism.

UPDATE: I’ve reread Pr Genig’s article several times, and I think I’ve changed my mind. I’m not sure he’s wrong. In fact, his particular charge—the complete lack of charity among Lutherans towards other Christians—is manifest directly in the comments at First Things, and elsewhere. Anybody who’s been a pastor in the LCMS for, oh, 8 or 9 minutes has discovered some very, very cruel people in the ranks of her clergy. Kudos to Genig for the courage to say what needs saying.