

Stone Choir
Stone Choir
Two Lutheran (LCMS) men bring a theological lens to the world, and relate the state of the world back to theology. Topics are timely, challenging, and fearless. We’ll probably make you nervous, sometimes make you angry, but never leave you bored. We are the stones who cry out.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 5, 2023 • 1h 52min
On Women: Feminism
…
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Show Notes
Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants
Wider die Mordischen und Reubischen Rotten der Bawren
As it turns out, I don’t have a copyright-free version of this essay from Luther in English. If anyone knows of such an English version, please let me know.
See Also
Feminism [Wikipedia]
Elizabeth Cady Stanton [Wikipedia]
Revolutions of 1848 [Wikipedia]
Revolutions of 1917–1923 [Wikipedia]
Further Reading
“On the Nature of Woman”
“Not a Shoreline, but a Cliff”
“The Theory of the Inborn Inalienable Human Rights in the Light of God’s Word”, Lehre und Wehre, Vol. 12, October 1866
“Killing Abortionists Is Moral”
Parental Warnings
None.

Mar 29, 2023 • 1h 45min
On Women: Scripture and Ontology
God assuredly knows the purposes for which He made His creatures, the proper ends toward which their lives should be oriented. We can order our lives according to God’s Word and God’s design, and He will bless us, or we can rebel against His Word and His design, and we will suffer. When it comes to the issue of woman and her place in creation, practically the whole of modern society has chosen the path of rebellion.
Women today strive for and grasp at nearly every possible path other than the one designated for them by God. Genesis is clear: Woman was made for man to be a helper for him. This is woman’s telos, this is her purpose, and it is also her only chance at happiness and joy. When we rebel against our nature, we find only misery, suffering, and pain; Feminism is rebellion against the nature of woman — it is the embracing of the woman’s curse in the Fall. As Christians, we cannot be Feminists; rather, we must believe, teach, and confess what God says in His Word about woman, her nature, and her purpose.
Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
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Show Notes
See Also
Further Reading
Parental Warnings
None.

Mar 22, 2023 • 1h 32min
Scripture and Slavery
The modern world contends that slavery is incompatible with Christianity and that Christians must oppose slavery. Is this what Scripture teaches? The Christian must always turn to Scripture, not to the Enlightenment or to the secular oracles who proclaim newfound morality and a progressive revelation.
Scripture actually deals with slavery at length and in detail. In this episode, we go through the Scriptural teaching on slavery. The world may believe whatever it likes, but the Christian must hold firm to the Word of God — and Scripture does not oppose slavery.
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Show Notes
Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Deuteronomy
Romans
Philemon
See Also
C. F. W. Walther on Slavery
Further Reading
δουλος (slave)
Parental Warnings
None.

Mar 15, 2023 • 2h 32min
Against the Antichrist
Matthew Harrison is head of the largest (supposedly) Confessional Lutheran body in the Western world — the LCMS. During his tenure, he has overseen the greatest decline in membership in the history of the LCMS, the closure of LCMS schools and congregations, and the collapse of LCMS organizations. Now, to top off his legacy, Harrison is pushing false doctrine via 'new' versions of core confessional, Lutheran documents (e.g., the Small Catechism and the Large Catechism). He is even exporting this doctrine abroad.
Of course, the focus on exporting doctrine is nothing new — Harrison has spent his tenure with his focus everywhere but on the sheep God entrusted to his care (and for which God will one day command him to account). Harrison and those around him personally hate this podcast and its hosts, because we are speaking the truth about the Christian faith and about what men like Harrison are doing to the Church. In this episode, we review Harrison's recent letter 'denouncing disturbing ideologies'.
Christians do not speak as Harrison speaks. We will all have to choose a side. For their part, the following men have thrown in their lot with Satan and the kingdom of Antichrist:
Matthew Harrison, President of the LCMS
Peter K. Lange, 1st Vice President of the LCMS
John C. Wohlrabe Jr., 2nd Vice President of the LCMS
Scott R. Murray, 3rd Vice President of the LCMS
Nabil S. Nour, 4th Vice President of the LCMS
Christopher Esget, 5th Vice President of the LCMS
Benjamin T. Ball, 6th Vice President of the LCMS
the 35 District Presidents of the LCMS
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Show Notes
"President Harrison denounces disturbing ideologies"
"Statement on the death of George Floyd and the ensuing riots"
The New Catechism of the LC-MS [YouTube]
YouTube review of the 'Annotated' LC.
See Also
Coverture [Wikipedia]
"The Stranger" by Rudyard Kipling
"Letter to President Harrison of the LCMS"
"Test of Pastoral Orthodoxy"
"We Are Stronger Together"
"The Apostasy of Missouri"
Further Reading
C. F. W. Walther on Slavery, Humanism, and the Bible
Antifaschistische Aktion
"On the Year-Zero Revolutionary"
Parental Warnings
The word "jackass" is used once in this episode at around 01:30:00.

