Mark Dankof Salutes Herman Otten: There Was a Time When Giants Walked the Earth

The Theological Credo of the Lutheran Reformation and Herman Otten of Christian News

      My longtime friend in the Confessionally Lutheran Faith and fellow journalist, Herman Otten of Christian News, has gone to be with the Lord Jesus Christ in eternity as of two days ago, April 24th, 2019.  Love Him or Hate Him, count me as one always in Herman’s corner in life when we first occasionally began working together over decades.  His place in Lutheran history and in the history of cutting edge Alternative Media in a pre-technological/pre-Internet era is absolutely guaranteed, regardless of what one would say about him now.  As for his considerable number of enemies, Otten loved publishing their original works of trash with complete glee and sarcastic wit.  Two items of hilarity for him in the current media would have been the tragi-comedic posts of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency entitled “A Chicago Space for LGBTQ Jews Becomes a ‘Queer Jeshiva for Everybody’,” and the Russia Today post on Sonalee Rashatwar entitled “‘Fat Sex Therapist’ Compares Fitness to Nazism, Dieting to Rape.” Herman would have noted editorially that Sonalee’s Seminar was delivered at St. Olaf’s “Lutheran” College in Minnesota.

Otten: “We Need a Stick-it-in-His-Ribs Rebuttal.  Call San Antonio.”

     At the same time, he loved me on the radio and quietly followed my pathway there.  Herman likely missed my On-The-Air work this past week.  He’s listening now from Above. And making notes.  . . . He is probably also viewing the You Tube video of highlights of his life and his family’s ministry to him in his final days of this temporal existence, put together by his son Tim.

Herman Otten Loved This Meme of Israel’s “Christian” Bitch-in-Chief.

     The evidence of his personality and journalistic omnipresence is everywhere, ranging from the Lutheran Logia journal which gives him a qualified Thumbs-Up to liberal Matthew Becker of Valparaiso University and Day Star, which gives him an unqualified Thumbs-Down.  The latter was finally removed from the clergy roster of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod after a lengthy investigation which would never have occurred had the bureaucracy of that Synod not been hounded by the public exposure of Becker’s views over a very long period of time by–you guessed it–Herman Otten.

Lutheran Pastor Mark Dankof and Reformed Baptist Pastor Dale Crowley, Jr. both named on the Christian News roster of “Soldiers of the Cross.”

     An additional 1992 read which underscores his pivotal role as a watchdog of Missouri Synod machinations and Synodical Presidential elections over decades can be accessed as well, courtesy of a Chicago Tribune repost from Victor Volland of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. It is entitled, “Lutheran Journalist Plays Role of Spoiler.”  This sample is but a microcosm of his role as Editor of Christian News since 1962.  Another is the essay of Robert Benne, Director of the Center on Religion and Society at Roanoke College for Richard John Neuhaus’s First Things, entitled “The Trials of American Lutheranism.” While Dr. Benne’s ideological bias is revealed in his fine article, it does illustrate what James Adams, Religion Editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote in his pivotal work, “Preus of Missouri and the Great Civil War” about the role of Herman Otten and Christian News in bringing down John Tietjen and a majority liberal faculty at Concordia Seminary in February of 1974.  Adams correctly observed that when historians would chronicle the ugliness of that Civil War over decades, the pivotal role of Otten in making it happen would be forever remembered.

    Another brief and poignant remembrance of the great man I have always thought of as the H. L. Mencken of Christian Journalism has just been posted on April 25th by Dr./Pastor Karl Fabriziius of Gottesdienst:  The Journal of Lutheran Liturgy.  It is entitled “Remembering Herman Otten.” It is yet another reminder of the place of Herman Otten and Christian News in the annals of American Lutheran history.

