Michigan District Pope Robert Mueller tried to manipulate his district into voting for the merger of Dr. Martin Luther College and Northwestern College. Everyone knew it was a liberal absorption of NWC, but no one had the guts to say it. The district voted down all four proposals to snuff NWC. Mueller went to the WELS convention and spoke on the floor in favor of ending NWC. The district saw this as the worst kind of back-stabbing.
Soon after, at a ministers' gathering, Mueller entered a room full of Michigan pastors. Every single one left.
Mueller decided not to run for district pope. The same convention voted his buddy Vice Pope (appropriate title) Paul Kuske out of office completely. In hide-bound WELS, that was the equivalent of defenestration.
Tyrants eventually learn that they need support too.
In the Little Sect on the Prairie, Pope John the Malefactor could heal the savage wounds he caused by resigning. There will be no reconciliation in the ELS until that happens.
