Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays
Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays
Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays
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gave public testimony <strong>to</strong> the interconnectedness of the current debates with the past.<br />
Private testimony was also given by men like Thoen, Anderson, and Gullixson at the joint<br />
conferences during the Intersynodical Theses discussion. The ELS had been alert<br />
watchmen also throughout the 20s and 30s. The essay Unity, Union and Unionism by<br />
H.M. Tjernagel put the current union discussions in their proper biblical and his<strong>to</strong>rical<br />
setting. Similarly, Ylvisaker’s his<strong>to</strong>ry of the ELS, Grace for Grace, put the present<br />
discussions of the ALC-LCMS in their proper context. Throughout the 1950s, Oscar<br />
Naumann and Norman Madson carried on extensive personal correspondence, where<br />
Madson showed Naumann that the same time of doctrinal spin that led the Norwegian<br />
Synod in<strong>to</strong> merger was being employed by the unionists in the ALC and LCMS. The ELS<br />
might have been the smallest member of the Synodical Conference, but they had fought<br />
like the Vikings from whom they were descended. They refused <strong>to</strong> let the unionists blur<br />
the doctrinal issues at hand with the omission of the status controversae from<br />
discussion. 332<br />
The minutes of the final IRC meetings also show a deep emotional bond between<br />
the WELS and ELS officials. At the November 12-13, 1953 session of the IRC, both<br />
Arthur Voss (WELS) and C.M. Gullerud (ELS) refuse <strong>to</strong> pray with the Missouri officials.<br />
The reason both men give for refraining is a deeply troubled conscience. 333 LCMS<br />
President John Behnken was offended by this action. John Bradac of the Slovak Synod<br />
goes so far as <strong>to</strong> say that Gullerud is required <strong>to</strong> pray with the members of the IRC. But<br />
332 Oscar Naumann <strong>to</strong> Norman Madson, Letter, July 25, 1959, Oscar Naumann Collection. <strong>Wisconsin</strong><br />
Evangelical <strong>Lutheran</strong> Synod Archives, Mequon, WI. This testimony was not carried out only publicly, but<br />
also carried on privately between WELS and ELS leaders. For instance, Norman Madson carried on a<br />
correspondence with Oscar Naumann in<strong>to</strong> the late 1950s demonstrating how all the same tricks played <strong>to</strong><br />
accomplish the Madison Settlement were now happening in the Synodical Conference.<br />
333 IRC minutes, November 12-13 1953, 2.<br />
179