     As far as Richard John Neuhaus and First Things go, Christian News reported the truth:  Neuhaus had received $8.5 million dollars in contributions from Jewish Neo-Conservative sources for his long-time service to the State of Israel and Zionist Wars.  It wasn’t all about Hagee, Robertson, and Falwell.  The Synagogue of Satan had also skillfully covered its bets with a Lutheran turned Roman Catholic, who knew how to keep his printing press going and with great Mainstream Media reviews.

     Herman knew too much and was willing to speak and write about what he really thought.  People in power feared him, as he could not be compromised or purchased because of his faith and his commitment to a bedrock subscription to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. Because of this, he would be the target of relentless ad hominem attacks and demonization for decades. Each punch thrown his way was met by his shifty footwork and public journalistic counterpunch.  He instinctively understood that the world was both a cruel place to an honest man, and not the final stop, but only a fleeting transition for a brief moment to the blessed home in eternity awaiting the Christian believer.  What remains forever unfathomable is that he was simultaneously an effective parish pastor over the same period of temporal time, and had the absolute support of wife Grace, his kids, and his grandchildren in everything he was doing at the Lord’s behest.  Otten’s personal call to a ministry of Word and Sacrament proclaimed in his pulpit each Sunday was also his personal call to combat on the other 6 days of the week what he saw as an insidious threat to Biblical orthodoxy, culture, and morality via his pen and typewriter.  In his “spare” time, he participated for years in triathlons.

Christian News Consultant on Biblical Eschatology Par Excellence.

     For a direct encounter with Herman Otten speaking as Herman Otten, try his presentation to the 9th Revisionist Conference published by the Journal of Historical Review.  The title is “The Holocaust, Historical Revisionism, and Christians Today.”

Otten to Dankof: “Tell This Andrew Carrington Hitchcock guy in England to Send Me More Stuff!”

     Love Him or Hate Him, You Must Deal With Him.

Otten to Dankof:  “Are You Keeping Your Bedside Devotions Active Every Night?”

     My conversations with the legendary Editor of Christian News over decades all began flooding back to me the day after his passing in New Haven.  I’ll relate the last one we had in 2015 that involved an incredibly serious matter involving Yours Truly with the ability to laugh with Herman about it later.

     Bottom line:  I almost had to legitimately shoot a man to death beating a woman in my apartment complex parking lot in San Antonio on Columbus Day that year.  My account of this may be accessed here.  I told my long-time friend about the details you may now read about.

     I was explaining to the good Pastor and Editor about my choice of firearm, the particular load in the magazine and chamber, and the Combat Handgunning technique of the Defensive Two-Tap to the upper torso (“Bang, Bang” best enacted with a semi-automatic and two lightning squeezes of the trigger, not jerking). I did so only because he was asking all the questions about the particulars. Herman then spoke of a theoretical headline only Otten could come up with instantly for Page One had I actually been forced to use the weapon: “Christian News Exclusive: Dankof’s Defensive Two-Tap and Walther’s ‘Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel.'”

     For those who follow me now on Press TV/Iran, National Bugle Radio on RBN, Duke on Rense Radio Live, the American Free Press, Don Wassall’s Nationalist Times, Russia Insider, Russia Faith, Russia News Now, the Andrew Carrington Hitchcock Show in the UK, Al Ansaar Radio, CII International Radio of Johannesburg/Durban, Culture Wars, Dankof with Jonas E. Alexis of Veterans Today, BATR/SARTRE, and countless other places in the last two decades, history will reveal that I was originally elevated to my level of visibility in the last 19 years by two things.  One was my run for the U. S. Senate in 2000 in Delaware against William Roth and Tom Carper as the nominated delegate of the Constitution Party.  Even more importantly, my foray into Alternative Media for the Old Right was launched by my book review for Herman Otten and Christian News that made it into the 9-11 Commemorative Issue only days after September 11th, 2001.  The book reviewed was Gordon Thomas’s Gideon’s Spies:  The Secret History of the Mossad. Mr. Thomas himself contacted me from Ireland after seeing it.  That would have been impossible in a pre-Internet age.

