The late Al Barry attended Bethany Seminary (ELS) in Mankato. He also attended an orthodox seminary set up in the basement of a church in Minneapolis. Barry vicared in the Wisconsin Synod. He also joined the LCMS and became a district president. He was elected LCMS President, thanks to a campaign managed by Paul McCain working secretly with Herman Otten. Total synod memberships - four.
Jack and Robert Preus attended the liberal Norwegian seminary in Minneapolis. The seminary was later ALC and is now ELCA - Luther. Robert and Jack both joined the tiny Evangelical Luthean Synod. Robert became the first Bethany Seminary graduate. Jack held a post at Bethany College. The brothers denounced the LCMS at the end of one ELS convention and joined the LCMS immediately afterwards. I recall Mrs. Robert Preus saying that they were members of the Wisconsin Synod at one time. Missouri was not happy with Robert. Supposedly due to the influence of his own brother, Robert was thrown out of his position as president of Concordia Seminary, Ft. Wayne. Total synod memberships - three or four.
Robert's son Rolf left the LCMS for the ELS. The ELS responded by forcing Rolf's congregation to fire him for questioning the infallible doctrine of the ELS President. Rolf's son attended Bethany Seminary but found it expedient to finish at a Missouri seminary. Rolf now serves an independent congregation or two. Total synod memberships - at least three.
Is this relevant? Not at all. The Lutheran synods (ELCA-WELS-ELS-LCSM) are apostate. Their sole claim to unity is that their doctrine comes from Fuller Seminary. Fuller gets its ideas from occultic followers like Paul Y. Cho (Fourth Dimension) and Robert Schuller (Napoleon Hill Foundation). Jack and Robert Preus, Al Barry and others serve to illustrate how much the Lutheran Church has been in turmoil for the last 60 years.