Mar 8, 2023 • 2h 20min
On Human Race: Racism
Racism is not a sin. The modern-day ‘sin’ of racism was invented in the 19th century and then imported into the churches from the decadent and decaying culture. If you think that racism is a sin, then you have been misled.
In this episode, we go over the history of the term “racism” — where it originated and how it entered our modern culture — and take a look at how Satan is using it to destroy the Church. This is the culmination of our series on race and the most important episode in the series. This episode may make you uncomfortable, but the truth is worth the price.
Subscribe to the podcast here.
Show Notes
Racism and Overcoming the Idolatry of Babel [YouTube]
Partiality
“Racism” in Webster’s Dictionary (1828)
If you want to read the resolution from the second half of this episode, it can be found in the proceedings of the 2019 convention, which can be found here.
See Also
Magnus Hirschfeld [Wikipedia]
Further Reading
Formula of Concord: Solid Declaration, Art. I
Racism by Magnus Hirschfeld
Parental Warnings
Some discussion of sexual matters, but not in explicit terms.

Mar 1, 2023 • 1h 56min
On Human Race: IQ
God has given to men many attributes, and these attributes are not evenly or equally distributed. Some men are taller than others; some men are faster than others; and some men are more intelligent than others. The subject to human intelligence — IQ — makes many uncomfortable for a number of reasons, but it is no less real and no less a part of God’s good ordering of Creation than is height or any other attribute.
Intelligence is largely genetic — overwhelmingly so, in fact. If your parents are or were intelligent, then it is very likely that you will be so as well. This holds even more true for human populations (e.g., races), as they share a common genetic pool. Some races are more intelligent than others. IQ is not the same from one nation to the next.
Now, the issue of human intelligence can certainly be, in and of itself, a fascinating area of study or research, but that is not our primary concern; rather, we are concerned with how human intelligence interacts with the Church. Is there a minimum intelligence for the preservation of the Church and her treasury of God’s Word and truth? Can the Western Church survive if all her members are replaced with foreign souls? Can the Church survive the ongoing replacement of Europeans by alien peoples?
These are not idle questions and the answers are not so much a matter of life and death, but of eternal life and eternal death. We have been given a sacred trust — the Word of God and His bride, the Church. Whether we will be faithful or flounder remains to be seen, but the present trajectory is most certainly grim.
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Show Notes
Normal/Standard Distribution
σ = standard deviation (sigma)
See Also
Race and IQ Studies
The referenced clip from The Wire (language warning)
Further Reading
The Bell Curve
Intelligence Quotient
Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scales
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
Parental Warnings
Some of the terms used in this episode are considered offensive in modern speech, but are all used in their technical sense.
The show notes include an image and video clip with a number of expletives.
Errata
When discussing the four-sigma numbers at ~00:07:21–00:07:38, I (Mahler) failed to note that I was working with a decimal chart and did not convert from decimal to percentage (which I should have done) and so stated — twice — that the four-sigma portion of the population is “point one percent”, when, in fact, I should have said that it is 0.001%. Point one percent of one when working in decimal (1.0 being 100) is, in fact, 0.001%, but it is decidedly unhelpful not to mention that one is working with a decimal chart, and thus implying 0.1%. (It is actually 0.000892201505099236%, but I suspect I can be forgiven for rounding.)