The Post 9-11 launch of Mark Dankof into Alt Right Action was because of Herman Otten of Christian News on September 17th, 2001.  The Fallout from that Book Review continues to this day.

     I had occasionally contributed to Christian News since the late 1980s, but the Thomas book review published after 9-11 changed the course of my life.  I could never have foreseen any of this, but on occasion Herman published a handful of items under my byline that bear special reiteration:  My memorial to the great Pastor Dale Crowley, Jr. was one of them.  My interview with Howard Phillips for Christian News was subsequently run by World Net Daily in its entirety.  My Page One interview with Dr. James Montgomery Boice is no longer online anywhere, but Christian News Encyclopedia will have it. My tribute to my academic advisor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Dr. Harold O. J. Brown, was another Otten editorial publish that also made it into wider evangelical circles that found him too tough on the Bad Guys in their midst otherwise.  I am informed that the TEDS faculty actually posted the Christian News original in the faculty lounge after the Brown death for a period of days.  I found this amusing:  The implication was that Dankof had written a terrific tribute to Joe Brown, but having Trinity students encountering both Dankof and Herman Otten in print with reference to the seminary was a potentially inflammatory risk.  For the record:  Harold O. J. Brown loved Christian News.  He read every issue.  I made sure he made it when he preceded Pastor Otten in the Kingdom of God.

     These lovable Protestant Evangelicals could not quite handle the Otten style of sardonic-to-the-point-of-inflicted anguish humor always brandished when absolutely warranted.  A classic example of this was the “prophetic vision” of Montanist Charismatic Guru Jamie Buckingham in the late 1980s.  It related to Buckingham’s direct unmediated message from the Holy Spirit to the former that Jamie would receive a Supernatural Healing and Deliverance to Claim and Proclaim from the sad case of cancer affliction he had encountered.  Charisma magazine and other Montanist outlets were playing it up big at the time and using it to sell other Charismatic Montanists on the idea of simply naming and claiming their physical deliverance from dreaded disases and suffering by clinging to Jamie’s received revelation. Only Herman Otten had the guts at the time to publish the dangers to Christians of accepting such transparent and heretical nonsense at face value from these self-anointed Evangelical Superstars.

The Flag of Israel-First Evangelicals, Capitol Hill, the ADL, the SPLC, Aryeh Tuchman of J-Hate, Joe Biden, and LGBTQ. Herman Otten was their Eternal Adversary.

     Jamie Buckingham sadly died 3 years later.  Christian News published the news story on his passing and obituary, alongside what Charisma had published some 36 months before on his Supernatural Healing of Deliverance to Claim and Proclaim message courtesy of the Holy Spirit’s person-to-person call that Buckingham asked everyone to believe actually transpired.  There was no editorial comment from Herman Otten.

Otten Answers the ADL Chief On The Line:  “Don’t Like Dankof’s Last Op-Ed?  His Dog is More Well Read Than You Are, You Jerk.”

     Message:  Only Christian News will remind people of the entire context of this sad story.  Christian News isn’t making light of a man’s illness, suffering, and death.  But false teaching and a heretical Montanism being passed off as Biblical doctrine and praxis has to be held accountable to the truth.  Buckingham was a heretic.  Everybody else is tap-dancing around this.  We Won’t.  We Never Will.

Mark Dankof’s Graduation from Valparaiso University, the Alma Mater of Grace Otten and the Adversary of Herman Otten.

     Pastor Herman Otten lives today with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  That was and is his message to you.  I loved him in life.  I love him now.  I and all believers will yet encounter Herman and his manual typewriter, printing press, subscriber snail mail list, and Enemies Now in the Lake of Fire List in the Kingdom of God (Romans 10:9).

     Requiescat In Pace, Thou Who Hast Been Faithful Unto Death (Revelation 2:10).

Luther’s Reformation in Christian News on the 500th Anniversary.

 

The Family Second Only to God Priorities of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Otten

The Journalistic Credo of Herman Otten of Christian News