Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

insisting that there was no false doctrine in it. 296 Fehner’s interpretation of Romans 16:17
was also brought into question. Troubled by these demands, threats, and comments
supporting “the Statement,” the president of Board of Regents of Bethany, Milton Tweit,
and the president of the Synod, C.M. Gullerud, called for a meeting with Fehner to
discuss these matters more fully.
At the meeting Fehner refused to change his demands, talk any more about
Romans 16:17, or meet with the full board to discuss these matters. This troubled both
Tweit and Gullerud. Upon further probing, they found that Fehner’s strange behavior was
the least of their problems. Not only did he fully support the Statement of the Forty-Four,
but he contended that this movement was needed in the Missouri Synod and denied
Romans 16:17 as it was understood by the old Missouri position. 297
Things only got worse from there. Not only did Fehner refuse to discuss the
matters which were before him, but on his leaving he stated that “no-one this side of
heaven would ever reach a point where he would be 100% orthodox.” 298 In fundamentals,
he said, orthodoxy was possible, but not in non-fundamentals.” 299
At the conclusion of
the meeting, the Bethany faculty and administration felt they had no other choice but to
file a protest with the Minnesota District of the Missouri Synod against Pastor Fehner’s
behavior and doctrinal statements.
However, Fehner would continue to needle the faculty and interfere with their
students well into the fall. By December “Fehner-talk” filled the halls of Bethany, some
296 Twelve propositions with comments signed 1945 by 44 LCMS clerics (sometimes called “The Fortyfour”).
Of most trouble to the ELS and WELS men, A Statement declared that Romans 16:16,17 did not
apply to the present situation in the Lutheran Church in America and favored selective fellowship.
297 Tweit/Gullerud Report.
298 Tweit/Gullerud Report.
299 Tweit/Gullerud Report.
160