10 snips
Feb 22, 2023 • 0sec
On Human Race: Scripture and Soteriology
Race is a biological and a theological reality. The God Who created the Universe also created the races of men. The differences between and among the races of men have very real consequences for society, for neither the individual nor the average member of a given race is identical to or interchangeable with members of another race.
Scripture is not silent on these matters — God is not silent on these matters. Society would simultaneously have you deny the reality of human race and focus on a (deliberate) misconception of it in detrimental ways. In this episode, we ground our five-part series on race in the Word of God. There is truth in Creation, for it was written by the Author of all truth, but God did not leave these matters to ‘chance’ or simply to the discernment of men. From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture speaks of the reality and the importance of human race.
What God has created, let not man deny or destroy.
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Show Notes
See Also
WFS: Dispensationalism
WFS: Scofield
Parental Warnings
None.

Feb 15, 2023 • 1h 28min
On Human Race: Behavior and Society
What maintains societies? What destroys them? There are many factors that contribute to whether a society flourishes or fails — natural resources, weather conditions, IQ [two weeks], et cetera —, but a fundamental, unavoidable fact is that the quality of the men and women who comprise a society is intimately and causally connected to the level and the success of that society.
Human behavior is downstream from race, because race is a matter of genetics. The behavior of individuals influences society and aggregates into civilization. A society comprised of violent, uncontrolled criminals will never achieve great things; a society comprised of lazy, unintelligent men will never reach the stars.
As Christians, these are not matters of indifference — what kind of men we produce or permit in our societies directly affects our neighbors and, yes, the Church. In this, the second episode of our series on race, we will be tackling the uncomfortable questions of race, behavior, criminality, and related issues. Last week was genetics and next week will be Scripture — this week is behavior and society.
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Show Notes
FBI Violent Crime Data (2019)
STI Data from the CDC
See Also
Twin Studies
Genetic Contribution to Criminality
Parental Warnings
This episode frankly discusses crime and related matters. You may not want to play this one for your children.

Feb 8, 2023 • 1h 34min
On Human Race: Foundational Matters
We are all sons of Adam — no Christian can deny this. However, we are not all sons of Japheth, nor are we all sons of Ham, and nor are we all sons of Shem. The descent of the nations (i.e., races) of man are given in the Table of Nations (Genesis 10). Nature is entirely in accord with Scripture. The nations can be seen in a number of ways — geographically, genotypically, behaviorally.
In this episode, we will be covering the fundamentals of human race. In a future episode, we will cover the theological import of these facts (if you are looking for Galatians 3:28, please wait for that future episode). This topic makes many Christians uncomfortable, but discomfort is not the standard — truth is. Test what we say against Scripture and against the natural facts.
Nothing we say in this episode (except some of the scientific matters) would sound at all out of place to the overwhelming majority of your ancestors — yes, even the Christian ones. So you must ask yourself: Was the Church and every Christian wrong for thousands of years or has the modern world drifted away from the truth? We can give you the information, but you must make that decision for yourself.
As we will cover in the episode, there are four categories of men when it comes to understanding and accepting the reality of race:
the Atheist/Evolutionist (who can prove race from the science, but often denies it nonetheless);
the Marxist (who once affirmed the reality of race, but now denies it for political purposes);
the naïve Christian or otherwise (who holds 'one race, the human race', parroting the second category, perhaps unwittingly); and
the Christian who affirms the reality of God's created order, which includes race.
We are firmly in the fourth category. Listen carefully, and join us. God's truth is always better than whatever anyone else can promise.
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Show Notes
Haplogroup
Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup
Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup
Thuletide: Debunking Race Denialism
Thuletide: Race Science Infographics
"These Algorithms Look at X-Rays — and Somehow Detect Your Race"
See Also
Genesis 10 (ESV)
Parental Warnings
The word "damn" (not in the theological sense) appears once in this episode.

4 snips
Feb 1, 2023 • 1h 56min
The Enemy’s Playbook
The enemy has a playbook. If you learn his playbook, then you can identify enemy action. In today’s episode, we review the enemy playbook, and show how it has been used to destroy the West and is currently being used to destroy the Church.
Unfortunately, many pastors, teachers, and others, all of whom should know better, unwittingly follow the enemy playbook and act as agents of the enemy in the process. You are commanded to be as wise as a serpent — this episode aims to help you fulfill that duty. Do not become an unwitting agent of the Enemy.
Subscribe to the podcast here.
Show Notes
Twitter Thread about the ‘Annotated’ LC
The ‘Annotated’ Large Catechism [YouTube]
See Also