Strangers to Sisters - Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Library: Essays

the ELS no longer wanted to place their men in LCMS congregations. In response to this
need of their sister synod, Oscar Naumann wrote to Norman Madson, Dean of Bethany
Seminary, “We would be more than happy to have you give our Committee on
Assignment of Calls…any names of candidates whom you and your faculty would
recommend to us…I am also writing President Teigen with regard to any teacher
candidates who may be available to us.” 149 Naumann also gives evidence of his high
regard for his ELS brethren as he passes on his condolences at the recent death of Erling
Ylvisaker and prays that the Lord send more faithful laborers like him into his
Kingdom. 150
The shared educational endeavors also had the inevitable result of bringing key
figures from both synods into a closer practical and fraternal relationship. One issue in
particular was a conflict both the Wisconsin and Norwegian Synods had with the
Minnesota State Draft Board over the classification of parochial school teachers as 1-A
(eligible for service) instead of 4-D (exempt for religious service). Nelson, the Minnesota
state director of the draft board, stubbornly refused to exempt male parochial school
teachers from the draft.
This had proved to be a particular problem for Our Savior’s Congregation (ELS),
Princeton, MN of which Norman Madson was the pastor. Correspondence shows that
Madson, for a period of almost 3 years, had been desperately trying to get a permanent
teacher for the Our Savior’s grade school. Finally, Robert Meyer, a New Ulm graduate,
149 Oscar Naumann to Norman Madson, letter, April 7, 1954, ELS-WELS Correspondence 1919-1990: O.J.
Naumann letters to Bethany Lutheran College and Seminary, Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary Archives,
Mequon, WI.
150 Ibid.
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