Not just Jell-o

I've grown weary of always seeming defensive. Why should I have to apologize for being everything the media and "open-minded, free-thinkers" find offensive? I believe what I believe, because I believe it is the correct way, just as others who hold to their own opinions believe theirs is. I don't recall having told any of them to "stop watching CNN and think for yourself." I may have attempted to engage them in rational, logical debate; however, there is nothing wrong with that. Since when is discussion wrong? If you can run a commercial about saving the environment, then I should be able to run a commercial about saving the fetuses. Right? No?
Being a Lutheran, apparently, is also wrong. Despite his kindesses about our singing, a certain Minnesota author doesn't really like us. By the way, since the invention of the "praise band" even Lutherans are losing their ability to sing--it has nothing to do with harmonies printed in a certain hymnal published in 1982.
We Lutherans are not all about guilt and stubbornness and coffee and Jell-o. It is not a mindset to be escaped--released from its prison-like constraints. It is a doctrine to be grasped. I know, I know--we're not the only ones going to heaven. We do, however, speak of our doctrine as a correct exposition of scripture. That's the point. We believe what we do because we believe it is the correct exposition of scripture. Why be that which one thinks is otherwise? Luther wrote 95 points about how the church of his time missed the mark; our forbears left their homeland because they disagreed with having a sterile, empty faith thrust upon them by a government wanting everybody to "just get along". This is why we tend to be vociferous when it comes to doctrine. A little bit of leaven leavens the whole lump.
Certain strains of Lutheran have gotten watered down over the years, and have fallen into the "just get along" mindset, going so far as to agree to disagree with Rome over that whole Reformation thing--one CTSFW professor referred to it as "The Augsburg Concession".
When it comes right down to it, what we believe is simple: We are sinners, Christ died in our place and rose so that we may be heirs of heaven. It's not that we did anything to help it. Maybe that's why Lutheranism is so hard in catching on. It's too simple. To much confession and absolution and not enough work on our part. Maybe I'm being defensive again.